Weekend Hot Clicks: Tagovailoa, Hurts Become Highest-Drafted Alabama QBs From Saban Era
NFL Draft
Nick Saban has 152 wins, six SEC titles and five national championships in 13 seasons as Alabama’s head coach. However, entering the 2020 NFL draft, no quarterback from the Saban-Alabama era had been drafted before the fifth round: A.J. McCarron (fifth, 2014), Greg McElroy (2011). With their selections on Friday and Saturday, Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts became the highest-drafted quarterback alums of that era.
Roundup:
ESPN’s draft coverage went extremely heavy on tragedy and everyone noticed … The Bears have 10 tight ends on their roster… Conor Orr explains why Jalen Hurts was the smart pick for the Eagles … Ezra Cleveland was born prematurely but still weighed 11 pounds … Undrafted free agency will be chaos after this virtual draft … And if you’re reading this before Saturday’s rounds: The best players still available.
Danny Manning
Wake Forest fired head coach Danny Manning on Saturday morning, triggering, unless there’s an unknown agreement, a reported buyout of $15 million. With Manning out after 78 wins in six seasons, who might Wake Forest hire as head coach? On the March 25 episode of the High Motor podcast, Conor O’Neill of the Winston Salem-Journal floated some potential names: Thad Matta, John Beilein, Pat Kelsey, and others.
College Football Updates
The widely held sentiment across the country: If college campuses aren’t open in the fall, we won’t have college football in the fall. And while we’re still four months away from officially opening campuses for fall classes, several colleges have announced intentions to do so, including Missouri, Oklahoma and Purdue.
However, that doesn’t mean college football just yet, and several decision-makers, including Arizona’s president, aren’t optimistic:
“I'm really concerned about whether we're going to be playing football in the fall," Dr. Robbins told 1030 KVOI AM in Tucson. "My sense, right now, I just don't see that happening.”
"What I've been hearing more of is that maybe doing something combining both basketball and football for the spring, so January to February 2021, and try to play both of them," Robbins added. "There will be all kinds of implications for television viewing and confusion. I don't know. We just don't have any answers right now."
And on Friday, The Athletic’s John Kendall reported South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner, despite weeks of coordination and daily conference calls, “conferences might not be aligned” when it comes to bringing football back and that "it could be left up to the conferences.”
Buffalo Blunder
One Buffalo basketball assistant went to great lengths to evade the NCAA’s immediate eligibility hurdles for transfers: He created a fake email account and forged transfer documents.
The assistant, believed to be Hunter Jenkins, who resigned in November 2019 after only six months on Jim Whitesell’s staff, “created an email account using the former teammate’s name and submitted the statement to the associate athletics director for compliance, violating NCAA ethical conduct rules.”
Hailey Clauson
Justin Herbert, Disney Star
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