TUSCALOOSA — Alabama may have the personnel required to follow up 2019’s historic offense with an equally impressive unit in 2020.

TUSCALOOSA — Changing rep schemes in practice. Dividing the coaching staff in half for more attention to all levels of the depth chart. Some players even taking reps on both sides of the ball.

TUSCALOOSA — Christian Harris had a lot to digest when he began his freshman year at Alabama.

TUSCALOOSA — The University of Alabama athletics department is reducing its operating budget by 22 percent and has imposed a hiring freeze for positions other than countable coaches, among other cost-cutting measures.

Back when Nick Saban first came to Alabama, I was sports editor of a different newspaper, and my Alabama beat writer at the time jokingly nicknamed Saban the "Dark Lord" for a variety of reasons.

TUSCALOOSA — Not all was positive from the University of Alabama’s march Monday against racial injustice.

TUSCALOOSA — More than a hundred University of Alabama athletes, coaches and support staff marched from the Mal Moore Athletic Building to Foster Auditorium on Monday afternoon, protesting racial injustice.

TUSCALOOSA — The dynamic changed quickly on Patrick Surtain II. When a message needed reinforcing this time last year, there was a proven starter not that far away, be it Trevon Diggs or Xavier McKinney, to deliver the message, to set an expectation.

TUSCALOOSA — Dylan Moses is proud of the freshmen who took his place with Alabama's defense last season.

TUSCALOOSA — As it often is on the practice field, Nick Saban’s eye is on Alabama’s secondary.

2020 SEC Schedules

TUSCALOOSA — Najee Harris and Trevor Lawrence have lived drastically different existences, one a running back from California in the SEC and the other a quarterback from Georgia in the ACC. They’ve only been on the same field once, and, both being on offense, never had to go toe-to-toe with each other.

TUSCALOOSA — Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne argued Thursday that his department has been at the forefront of encouraging mask-wearing, a place Alabama has tried to own through its social media accounts. Consistent visuals of players and coaches in masks and examples of health and safety protocols are frequent.

TUSCALOOSA — Going into a sixth month of uncertainty in college athletics, University of Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne knows two things for certain: no matter what happens with football, financial losses will be challenging, and if there are football games in Bryant-Denny Stadium this fall, not many people will be in attendance.

The 2020 college football season won't look like any we've seen before.

For just the second time since 2010, Alabama does not have a top two team in the preseason coaches football poll.

TUSCALOOSA — The move to a 10-game, SEC-only schedule could have the University of Alabama obligated to pay out more than $3.5 million to schools that were originally contracted to play the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa in the 2020 season.

Alabama basketball player John Petty Jr. announced today he will return to the Crimson Tide this season.

The Southeastern Conference announced today it will go with a league-only football schedule and the start of the season has been pushed to Sept. 26.

TUSCALOOSA — Order has been restored in college football recruiting: the University of Alabama is back in the top five.

The Southeastern Conference announced today it is postponing the start of volleyball, soccer and cross country season to at least Aug. 31.

TUSCALOOSA — Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian underwent successful heart surgery last week, the result of annual physicals on the staff.

TUSCALOOSA — For the third time since May 8, Alabama has added a top 50 prospect to its 2021 recruiting class.

Masks are outnumbering weight belts in weight rooms. Strength and conditioning staffs are considering COVID-19 tests and disinfecting more than strength and speed development. In some places, when football games are played, empty seats will outnumber occupied ones.

TUSCALOOSA — On the morning of May 28, Alabama had a 2021 recruiting class ranked 48th in the 247 Sports Composite. It’s hard to tell what was more shocking: the number of the ranking or the schools ahead of Alabama at the time, including Pitt and SMU.

TUSCALOOSA — From 2025 through 2028, Alabama will play 10 football games a year against Power Five competition.

You'd think this would be the wake-up call of wake-up calls for folks in our state: at least five Alabama football players have tested positive for COVID-19, according to BamaInsider of the Rivals Network and confirmed by other news organizations.

TUSCALOOSA — After the team banded together for a video message Thursday, two University of Alabama gymnasts have addressed allegations of racism in their program in their own words.

TUSCALOOSA — At least five University of Alabama football players have tested positive for COVID-19, according to BamaInsider of the Rivals Network.

The University of Alabama’s gymnasts are not physically together while their program culture is being challenged, as gymnasts have yet to return to campus for voluntary workouts. But they have banded together virtually.

Tia Kiaku addressed claims of racist behavior with University of Alabama leadership, gymnastics coaches and fellow gymnasts. In all instances, she felt she was not taken seriously.

One day after the University of Alabama football team lost wide receiver Tyrell Shavers to the transfer portal, linebacker Markail Benton joined him there, as first reported by AL.com.

A former University of Alabama gymnast said via social media Tuesday night that she had been involved in a “very disturbing” incident that included a racially inappropriate comment during a practice last season.

Alabama’s competition for catches just got a little less crowded.

Tuesday was Blackout Tuesday on social media platforms, with University of Alabama athletics leadership and official team Twitter accounts posting blank black pictures in solidarity with the black community. UA players across sports did the same, but Tuesday was far from the beginning from them: UA’s athletes have let their voices be heard throughout the protests taking place around the nation.

We really should stop referring to the annual Alabama-Auburn football game as the "Iron Bowl."

A season-long penalties problem proved to be most costly at the end of Alabama’s regular season last year, in its final possession of a loss to Auburn. Fifteen penalty yards slowed progress on a drive that ultimately ended with a missed field goal attempt on the 11-yard line.

University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban and athletics director Greg Byrne both released statements Sunday, after days of protests against police brutality on people of color around the nation.

The Third Saturday in October just isn’t what it used to be.

College football recruiting is not immune to the peculiar era that has been the spring of 2020. Tennessee (No. 2 in the 247 Sports Composite rankings) and North Carolina (No. 4) are ahead of traditional recruiting powers such as Michigan, Florida, LSU and Notre Dame. Minnesota and Iowa are top 10 teams; Texas and Georgia are not.

TUSCAOOOSA — Alabama’s thinner-than-normal recruiting class added a four-star linebacker today.

My hometown paper, the Louisville Courier-Journal, just polled readers on which four figures belong on Kentucky’s sports “Rushmore.” Not surprisingly, Muhammad Ali, Secretariat, Adolph Rupp and Denny Crum led voting.

Former Jacksonville State wide receivers coach Nick Williams is headed to the NFL.

The University of Alabama athletics department now knows which direction it is headed in terms of a return of sports competition in the fall, but several specifics remain to be answered along the journey.

Work on the ongoing Bryant-Denny Stadium construction project at the University of Alabama was briefly suspended last weekend after an undisclosed number of workers had positive tests for COVID-19. Work resumed Monday, according to the project’s chief contractor, the Montgomery-based Caddell Construction Company.

University of Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne is currently the highest paid athletics administrator in the Southeastern Conference, according to a release today of compensation information from all 130 NCAA Division I institutions by the website AthleticDirectorU.com and Spencer Fane LLP.

The Tagovailoa era in Tuscaloosa is officially over, probably far sooner than most Alabama fans could’ve imagined at this point one year ago.

The Tagovailoa family will be spread across the East coast when football resumes.

TUSCALOOSA — Suffice it to say, no school has dominated the NFL draft the last decade or so like Alabama has.