Alabama Crimson Tide

University of Alabama defensive lineman Jesse Williams has been named to the 2012 Lott IMPACT Trophy Watch list. The senior from Brisbane, Australia, was one of 42 football players named to the list, and one of six from the Southeastern Conference.

The award is given to a defensive player who "best exemplifies integrity, maturity, performance, academics, community and tenacity." As a junior, Williams was an integral part of the No. 1-ranked defense in the country at Alabama, starting all 13 games at defensive end. The 6-foot-4, 320-pound lineman finished the season with 24 tackles, four tackles for loss and three quarterback hurries in his first year with the Crimson Tide.

Mark Barron and Dont'a Hightower were both named to the watch list in 2011. Boston College Linebacker Luke Kuechly took home the trophy.

Eighteen linebackers are featured on the 2012 watch list, 13 defensive backs and 11 defensive linemen. Cuts will be made to the list throughout the season, with a final award ceremony on Dec. 9 in Newport Beach, Calif.

Mal Moore, who has presided over national and league titles in nearly every sport at the University of Alabama, will be inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday. As a player and coach, he was part of seven national championships, 14 Southeastern Conference championships and 28 bowl games. He began his career as athletic director at UA in 1999.

As athletic director, Moore was responsible for the hiring of current head football coach Nick Saban in 2007. The hire proved to be a watershed moment for the football program which has taken home two BCS titles in the past three seasons. Moore is the only individual connected with Alabama with the distinction of being a part of nine national championship teams (1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, 1979, 1992, 2009 and 2011) with the first coming as a player, the next six as a coach and the two most recent during his tenure as director of athletics.

"I'm very proud of where we are," Moore said in an interview with TideNation in late April. "I think we've represented the university in a very positive way. We have a lot of teams that are having success: both men's and women's golf are in the top five in that nation; softball is second in the nation right now; our women's tennis is seventh in the nation, the first time in our history they've been in the top 10; what Anthony Grant has done with the basketball team making the NCAAs I'm very proud; gymnastics with Sarah (Patterson), she consistently performs year in and year out; coach Saban an the football program have done a remarkable job."

Whether the past five years are the most successful in the school's history is up for debate as far as Moore's concerned.

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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- After a weekend where the hits were aplenty and the runs were few, the University of Alabama changed course on Sunday afternoon.

The Crimson Tide scratched together six runs on as many hits through eighth innings against Mississippi State in the third game of SEC tilt. And on the final at-bat with the Tide trailing by one, UA first baseman Austen Smith made another hit count, slapping a two-run, game-winning double off the left field wall in the bottom of the ninth for the 8-7 win.

The walk-off hit saved the Alabama bullpen which surrendered a four-run lead in the final two innings.

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The issue of high school athletes becoming academically eligible with the NCAA just got a lot more difficult. Thanks to new standards agreed upon by the NCAA to be implemented in 2016, student athletes will have to not only complete the same core courses, but have 10 of them finished by the start of the student's senior year of high school and all 16 finished within four years. In other words, say goodbye to the practice of enjoying a fifth year of high school.

Also, the minimum GPA will jump to 2.3. If you don't think that's going to make a huge difference, check the numbers.

ESPN.com's Mitch Sherman has the full story: Link

Earlier this week, ESPN's Travis Haney listed the college football teams that he deems to be a year away from a run at a national championship , and Ohio State topped his list.

But guess who else made that list?

Alabama.

Yep, the same Alabama team that has won two of the last three BCS national championships.

Haney makes it clear in his piece that he thinks the Crimson Tide are a legitimate contender in 2012 even with all of their personnel losses from a year ago. He just thinks they will be in better shape in 2013 to make a serious run.

It's hard to argue that logic, but it's also hard to envision a scenario where Alabama isn't in the national championship race next season heading into November. Even if it loses early (possibly to Arkansas), Alabama could get right back into the mix by beating LSU at home that first weekend in November.

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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- It was only fitting that on the day he graduated from the University of Alabama, Taylor Dugas would etch his name forever into the school’s record books.

Dugas, the undersized, precocious center fielder from Louisiana, became UA’s all-time hits leader with a bunt single in the fifth inning against Mississippi State on Saturday -- the 323rd hit of his career. Current UA hitting coach and former New York Yankee Andy Phillips previously held the record.

The special moment in Alabama history was overshadowed, though, as the Crimson Tide’s lost their fifth consecutive game, dropping the second of three against Mississippi State, 3-2.

“That was one of the things I wanted to accomplish coming back,” a reflective Dugas said after the game. “The other was to win a lot of games and we’re struggling to do that right now.

“It’s a little bittersweet. It’s never fun after a loss, but it’s an accomplishment and to be mentioned with Andy Phillips and all the great hitters that have come through here, it’s amazing.”

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