I know what everyone has been saying.

“The biggest thing AL.com lacks is a Western Kentucky graduate who enjoys Skyline Chili covering the Tide.”

Hi friends. My name’s Matt and I’ll be your new Alabama beat writer, working with Nick Alvarez and the rest of the squad here to provide you with the best Crimson Tide coverage on the internet.

Obviously, I’m new here, but it’s not my first time around in the SEC. I’m coming to you from the Columbia Daily Tribune in Missouri, where I spent last season covering the Tigers.

This is an example of some of the work I enjoyed doing on that beat. So is this. And this.

The Alabama beat is a different animal altogether, but it’s one I’m truly excited for. I’m a native southerner, originally from the Nashville area, so I understand what makes SEC football, and the Tide especially one of our region’s great exports to the rest of the nation.

A little more about me. After growing up around Nashville, I headed off to WKU for college as I previously mentioned.

I spent four years there, enjoyed myself immensely and discovered what I really wanted to do with my life: cover college football. I don’t think you can truly understand the country we live in without at least some knowledge of the sport.

College football is impacted by demographics, maps, governments and the changing world around it. Millions of dollars are spent trying to build the best teams possible, even before NIL deals were permissible.

Sometimes none of that matters though. The ball is a weird shape and takes funny bounces.

That’s what makes it fun.

After graduating in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020, I headed to Louisville, Ky. for a job covering horse racing. I did that for over a year, working a few Kentucky Derbies and dealing with the madness of the Medina Spirit Derby medication scandal.

Then it was off to Missouri. Now, after more than a year of bad barbecue and worse weather, I’m heading back down south.

I’m thrilled to join the team and learn what I can from everyone at AL.com, including longtime mentor and fellow WKU alum/ Skyline enjoyer Michael Casagrande. I’m starting remotely before I move to Tuscaloosa in early August.

I’ll sign it off there. No reason to bother my editors by going long now when I’m going to need that political capital to write a 2,500-word feature on a third-string special-teamer come October.

Great to be here, Alabama. Hit me up with recommendations for your best restaurants, ‘diviest’ dive bars and cheapest municipal golf courses.