The updated A-List of the best Class of 2025 high school football recruits in Alabama shows a changing landscape in state recruiting.
With two weeks left before the early signing day, Auburn is set to ink its best in-state class in years. Nine of the 15 players on the A-List are committed to coach Hugh Freeze and the Tigers. Two are committed to Ohio State, two are uncommitted and the other two are set to sign with Texas and Alabama.
DEAR ABBY: I have been friends with a couple for 30 years. Both are alcoholics. They function, work at farmers’ markets, are sociable, have a house and pay their bills. Yet, at least once, maybe twice a month, they get totally wasted and the wife calls me and rambles on incoherently. I suspect they get drunk even more frequently, but, thankfully, I don’t get a call every time they are on a binge.
I have been in terrible relationships in which I drank too much to numb myself. Thankfully, I have been out of such toxicity for years. But I’m having increasing difficulty dealing with these drunken phone calls. I suspect I’m the only person my friend calls because she knows few others would understand her slurred babble. I’m weary from these calls. How do I deflect them? — TIRED EAR IN ARIZONA
DEAR TIRED EAR: Put an end to those calls by being frank with your friend about the effect they have on you. Do this while she is sober. Tell her you do not want her calling you after she has been drinking because her speech is so slurred that you can’t understand what she’s saying.
Say if it happens again you will hang up the phone, and if it does, follow through. Let her calls go to voicemail. If you would like to maintain any sort of relationship with this couple, see them socially only when they are (reasonably) sober.
Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
The group Clean Up Alabama is calling on Fairhope city officials to withhold $250,000 of capital money from the Fairhope Public Library and are urging for the immediate resignation of the library board’s chair.
The concerns from the nonprofit group stem from what they say is an inappropriate position taken by Anne Johnson, the library chair, in defense of books on display at the Fairhope Public Library.
Fairhope author Leslie Anne Tarabella’s encounter with a pushy attendee at the 2015 “Lighting of the Trees” celebration sparked a blog post, media attention including articles in AL.com at the time, and a slogan that continues to resonate and inspire nine years later.
“People of all age, all over town, were calling out to me, ‘We don’t push in Fairhope!’” Tarabella writes in her new book, released on Oct. 8 and which can be found at numerous booksellers in the area and at leslieannetarabella.com.
DEAR ABBY: Is there any way I can help my 55-year-old daughter, who has just embarked upon yet another no-doubt doomed relationship? She is quick to cohabit with these men, usually after less than two months. Then my daughter reinvents herself to appeal to HIS ideal. Each time the relationships have ended, it has come at great cost to her and negatively impacted her now-grown kids.
Through all of this, my daughter has remained employed, though four years is a long time in one position. I’m afraid the latest move will limit her employment options once the work-from-home trend has softened. Is this like dealing with a drug addict or an alcoholic who must realize on their own to seek help? This roller coaster has taken its toll on me, too. — MOM ON THE SIDELINES
DEAR MOM: You can talk until you are blue in the face — and I am assuming that you have tried more than once — to get your middle-aged daughter to realize that what she has been doing hasn’t worked for her. She is not an “addict,” but she is desperate to find a partner.
When your daughter finally realizes that she doesn’t have to twist herself into a pretzel to please a man, and that she’s fine just the way she is — a successful parent, self-supporting and worthwhile on her own — she not only may feel better about herself, but also have better luck in finding a partner.
Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
With two wins in two games needed for Auburn to make a bowl game, the improbable, but not impossible task starts with a home game against Texas A&M, its final game at Jordan-Hare Stadium in 2024.
It’s a rematch of Auburn’s 27-10 loss in College Station last season, but against a different-looking team with a new head coach and a lot more to play for.
The game is a must win for Texas A&M just as much as it is for Auburn, with the Aggies looking to keep their SEC Championship hopes alive.
Here’s a closer look at Texas A&M:
The coach
As mentioned above, this year’s matchup with Texas A&M comes against a new head coach as Mike Elko will lead the Aggies into Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday.
He spent two seasons as Duke’s head coach prior to getting the Texas A&M job, following four seasons as Texas A&M’s defensive coordinator under Jimbo Fisher. Hugh Freeze mentioned earlier in the week that he is relatively unfamiliar with Elko, meeting him for the first time last spring.
The biggest connection between the two coaching staffs is Auburn defensive coordinator DJ Durkin, who spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons in College Station before leaving for Auburn after Jimbo Fisher was fired.
The Aggies’ two best wins on the season were home contests against LSU and Missouri, both top 10 teams at the time, but LSU is now unranked, and Missouri sits at No. 23.
What stands out most about Texas A&M is its rushing attack, but that took a significant hit in the loss against South Carolina. Star running back Le‘Veon Moss suffered a season-ending leg injury in that game, taking away the Aggies’ leading rusher.
They still rushed for 209 yards as a team in the one game since losing Moss, but that came against an overmatched New Mexico State team.
Texas A&M has other weapons in the run game, but Saturday’s matchup with Auburn will be the first time its run game without Moss will be put to the test since his injury.
Players to watch
With Moss now out of the picture, the two biggest names to watch on offense for Texas A&M are quarterback Marcel Reed and running back Amari Daniels.
Daniels will likely be the feature back alongside Reed in the backfield against Auburn. While not being the leading rusher, he has put together an impressive 2024 season, rushing for 550 yards and seven touchdowns through 10 games.
With the offense focused more on the run game, no Texas A&M wide receiver has more than 27 catches this season, but Noah Thomas and Jabre Barber lead the way for the Aggies in the receiver core.
Whenever Freeze was asked about Texas A&M’s defense leading up to the game, one of the first things he’d often mention was the length in the secondary.
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With corners Will Lee III and BJ Mayes and safeties Marcus Ratcliffe and Bryce Anderson all over six feet, they have the ability to cause problems and make plays in the secondary.
Up front, Nic Scourton is the standout player, leading the team with five sacks and 30 total pressures, according to Pro Football Focus.
As a nation, we’ve been through a rough patch. The election season seemed to drag on and on like a bad cold that wouldn’t go away. Angry words flashed through the air like lightning. Candidates hurled insults at each other on the TV news.
Much has been written on this website and elsewhere about the other-worldly abilities of Alabama freshman wide receiver Ryan Williams, the 17-year-old phenom from Saraland who combines elite speed and ball skills with a dancer’s moves and a nose for the end zone.
Through 10 games this season heading into Saturday’s night SEC battle at Oklahoma, Williams has caught 40 passes for 767 yards and 10 touchdowns, averaging 19.7 yards per catch and 76.7 yards per game. He’s a semifinalist for the Biletnikoff Award — given annually to the country’s top pass-catcher — and is likely to show up on various All-SEC and All-America teams at season’s end.
But just how good has Williams’ season been in comparison to those who have come before him in crimson and white? You can make the case that he’s the greatest freshman receiver in Alabama program history, or will be by the time the season is over.
If we’re going to make such a statement, we have to consider who the other candidates might be. Given that freshmen were not eligible for varsity play until 1972, that rules out much of the game’s early history.
And the way passing offenses have developed in the last 30-plus years — really since Steve Spurrier’s Florida “Fun N’ Gun” offense revolutionized SEC football in the 1990s — means that most of the top pass-catchers (by both production and opportunity) will be from recent years. In addition, Alabama’s level of success in the Nick Saban years means that there were simply more great receivers on the Crimson Tide’s rosters in the last two decades than at any point in school history.
Alabama’s Ryan Williams has already established himself as one of the greatest freshman wide receivers in program history, and he’s still got several games to go this season. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)Getty Images
That being said, two players from the 20th century deserve special mention.
One is Ozzie Newsome, who starred at split end for the Crimson Tide from 1974-77 (Newsome became a Hall of Fame tight end in the NFL, but he was a true wide receiver in college). Newsome, as many readers know, played in a wishbone offense, where throwing the ball was done either to catch the opposing defense off-guard or when the offense was in a third-and-long situation.
Newsome caught 20 passes for 374 yards (an average of 18.7 yards per catch) and one touchdown as a freshman in 1974. He added six catches for 68 yards in the Orange Bowl (bowl stats weren’t counted in the official record at the time).
Those are modest numbers to be sure, but it’s worth noting that Alabama completed only 78 passes for 1,212 yards all season, bowl game included (by comparison, the 2021 team completed 380 passes for 5,073 yards). In other words, Newsome was responsible for almost exactly a third of the Crimson Tide’s receptions and more than a third (36%) of its receiving yards his freshman year.
The other notable is David Palmer, among the most-electrifying all-purpose players in Alabama history. As a freshman in 1991, “The Deuce” caught 17 passes for 314 yards (averaging 18.5 yards per catch) with three touchdowns.
Palmer’s contributions were not just as a receiver, however, as he also lined up at quarterback and running back at various times. He returned four punts for touchdowns (including one in the Blockbuster Bowl, when he also caught a scoring pass) and ran for the only touchdown in Alabama’s 13-6 Iron Bowl victory over Auburn.
Alabama was also a run first, second and (mostly) third team in the early 1990s under Gene Stallings, though Palmer’s numbers would increase over time. As a junior in 1993, he recorded the first 1,000-yard receiving season in program history on his way to a third-place finish in the Heisman Trophy balloting.
Those caveats out of the way, there are essentially four other candidates. Here they are, in chronological order:
Alabama’s Julio Jones (8) makes a catch for a touchdown as Georgia’s Bryan Evans defends during the second quarter of an NCAA college football game in Athens, Ga., Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)ASSOCIATED PRESS
1. Julio Jones (2008)
Jones might be the most important player in Alabama football history, given the way his toughness and work ethic helped transform the Crimson Tide program in the early Saban years. He was dang good on the field, too, of course, catching 58 passes for 924 yards — averaging 15.9 yards per catch — and four touchdowns in 14 games as a freshman in 2008.
Alabama wide receiver Amari Cooper (9) stiffs arm out of the tackle of Mississippi linebacker Denzel Nkemdiche (4) in the first half of an NCAA college football game at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)ASSOCIATED PRESS
2. Amari Cooper (2012)
The gold standard for being a dominant player from Day 1, Cooper helped Alabama to a second straight national championship as a freshman in 2012. He caught 59 passes for 1,000 yards and 11 touchdowns in 14 games for the SEC and BCS champions, averaging 71.4 yards per game and 16.9 yards per catch. His touchdown reception and yards-per-game numbers are school records for freshmen (at the moment, at least).
Alabama wide receiver Calvin Ridley (3) catches a pass over Kentucky defensive back Jordan Griffin (3) during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2016, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Alabama won 34-6. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)AP
3. Calvin Ridley (2015)
Ridley picked up where Cooper left off three years later and then some, catching 89 passes for 1,045 yards (both school records for freshmen), with seven touchdowns. His 11.7 yards per catch and 69.7 yards per game averages were more modest, and it must be noted he played in one more game than Cooper and Jones. And due to some difficulties in his early life, he was also 21 years old by the end of his freshman year, so was not a “freshman” in the traditional sense.
Alabama wide receiver Jaylen Waddle (17) carries the ball on a punt return during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Auburn Saturday, Nov. 30, 2019, in Auburn, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)AP
4. Jaylen Waddle (2018)
The evolutionary David Palmer, Waddle contributed in multiple ways as a freshman despite a loaded receiver room that also included sophomores DeVonta Smith, Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs. In 15 games for a team that reached the national championship game, Waddle caught 45 passes for 848 yards (an average of 18.8 yards per catch) and seven touchdowns. He also averaged 14.6 yards on punt returns, including a touchdown.
Here’s that same list, in chart form, and including Williams:
Player, Year
Gms
Rec.
Yards
YPC
YPG
TD
Ryan Williams, 2024
10
40
767
19.2
76.7
10
Jaylen Waddle, 2018
15
45
848
18.8
56.5
7
Calvin Ridley, 2015
15
89
1045
11.7
69.7
7
Amari Cooper, 2012
14
59
1000
16.9
71.4
11
Julio Jones, 2008
14
58
924
15.9
66
4
(If you’re wondering where Smith — the 2020 Heisman Trophy winner — might be, he caught only eight passes for 160 yards as a freshman in 2017, though two of them were game-winning touchdowns — against Mississippi State during the regular season and obviously vs. Georgia in overtime of the national championship game. Smith is arguably the greatest receiver in Alabama football history — though you could also make the case for 1930s superstar Don Hutson, he’s just not the greatest freshman receiver.)
Williams is already comparable to everyone on that list, and of course, he’s still got several games left in which to add to his raw numbers (and either increase or decrease his “rate” stats). We know Alabama will play two more regular-season games and at least a bowl game, so he’s guaranteed three more games barring injury. However, if the Crimson Tide reaches the SEC championship game as it is currently on-track to do, that would make 14 games (including a bowl). And with the expanded College Football Playoff, there’s a chance Alabama could play up to 17 games this season.
Here are Williams’ stats extrapolated out for 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 games, assuming he stays at his current pace (which he probably won’t, one way or the other):
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Games
Rec.
Yards
TD
13
52
997
13
14
56
1,074
14
15
60
1,151
15
16
64
1,228
16
17
68
1,305
17
Any one of those statistical finishes would give Williams an argument for being the greatest freshman receiver in Alabama football history. As former Houston Oilers coach Bum Phillips once said of All-Pro running back Earl Campbell, “he might not be in a class by himself, but it doesn’t take long to call the roll.”
Creg Stephenson has worked for AL.com since 2010 and has covered college football for a variety of publications since 1994. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @CregStephenson.
Several employers drive Huntsville’s low unemployment rate, but a few stand out, providing thousands of jobs in the Rocket City.
They span government, manufacturing, healthcare, and education, as reported regularly for decades by the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber.
“Our local employment is growing at 3.5% per year (that is a 5-year average) and this growth also accounts for 26% of Alabama’s total employment growth over the past 5 years,” Claire Aiello, the chamber’s marketing & communications vice president, stated in an email.
There is only one safe prediction as we hit the home stretch toward the bigger, bolder and allegedly better College Football Playoff. The latest committee rankings will not hold all the way through Championship Saturday into Selection Sunday.
There are too many ranked vs. ranked matchups between now and then certain to render meaningless the committee’s work to date. Besides, the four-team field was set only twice in 10 years with two weeks left in the regular season. Even in 2020 and 2022, the final order would change in that final window.
