Jumbo Package: Saban offers Notre Dame OC, Nate Oats lands contract extension

Feb 3, 2023 - 2:56 PM

Happy Friday, everyone. The Gym Tide haven’t started the season off terribly well, but they have a huge meet tonight.

The last time there was this much buzz around a gymnastics meet in Tuscaloosa, the current Crimson Tide gymnasts were roaming the halls of their elementary and middle schools.

For the first time since 2014, Coleman Coliseum is sold out for an Alabama gymnastics meet for this Friday’s matchup with the Auburn Tigers.

The Crimson Tide is coming off its best meet of the season. The Tigers are coming off their best season in program history, in large part thanks to Olympic all-around champion and Auburn sophomore Suni Lee.

The meet begins at 6:30 CT and will be televised on SEC Network.

Nate Oats’ basketball team faces an awful LSU squad in Baton Rouge tomorrow, after Nate reportedly received a major commitment from the University.

Alabama’s Nate Oats has received a multi-year contract extension through the 2028-29 season, multiple sources told College Hoops Today.

The deal is expected to be approximately worth $5 million dollars annually and makes Oats one of the sport’s highest paid coaches.

An official announcement is expected soon.

The Crimson Tide were ranked FIFTH in this week’s ROTHSTEIN 45 and are in prime position to be a No. 1 seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

Let’s hope this is enough to keep him around a while.

Now BTDA.

In football news, Nick Saban has reportedly offered a large sum of money to 30-year-old Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees.

Additional sources have told FootballScoop that the situation is not believed to be one about money; in fact, per sources, the initial Alabama offer to Rees was in the range of $2 million per year, on average.

For context, sources both last year when Rees remained at Notre Dame rather than take over Brian Kelly’s LSU offense and again this week have indicated that Rees’s revamped Notre Dame deal paid him a ballpark average of $2 million per year across a three-year term

Plenty of folks are #madonline about this potential hire, but rumor has it that he does in fact have experience calling the plays for a Division 1 football team. If Saban thinks that he best fits into his program, then so be it.

This little nugget might give you a clue about the X’s and O’s vs the Jimmies and Joes, particularly at one key spot on the offense.

Didn’t matter who was calling the plays, Aaron was making them anyway. If we have a good QB this year, we will have a good offense. Let us pray.

Bill O’Brien apparently has a toady named Wil Lawing who has been following him around for years.

Analyst Will Lawing, who spent the past two seasons in Tuscaloosa, is following Bill O’Brien to New England, ESPN reported Thursday. Lawing joined Alabama after working on O’Brien’s staff with the Houston Texans and Penn State.

Lawing’s role on the Patriots’ staff is not yet known, but he becomes the fifth former Saban staffer on Bill Belichick’s staff in New England. In addition to O’Brien, Patriots running backs coach Vinnie Sunseri is a former Tide player and son of current Saban assistant Sal Sunseri; Patriots offensive assistant Joe Judge was an Alabama special teams analyst from 2009-11; and Patriots special teams assistant Joe Houston was an Alabama analyst in 2019.

Alabama had a quiet National Signing Day, but the 2023 class should provide plenty of reinforcements.

How good is Alabama’s No. 1 class from a historical perspective, and how good can it be?

VanHaaren: Nick Saban got beat by Texas A&M in 2022, but this class he put together was a statement to show everyone he is still on top in recruiting. Alabama’s class has 23 total ESPN 300 commitments with 13 ranked in the top 50 and 19 ranked in the top 150. By comparison, only six teams have more than 13 recruits ranked in the top 300.

Luginbill: I actually believe it’s as good as — if not better than — its 2021 class and Texas A&M’s class from 2022. The reason why it doesn’t receive the same level of notoriety is because everyone has become so conditioned to expect it from Alabama. After all, the Tide have finished atop the class rankings eight times under Saban. If Tennessee, Ohio State or USC had signed this class, we’d be calling it the greatest class ever. We have become spoiled by the Tide’s sustained success.

Last, may we all have someone who loves us like Nick Saban loves Jalen Hurts.

Jalen’s story in its totality, including the benching, 2018 SEC Championship Game heroics and all the way through his rise to NFL MVP candidate, would almost be too far fetched for Hollywood. He will forever hold a special place in the heart of Alabama fans, and clearly Nick Saban’s as well.

That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend.

Roll Tide.