See who the experts think will win the ReliaQuest Bowl matchup between Alabama and Michigan.
The Alabama Crimson Tide will face the Michigan Wolverines in a matchup of two powerhouse college football programs playing in a non-powerhouse bowl game on New Year’s Eve.
Unlike a season ago when Alabama and Michigan met in “The Granddaddy of Them All” in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena with national championship implications at stake, the Crimson Tide (9-3 overall) and Wolverines (7-5) will meet in the ReliaQuest Bowl at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., on New Year’s Eve.
Kalen DeBeor’s first season as Alabama’s coach included big rivalry wins over the Georgia Bulldogs, LSU Tigers and of course, the Auburn Tigers in his first dance with the Iron Bowl rivalry. Losses to Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Oklahoma cost the Crimson Tide a shot at the first 12-team College Football Playoff.
Michigan also has a first-year head coach in Sherrone Moore, who took over for Jim Harbaugh and guided the Wolverines to a winning season and a huge upset over the Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus.
On Friday, USA TODAY Sports’ college football experts released their early predictions for every 2024-25 bowl game, including Alabama-Michigan. All six members of USA TODAY’s panel — Paul Myerberg, Dan Wolken, Eddie Timanus, Scooby Axson, Jordan Mendoza and Erick Smith — picked the Crimson Tide to win.
Similarly, ESPN college football writer/analyst Adam Rittenberg also predicted an Alabama win (subscription required).
Kickoff for Alabama vs. Michigan is set for 11 a.m. CT on Dec. 31. It will mark the seventh all-time meeting between the Crimson Tide and Wolverines. The series is split 3-3.
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on X, and like our page on Facebook for ongoing coverage of Alabama news and notes, plus opinions.
Some good news from Jalen Milroe and Jihaad Campbell.
The Alabama Crimson Tide won’t be spending December where they had hoped to in the 12-team College Football Playoff.
Kalen DeBoer’s team will instead be in Tampa, Fla., for this year’s ReliaQuest Bowl (formerly the Outback Bowl) at Raymond James Stadium. Alabama will face the Michigan Wolverines on Dec. 31 at 11 a.m. CT. The game will be televised on ESPN.
On Thursday, we gained some clarity on whether Alabama’s best players (those with future NFL careers) would suit up against the Wolverines. Quarterback Jalen Milroe, for one, confirmed that he would play in the Crimson Tide’s bowl game.
“The mission right now is to complete the season,” Milroe told reporters. “We have one more mission ahead, which is attacking Michigan. And that’s the whole thought process right now, being our absolute best so we can take care of our business when it goes to playing in Tampa.
“It’s all about going 1-0… and that’s where my focus is at. Winning this game, preparing the right way, and take care of my body so we can be at our best us,” Milroe added.
Stud linebacker Jihaad Campbell was a bit more direct when asked if he would also play in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
“Hell yeah I’m playing,” Campbell told AL.com’s Nick Kelly. “I didn’t even think about that. I wanted to play with my brothers. It’s another opportunity to showcase my talents and for everybody else to showcase their talents and all the hard work they put in.”
Two years ago, Alabama’s two best players were quarterback Bryce Young and linebacker Will Anderson. Both were taken in the top five of the 2023 draft. Young was the No. 1 overall pick by the Carolina Panthers; Anderson the No. 3 pick by the Houston Texans.
Milroe was asked about his thought process and what led to him deciding to play against the Wolverines.
“One of our core values is finish,” Milroe said. “Despite anything, we entered into the season together and we’ll finish the season together, my teammates, my brothers. It’s all about unfinished business. We have one more game on our schedule. I think it was ultimately just (about) doing what was best for our team.”
The matchup between Alabama and Michigan will mark the seventh all-time meeting between the two blue blood programs. The Wolverines defeated the Crimson Tide, 27-20 in overtime in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day in what would turn out to be Nick Saban’s final game as Alabama’s coach.
The Tide and Wolverines also met in the 2019 Citrus Bowl, the 1999 Orange Bowl, and twice before in what’s now known as the ReliaQuest Bowl (after the 1996 and 1987 seasons).
The all-time head to head series is split 3-3.
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on X, and like our page on Facebook for ongoing coverage of Alabama news and notes, plus opinions.
Mock draft watch: Lions address middle of defense in Dane Brugler’s first 2025 NFL Draft projection
The college football regular season is in the books, which means bowls and All-Star games are right around the corner. That also means draft season is in full swing. With draft season in full swing, one of the greats in the business, Dane Brugler of The Athletic, is back on the prowl after releasing his first mock draft of the season.
This draft is going to be one of the more intriguing drafts in some time. Colorado WR/CB Travis Hunter looks to be the favorite to be the first pick, or at least easily be considered the best player on the board. The quarterback class will fascinating to follow, as there is no clear-cut QB1 at the moment.
The Lions certainly don’t need a quarterback and obviously won’t get Hunter. But they’ll have their pick of some good talent at the back end of round one — Lions fans are hoping their pick lands at No. 32. So, which way did Brugler take the Lions in his first mock?
That would Jihaad Campbell, linebacker, Alabama.
With his do-everything skill set, Campbell’s effectiveness will be limited only by a defensive play caller’s lack of imagination. The Lions likely will have greater needs this offseason, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Dan Campbell bangs the table for this type of talent — if the Alabama product is still on the board this late in Round 1.
Campbell has 106 tackles this season along with five sacks and 11.5 tackles for a loss. The six-foot-three, 244-pounder is viewed as having excellent size and speed for an off-ball linebacker and, as Brugler notes, has the talent where Dan Campbell can figure out how to utilize that talent. Draft good players is the name of the game.
It remains to be seen if Campbell will play in the ReliaQuest Bowl against Michigan after Alabama was knocked out of the College Football Playoffs thanks to Clemson winning the ACC championship and SMU getting the last at-large bid. Even if he does, Campbell has posted a solid resume and has made his case for the end of the first day of the draft.
Alabama (8-2) got out to a 28-0 lead behind two touchdown passes from Jalen Milroe, who got freshman sensation Ryan Williams involved early in the Tide’s Week 12 victory. Williams had a 14-yard touchdown catch and also scored Alabama’s first points on a 29-yard jet sweep.
Tight end Robbie Ouzts was left open on a broken assignment for a 44-yard touchdown, and the Crimson Tide had their first non-offensive touchdown of the season when Zabien Brown scooped up a Mercer fumble and returned it 68 yards to the end-zone.
Alabama finished with 508 yards of offense and 29 first downs en route to emptying its bench and using three different quarterbacks behind Milroe: backup Ty Simpson and freshmen Dylan Lonergan and Austin Mack.
Afterwards, DeBoer spoke to the media and said that he thought the team had the right mindset heading into the game after such a big road win last week against LSU in Baton Rouge.
Here’s what DeBoer said in his postgame press conference.
“Good to get a win and get a lot of guys out there on the field. They all put in a lot of work and there’s that little window that you hit where you get the one’s the work and you get the score where you need it to be. For the guys to play a quarter and a half essentially and get a lot of guys on the football field, it was fun to see them get out there and play and work on their execution. So, I like that we got three more takeaways. I think there’s a mindset about our defense and three of the first four possessions to do that, I just really like where we’re at. We’re hunting the ball.
“Offensively, putting the drives there. I know right at the end of the first half, we had a field goal there and would love to score in the red zone and get a touchdown but for the most part, again, taking care of the football, no turnovers and getting the takeaways, that’s where it all starts. Guys worked hard all week long. Thought they really had a good demeanor about them. They’re working on themselves individually to one, build on what we did a week ago and go into the tail end of the season here, I think relatively healthy as far as who played today and no one getting seriously dinged up before next week.”
DeBoer on what Robbie Ouzts means to Alabama’s offense
“He’s kind of a Swiss Army knife out there for us, especially the blocking piece. For him to get down the field, they put a lot of guys up toward the line of scrimmage. That’s just a part of what they do and they’ve been successful with it. No. 1 at the FCS level in run defense but (there were) some play actions there that we got behind him on.
“For Robbie to haul one in, that was very exciting for our guys and very exciting for him. I love to see it. He got a chance as a senior to talk to the team last night. and you could just tell the love our team has for him and how much they appreciate the effort he brings each and every day; not just every week. He’s got a mindset and a toughness about him that just exudes what Alabama football is all about.”
DeBoer talks about playing four quarterbacks and what he thought of their performance
“Ty with some scrambles, kind of the long one along our sideline. I think people probably know Ty and have watched him, probably all of you, you can see that he’s got that ability. He can do things with his feet. Everyone gets tied into Jalen and what he can do with his feet and his running ability, but Ty is tough to handle when it comes to running the football, too. Escaping, making some plays, the fourth down throwing it deep, if it’s picked off, it’s picked off. So, smart just to give him a chance and find a way to make plays.
“And I thought Dylan and Austin coming in and moving the chains — Dylan on a fourth down conversion, then Austin coming in and laying the ball in there along the left sideline for a touchdown. Again, there’s that fine window of trying to let these guys run the offense and get that experience and opportunity to work on what they do each and every day. I was proud of the way they handled everything to the execution and just the procedural things where making sure guys are lined up before we motion them and all that stuff. I thought it was a good day for all of them as a whole.”
DeBoer on how big it was to get Alabama’s first non-offensive touchdown
“Those are exciting. The guys talk about it and when they come up short and think they had a chance to score, they always hear about, ‘You should have kept it along this sideline or cut back.’ For us to get (Zabien Brown) into the end-zone with that long return, that’s something that’s exciting for the whole team. Because we’ve gotten the takeaways, we just haven’t had one end up with one in the end-zone like that. So, I love the mindset. Again, going back to what the defense is doing, they’re attacking. Three and out is what they’re shooting for, but right now the position they’re putting our offense in and getting points on the board now, too, it’s really good.”
DeBoer explains why he wanted first-team defense to play longer than the offense heading into fourth quarter
“Well I think first of all, there’s a lot of guys rotating in on defense to begin with, so there’s a lot of young guys that we already have on the football field with the one’s, and there’s less experience when you put the two’s out there. A lot of that one and two is in the rotation up front and in the secondary. And the score isn’t completely lopsided, and when you start putting your next guys in with your offense, you want to be careful just to make sure that the game can stay and nothing crazy happens.
“I know that probably none of you felt like it was in jeopardy, but those are just things that you want to be careful of and make sure you can get through the third quarter and into the fourth. But again, we play a lot of guys already before you even get to substituting there in the latter part of the game.”
DeBoer on what he saw from Alabama in its focus and intensity to avoid a letdown against Mercer
“As we get to the latter half of the season, we’ve really honed in on more and more leaders stepping up. Taking care of yourself, own what you do, take care of that and bring someone else with you. The intensity in practice, it’s not like guys are flying off the walls and things like that, but there’s a focus that they bring and there’s a business like approach where they know they’ve got to do this. They’ve got to eat right, sleep right, do all those things off the field. Take care of the business there and that leads to the success they had.
“But when they do those things right and you invest, investing in improving yourself and improving your team, that’s what I thought they did. I know some of the upperclassmen were talking about how much they appreciate the young guys and how happy we were that some of those guys got a chance to go out there. They’re giving scout team looks all week long, all season long. For them to get out there and have a little success and enjoy the moment was great and the whole team is happy for team.”
DeBoer on the improvement and intensity that linebacker Jihaad Campbell brings
“That’s a great example of how you don’t have to have the ‘C’ to be a leader and Jihaad is exactly that. He’s been a leader for us ever since I can remember. I’ve counted on him and I go to him expecting big things in that leadership. He can run and it starts there, but I think the more he just plays ball and executes the plays, understands what our defense is and how it matches up against what he’s seeing, trusting the others around him, not trying to do too much and just attacking. You know, he’s feeling it and there’s confidence you can see coming out in the playmaking ability. And that’s not just him but a lot of guys, but it starts with some of those guys that are making plays consistently and Jihaad’s one of them.”
Here’s everything else DeBoer said at his postgame press conference Saturday:
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on X, and like our page on Facebook for ongoing coverage of Alabama news and notes, plus opinions.
Chuck Bednarik Award for nation’s top defensive player names one Alabama player to semifinal list.
The Alabama Crimson Tide entered the 2024 season with College Football Playoff aspirations despite a change in the head coaching position. After two losses to Vanderbilt and Tennessee in October, Alabama’s chances to make the first 12-team Playoff seemed about toast.
However, the Tide responded massively with a 34-0 shutout against No. 21 Missouri before steamrolling No. 15 LSU in Baton Rouge 42-13 this past weekend. Jalen Milroe and the offense got a lot of shine in the headlines for their work in those two games, but the defense was equally impressive.
Unfortunately, the victory over LSU wasn’t without consequences as edge rusher Que Robinson suffered a left arm injury that will sideline him for the remainder of the year. Now, Alabama will have to rely even more heavily on their star linebackers Deontae Lawson and Jihaad Campbell.
Campbell has been phenomenal for Kane Wommack’s defense this year with 78 total tackles, four sacks, two forced fumbles and one interception. As a result, the Chuck Bednarik Award, which is presented annually to the nation’s top defensive player, has named Campbell a semi-finalist.
If Campbell can finish out the year strong and bring the award back to Tuscaloosa, he would be the fourth Alabama player to do so alongside Jonathan Allen (2016), Minkah Fitzpatrick (2017) and Will Anderson (2022).
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Sam Murphy on Twitter @SamMurphy02.
Alabama had three players win SEC awards on Monday afternoon.
As expected, the Alabama Crimson Tide featured heavily in the latest SEC Player of the Week honors announced by the conference Monday, which came as a result of the program’s impressive Week 11 victory over the LSU Tigers.
In all, Alabama would receive three of those weekly honors, beginning with starting quarterback Jalen Milroe being named the SEC Offensive Player of the Week. Milroe would complete 12-of-18 passes for 109 yards, with easily his biggest impact coming in the ground game where he rushed for 185 yards and four touchdowns on 12 attempts.
Alongside Milroe, Alabama linebacker Jihaad Campbell was also named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week due to his performance against LSU. The linebacker led Alabama in tackles with 12, while also compiling three TFL, 1.5 sacks, a forced fumble, and a PD.
Lastly, one other Alabama player received a honor, as Tyler Booker was named the SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week. Booker helped pave the way for an Alabama team that rushed for a combined 311 yards and six touchdowns, while also averaging 6.5 yards per carry.
The Kansas City #Chiefs could target Alabama linebacker Jihaad Campbell in the 2025 NFL draft.
Nick Bolton’s rookie contract expires after this season, meaning the Kansas City Chiefs need to give him a significant raise or find a replacement in the 2025 NFL draft. An Alabama linebacker in the upcoming class could contribute as a rookie alongside Leo Chenal and Drue Tranquill.
Alabama defender Jihaad Campbell is an athletic freak with terrific arm length and speed for an off-ball linebacker. The Crimson Tide’s coaching staff sometimes deploys him as a pass rushing outside linebacker because of his explosiveness and bend to win as a speed rusher. Those traits translate to his work off the ball.
Campbell is a fluid athlete with the natural athleticism and short-area quickness to elude climbing linemen in the run game. He triggers downhill with the burst to fire through gaps and bring down the running back quickly. Campbell’s speed helps him flow horizontally and make plays against wide zone runs.
Offensive linemen and tight ends struggle to contain Campbell. His superior arm length and looseness help him separate from blocks and redirect to the football. He makes plenty of plays in pursuit and limits potential big plays by shedding blocks and wrapping up the running back.
Campbell is a unique asset in pass coverage. He’s still developing his natural feel for zone assignments but has the speed and range to bracket slot receivers and tight ends vertically. He appears to play with rare awareness and understanding of downfield coverages. Campbell projects as a second or third-round selection.
The Crimson Tide travel to Tennessee to play a pivotal game against the No. 11 Volunteers on Saturday, October 19 at 2:30 p.m. Both of Alabama’s and Tennessee’s last two games ended with one-score point differentials.
Alabama had one of the risers in EA College Football 25’s latest ratings update.
EA Sports College Football 25 recently updated the player ratings for their video game, with a few Alabama Crimson Tide football players among the most notable risers in the update.
As expected, star freshman wide receiver Ryan Williams was the headline name among this group, rising one rating up to an 82 overall. Williams is currently off to a phenomenal start to his Alabama career, hauling in a total of 16 receptions for 462 yards and five touchdowns, while also leading the nation with an average of 28.9 yards per catch.
Alabama’s biggest riser in this update was linebacker Jihaad Campbell, who jumped four spots to an 89 overall. Campbell is Alabama’s leading tackler so far this season, amassing 32 tackles, three TFL, and 0.5 sacks over four games.
Alabama true freshman cornerback Zabien Brown also rose two spots, jumping to an 81 overall. So far this year, Brown has eight tackles, one TFL, and one INT to begin his Crimson Tide career.
Alabama’s inside linebacker duo will be among college football’s best in 2024.
One of the top inside linebacker duos in all of college football, both Alabama Crimson Tide starters at the position – Deontae Lawson and Jihaad Campbell – were named to the preseason watch list for the Butkus Award on Tuesday.
The Butkus Award, which Alabama has won four times before, recognizes the top linebacker annually in college football.
Lawson is entering his fourth season in Tuscaloosa this fall, as well as his third as a starting inside linebacker. The redshirt junior has a combined stat line of 118 tackles, eight TFL, and three sacks across that span, and is coming off a career-high 67 tackles with 5.5 TFL, and three sacks a year ago.
Campbell, a junior, is also coming off a career-year in which he emerged alongside Lawson as a starter. After making only one tackle as a freshman, Campbell had 66 tackles, four TFL, 0.5 sacks, one INT, and two FR a year ago.
A closer look at the Alabama linebackers ahead of spring practice
Before we know it, new Alabama head football coach Kalen DeBoer will hit the practice field with his Crimson Tide players for the first time when spring practice gets underway in March.
With the retirement of the legendary Nick Saban, there have not been this many question marks surrounding the football program since 2007 when Saban took over.
Contrary to popular belief, Alabama still has one of the most talented rosters in the country and should be right in the thick of the college football playoff conversation.
Roll Tide Wire will preview each position group as the anticipation builds leading up to spring practice. Let’s take a look at the linebackers.
