Area Sports

        TUSCALOOSA — High atop Nick Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium (surely, it will be named that at some point), Kalen DeBoer’s first press conference as Alabama’s football coach Saturday was far from a wake. For one thing, Saban isn’t dead. He was there on the front row and will be there…

  By JIMMY WIGFIELD Deep South Media Editor TUSCALOOSA — On Monday night, Kalen DeBoer walked off the field after Washington lost in the College Football Playoff finals to Michigan. Four nights and 2,061 flying miles later, he walked off a plane from Seattle and straight into a culture that not only expects him to…

  Editor’s note: This column is updated with the hiring of Kalen DeBoer as Alabama’s new coach.   While Alabama rolled quickly to name a successor to Nick Saban — as it did when installing Ray Perkins to follow Paul W. Bryant — many Crimson Tide fans are fearful the program will suffer an inevitable…

By JIMMY WIGFIELD Saraland’s Ryan Williams — the nation’s highest-ranked unsigned player in the 2024 class — said fans shouldn’t read much into the scheduled order of his three official visits. The five-star prospect, who is rated the No. 3 wide receiver prospect and the No. 8 overall player in the 2024 class by On3.com,…

By JIMMY WIGFIELD Saraland five-star wide receiver Ryan Williams has been selected Alabama’s Gatorade Player of the Year for the second straight season. Williams (6-1, 175) — a junior who had a touchdown catch to open the scoring in Wednesday’s Under Armour All-American Game in Orlando — caught 71 passes for 1,320 yards and 19…

  By ARTHUR L. MACK Faith Academy has hired former Opelika High football coach Erik Speakman to take over its program, replacing Jack French, who retired last month. Speakman, 49, who spent 24 years with the Class 7A Bulldogs — the last six years as head coach — was fired after a 4-6 season in…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD Antonio Coleman wants anybody who sticks their head into Auburn’s defensive line starting in 2025 to see stars. Sixteen of them, to be exact. Saraland’s Coleman flipped his commitment from Alabama to the Tigers Friday, forming a defensive line full of junior four-star prospects in the 2025 class who are…

  “We want Ryan!” “We want Ryan!” “We want Ryan!” The chant was heard arising from students in the sellout crowd of 9,000 fans at Auburn’s Neville Arena on Dec. 17 but nobody named Ryan was on the Tigers’ basketball roster or even Southern Cal’s. And unless someone named Ryan was passing out free beer…

By JIMMY WIGFIELD TUSCALOOSA — Somewhere along the way in this season of discovery for Mobile Christian quarterback Damien Gatson, he heard something from his position coach that made a difference. “We told him he didn’t have to be Superman and he took heed of that,” Leopards quarterbacks coach Payton Wasden said. Gatson — an…

TUSCALOOSA — Bo Cagle was on his knees, a place he’s not usually found, unless he is in church or looking for a dog toy that rolled under the couch, but this was a special occasion. “Yeah!” yelled Cagle, who paused to savor the moment. “Yeah!” Cagle exclaimed again on the sideline, his fists thrust…