South Alabama Sports

  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 decline, as it did when the Bear retired in 1982. But recruiting was already suffering before Bryant, who was a dying man, finally decided to…

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, reclassified in December and will graduate a year early in May. He has consistently said he remains firmly committed to the Crimson Tide and has…

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 touchdowns in 2023, ran for 269 yards and seven TDs, threw a touchdown pass and returned a kickoff and a punt for scores. Williams reclassified…

  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 their first year after moving up from Class 6A. Speakman was 45-25 as the head coach, including a 9-4 mark in the playoffs, but he…

    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 all ranked in the top 25 nationally. Coleman (6-2, 285), the highest rated of the four at No. 13 in the U.S., according to the…

  “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 from the concession stand, there had to be another reason for the rhapsodic pleading. The reason had walked into the arena wearing a red pullover,…

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 elite baseball prospect who has committed to South Alabama and was in his first season as the starting quarterback — learned to be the conductor…

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 to the sky, as the final second melted away in Mobile Christian’s 55-28 victory over Madison Academy at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Thursday’s Class 3A state…

  TUSCALOOSA — It hurt to breathe. Powerless to change history instead of making it, Saraland’s players gasped in disbelief to see K.J. Lacey, one of the nation’s best quarterbacks, face down on the well-worn turf of Bryant-Denny Stadium, a yard away from winning the state championship. It hurt to breathe but breathe they did. Moving forward also hurt — they were frozen in time and place and perhaps felt that by standing still, they would not have to walk…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD TUSCALOOSA — The greatest offense in Class 6A history gobbled up 6,110 yards and scored 90 touchdowns this season. What Saraland would give for one more yard and one more touchdown. With hearts jammed up against the Adam’s apples of thousands of pleading fans on both sides of Bryant-Denny Stadium, Spartans quarterback K.J. Lacey was stopped at Clay-Chalkville’s 1-yard line on a desperate scramble to the end zone as time evaporated and the No. 2-ranked…