South Alabama Sports

  By JIMMY WIGFIELD When Mobile Christian defensive coordinator Charles Lawson was introduced to the team as the Leopards’ new head football coach Tuesday afternoon, the assembled players leaped to their feet and applauded. “It was the kind of reaction you’d hope to have,” Mobile Christian head of school Clint Mitchell said. Lawson, 44, succeeds Ronnie Cottrell, who announced his resignation Monday after leading the Leopards to a 15-0 finish and the Class 3A state championship in 2023. “He gave…

  SARALAND — The life-defining decision of where to play college football and his future beyond was hanging over Ryan Williams like three defensive backs tearing at his jersey on a post pattern. But Williams shook all that off and made the big play — as he always does — when he recommitted to Alabama late Wednesday afternoon, setting recruiting websites afire and settling the stomachs of a roiling Tide fan base, which was fretting that new coach Kalen DeBoer…

  SARALAND — The life-defining decision of where to play college football and his future beyond that is hanging over Ryan Williams like three defensive backs tearing at his jersey on a post pattern. Expect Williams to shake them off and make the big play, as he always does, although not without some gut-churning moments. With his planned signing day on Feb. 9 approaching, there is a tinge of weariness on his face and in his voice. With the seemingly…

  By ARTHUR L. MACK CALVERT — The man many believe was the best pound-for-pound boxer of all time sat ringside at a gym on the MOWA Choctaw Reservation Saturday night looking for young fighters who might one day follow in his gloves. The Olympic silver medalist was on hand at the MOWA Choctaw Reservation to view a fight card at the invitation of promoter Brok Weaver, whose cousin Nick fought Jones six times and made him dig deep to…

    By ARTHUR L. MACK MOBILE — Baker head football coach Steve Normand said Friday he is retiring to teach and coach in Mississippi. Normand was 29-24 in five full seasons as the Hornets’ coach with four playoff appearances. The only other coach in Baker history to have a winning record over a five-year stretch was Billy Odom, who was 27-26 from 1981-1985. The Hornets finished 8-3 in 2023, losing to Auburn in the first round of the Class…

By ARTHUR L. MACK MOBILE — Newly named University of South Alabama football coach Major Applewhite said Friday he wants to create a raucous atmosphere at home games as part of taking the Jaguars to an even higher level. “I’m truly humbled for this opportunity,” Applewhite said at his introductory press conference at Hancock-Whitney Stadium. “My wife sent me a text saying, ‘You don’t start from scratch, you start from opportunity.’ It’s a great opportunity to explain your vision for…

    “He had as much energy and fire as the day I walked in there three years ago. He held himself to a standard he expected of himself. But like it was with me, there comes a time when you want to experience life while you can. The one thing you can’t get back is time.” Todd Watson on Nick Saban     By JIMMY WIGFIELD Deep South Media Editor There is a photograph of an 8-year-old Todd Watson…

        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 to help fill in the blanks in this transition, much to DeBoer’s delight. DeBoer’s debut wasn’t like the one for Mike Shula, who seemed downright…

  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 be in the national championship game every year but win it. At his introductory press conference Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium, the newly stamped Alabama coach…

  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…