Happy Gump Day, everyone. Alabama basketball has a huge game against Arkansas tonight at Coleman that will go a long way toward determining whether they can secure a double bye in the SEC tournament. The team took care of business in two games against lower tier SEC opponents last week and has a manageable slate the rest of the way. Tip-off is at 6pm CT on ESPN.
Kalen DeBoer added an offensive staffer from USC.
Alabama football made another addition to its coaching support staff on Tuesday, with Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reporting that the Crimson Tide has added USC Trojan offensive analyst Brad Aoki as a pass game specialist with the Crimson Tide.
Aoki is a former college football walk-on for the USC Trojans, playing wide receiver for the Trojans during the 2019 season before transitioning to quarterback for the 2020 and 2021 seasons. In 2022, he transitioned to an off-the-field role as an offensive student analyst.
He left USC in 2023 to go to Colorado State, where he served as an assistant wide receivers’ coach for the Rams. In 2023, Tory Horton was Colorado State’s leading receiver, catching 96 receptions for 1,136 yards and eight touchdowns. In 2024, Aoki returned to his alma mater, serving as an offensive analyst with the Trojans. According to USC’s website, Aoki has worked primarily with quarterbacks since his return to Los Angeles.
It sounds like this will be an off-field role, but rules were relaxed on the type of coaching allowed by those positions since the rules preventing it were wholly unenforceable. Hopefully he will be a difference maker for the Tide’s young passers. USC QB Jayden Maiava threw for 3,711 yards and 24 TDs against 10 INTs in 2025.
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QB prospect Trent Seaborn has taken on the role of lead recruiter for the 2027 class, even actively recruiting competition at his own position.
Outside of Elijah Haven and Junior James, his next biggest target is WR Monshun Sales. The No. 1 WR from the class of 2027 has been a fan of the Crimson Tide since he was a kid. Some insiders consider Alabama the frontrunner to land him. The Rivals prediction models gave Bama over an 85% chance to get his commitment. He recently narrowed his list to a top 4 that includes Alabama, Indiana, Miami, and Ohio State.
Right now, Trent is leading a 2027 group that’s already looking scary. He’s already helped lock in guys like edge rusher Jabarrius Garror and cornerback Nash Johnson III.
He’s also been seen hanging out with 2026 stars like running back Ezavier Crowell and receiver Cederian Morgan. It’s all to make sure the chemistry is ready to go the second he steps on campus. He even decided to stay back and not take any more OV trips. By merely recognizing the pattern, Seaborn wants a stacked roster. He wants everything in place when he finally takes over as the Tide’s QB1 in the next year or two.
That, folks, is a Gump.
Stephen A Smith is unimpressed by Kalen Deboer.
“I’m not a fan of Kalen DeBoer as a successor to Nick Saban,” the “First Take” host told Finebaum. “I have no problem with him as a football coach. I’m fully aware of what he did at Washington. I’m fully aware of what he did before that. I know the man wins more than he loses.
“But when I think about Nick Saban, the man who I had the pleasure of getting to know, who flew me to Alabama on a couple of occasions to talk to the football team, to watch him in action, to watch what a standard bearer he was, how he lived on accountability …
“I just think when you follow that up with Kalen DeBoer, something was flagrantly missing.”
Smith, for instance, admits a Saban-led Tide may have lost to Indiana this past season in the College Football Playoff.
“But, there’s no way in hell you can convince me that a Nick Saban team was going to wave the white flag and basically just surrender to an ass kicking,” he said.
But, in another sign of the apocalypse, Greg McElroy is bullish on the Tide this year.
“They’re a team with a new identity. They are going to have a lot of new faces, a lot of young players,” McElroy said. “They do have a high-octane offense, though, and they should have a chip on the shoulder from last year’s loss in the Rose Bowl to Indiana. I also think there’s a lot of guys on this roster that are eager to prove that they want to show up. They want to maintain the standard that’s been expected at Alabama for a very long time.
“I like the dynamic around the facility. Everyone’s got a chip on their shoulder and sitting there at 27-1 right now. The odds are little bit longer than you usually get when it comes to Alabama and a national championship run. … It’s a really talented team that you feel pretty confident that Kalen DeBoer has his guys now in a position to kind of get the ball rolling in the right direction.”
Last, Ryan Williams got engaged to his 25-year-old girlfriend.
“Congrats! Alabama’s 19-year-old star WR Ryan Williams has announced his engagement to 25-year-old girlfriend Alexis Hill,” NFL influencer Dov Kleiman wrote on his official X account on Tuesday. “Hill has one child with a different baby daddy. A six year age gap … Congratulations to the happy couple.”
Hill posted a picture of herself with the engagement ring on to her IG stories again on Tuesday.
Williams is one of the highest-paid wide receivers in college football, with an estimated NIL value of somewhere between $2 million to $3 million for the 2026 season after he was paid an estimated $2 million in 2025 as the Crimson Tide returned to the College Football Playoff.
Congrats. “I ain’t sayin…”
That’s about it for now. Have a great day.
Roll Tide.
