Alabama might’ve just gone through the best four-year run of wide receivers in college football history. Calvin Ridley, Jerry Jeudy, and Henry Ruggs all drafted in the first round in the last three years, with DeVonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle soon to follow them in the 2021 NFL Draft.

With that group off to the NFL, there’s a massive portion of production gone from five-star sophomore Bryce Young’s receiver room. Who is going to step up into that role in 2021?

‘Bama’s spring game this past Saturday (April 17th) gave us a brief preview, but of course, nothing is set in stone. Nick Saban didn’t mention anything that would give an indication of his plans for his 2021 WR room. Let’s look at some of the options.

John Metchie III (6-0 195, Junior)

Last year’s No. 2 receiver after the injury to Jaylen Waddle should be primed to compete for the No. 1 receiver role. Metchie, the former four-star recruit out of New Jersey, racked up 55 catches for 916 yards and six touchdowns in 2020. He sat out of ‘Bama’s spring game dealing with an injury he suffered during the 2020 season and was taking it easy during spring practices. We’ll see if that allows another option to overtake Metchie or not, but regardless he will have a big role in Alabama’s 2021 offense.

Slade Bolden (5-11 191, Redshirt Junior)

Bolden emerged in the slot as a sophomore in 2020, seeing his targets tick up after the Jaylen Waddle injury. The former high school quarterback and Louisiana Gatorade Player of the Year reeled in 24 catches for 270 yards and a touchdown, while also contributing on special teams. Bolden snagged five catches for 56 yards for the White team in Alabama’s spring game. Bolden is probably limited to just lining up in the slot, which could hurt him securing a spot if a younger receiver breaks out.

Javon Baker (6-2 195, Sophomore)

A former four-star recruit in Alabama’s 2020 class, Baker should see much more playing time in 2020. He saw action in the final nine games of 2020 and caught two balls for 15 yards. Baker only had one catch for 15 yards in the spring game. An unknown commodity to everyone outside of the Alabama program, but an enticing prospect nonetheless. 

Thaiu Jones-Bell (6-0 190, Sophomore)

Another four-star prospect in the 2020 recruiting cycle, Jones-Bell is another unknown ready to step into a larger role. He ranked as the No. 17 receiver in the 2020 class by 247Sports out of Hallandale Florida and Miami Carol City High School, catching 38 passes for 745 yards and nine touchdowns as a senior. Jones-Bell hardly saw the field as a freshman, catching only one pass all season and playing in three total games. He caught three passes for 52 yards in the spring game.

Agiye Hall (6-3 195, Freshman)

Hall was the star of ‘Bama’s spring game. You could look at this spectacular catch here, this one right here, or his team-leading four catches for 72 yards. A consensus top-100 player, ranked as the No. 56 overall player in the 247 Composite in the class of 2021 and the No. 11 player in Florida. Saban gave a glowing review of the freshman after the game, which bodes well as the year progresses.

Traeshon Holden (6-3 208, Sophomore)

Holden is the third 2020 recruit on this list, fresh off his nine-catch 89-yard performance

in the spring game over the weekend for the White team. Holden ranked as the 32nd-ranked WR in the class of 2020, and brings good size at 6-3 208. He played five games in 2020 but didn’t record a catch. 

Xavier Williams (6-1 190, Redshirt Junior)

A former four-star recruit in the class of 2018 out of Hollywood Florida, Williams hasn’t seen quite that much playing time in his three years on campus. He redshirted his freshman season before seeing slight action in both his redshirt freshman and sophomore campaigns. He caught three passes for 24 yards in the Alabama Spring Game.

Honorable Mention: Ja’Corey Brooks(6-3 185, Freshman), Christian Leary(5-9 190, Freshman)

Writer

-By: TJ Mathewson

As if they didn’t already have enough staff in place to get guys ready for the NFL, Alabama added a couple more notable names to their staff for the 2021 season.

Both Bill O’Brien (Offensive Coordinator) and Doug Marrone (Offensive Line) joined the Crimson Tide after being let go from the Houston Texans and the Jacksonville Jaguars respectively, after former OC Steve Sarkisian (now the HC at Texas) took OL coach Kyle Flood to be his OC in Austin.

O’Brien flamed out in Houston after struggling to manage the roster as HC and GM and connecting with players, like star WR DeAndre Hopkins and LT Duane Brown. Marrone struggled to build off his successful first season in Jacksonville in 2017, struggling to keep the personalities of the team together and ultimately falling apart into the No. 1 pick this year. Two guys are looking for a coaching reboot.

This move mirrors a bunch of coaching moves that Saban has made in the past, being a sort-of coaching rehab center for coaches who need an image remake. Just look at Sark, who came to Alabama in 2016 as an analyst after off-the-field issues derailed his time at USC and Washington. He took over as OC for the 2017 National Championship Game, spent two successful years as the Atlanta Falcons OC, then returned to the Crimson Tide as their OC for the 2019 and 2020 seasons, two of the most offensively successful seasons in program history. Now he’s the HC at Texas, a top-five job in the whole sport.

How about Lane Kiffin? His story mirrors Sark in so many ways. They were both assistants at USC under Pete Carroll. Kiffin had stints with the Oakland Raiders, Tennessee Volunteers, and finally the USC Trojans until he was famously fired on the LAX tarmac in 2013 (Sark took over for him in 2014). It only took a couple of months until Kiffin got the OC job at Alabama, where he revitalized his career under Saban and is now coaching at Ole Miss. That’s two guys in the last four years that revitalized their careers under Saban and turned it into prime HC jobs.

This kind of turnover isn’t unusual for Saban. His entire coaching staff from his 2017 National Championship team has turned over in the last four years (most notably OC Brian Daboll and DC Jeremy Pruitt). You would think that would be incredibly hard for the players, but they keep chugging along year after year. 

SI’s Andy Staples put together a great article detailing Saban’s coaching tree following the 2017 season (not including Sark). It’s so impressive to look at. It wouldn't surprise us if Marrone and O’Brien have an immense amount of success in Tuscaloosa and translate it back to the next level or in a head coaching role in the college ranks, and it would just add another branch to the coaching tree of Saban.

Writer

-By: TJ Mathewson

In this improvised college football season, one thing we could always rely on stayed the same: Alabama dominance.

The Crimson Tide crushed Ohio State 52-24 and captured the program’s 18th national title and the sixth under Nick Saban, further solidifying himself as the greatest college football coach of all time.

I don’t want to talk about the game, the game itself was pretty boring. It was over by halftime, and was the lowest-watched national championship game in the CFP/BCS era, averaging just 18.7 million viewers across the ESPN MegaCast.

So while thinking about what I wanted to break down from this game, I stumbled upon this tweet last night, highlighting the success of Alabama’s 2017 recruiting class. My jaw just about hit the floor. I had totally forgotten the group of players that had come to this program together.

Let’s list all the notables: Najee Harris, Alex Leatherwood, Dylan Moses, Jerry Jeudy, Tua Tagovailoa, Jedrick Wills, Xavier McKinney, DeVonta Smith, Henry Ruggs III, and Mac Jones. Let that sit for a minute.  That is ten guys who either already have or will/might go in the first round of the 2020/21 NFL Draft.

This class started and finished their college career with championships. Who could forget Tua lobbing a perfect pass to DeVonta Smith down the sideline for the game-winner vs Georgia, then three years later Smith dominating in another National Championship in the very stadium that Tua calls home for the foreseeable future.

While DeVonta ended his college career with more hardware than anyone else in the class, he isn’t the only one with a trophy case.

Jerry Jeudy: a two-time consensus All-American and Biletnikoff winner. 

Najee Harris: Alabama’s all-time leader in rushing yards and touchdowns.

Alex Leatherwood: 3x All-SEC and Outland Trophy winner.

Tua: SEC Offensive POY, Maxwell & Walter Camp Award winner.

Mac Jones: Davey O’Brien Award winner.

That’s a pretty good list, and that’s not even including the other key pieces in that class, like backup RB Brian Robinson or LB Christopher Allen, who made second-team all-SEC this year.

This class signified the change in philosophy that Saban carried as head coach. Remember that this was the first class that came to campus after Alabama lost to Clemson and Deshaun Watson. Saban’s prized defense was shredded by the future Texans star for the second straight year, and the same approach to offense wasn’t going to cut it.

This caused an emphasized shift to the offensive side of the ball, and capped off four years later by that same group sweeping the offensive player of the year awards. No other coach adjusts as Nick Saban has, and that’s why he’s the best to ever do it. 

Writer

-By: TJ Mathewson