Top 10 From The Weekend/A-Day/Dreamland Review

kyle h · Apr 16, 2017

Hello Alabama!

Below is my latest installation of my Top 10 from the Weekend/Week. With A-Day coming up, there is plenty to talk about and you'll see I also reviewed Dreamland BBQ, and have also updated my TTown Food Rankings. Enjoy!!

1. Hurts Not Listed As Favorite To Win The Heisman

On Friday, Westgate Las Vegas Superbook released their favorites to win the 2017 Heisman Trophy.

Here are the odds on favorites
Sam Darnold - USC- Quarterback - 5-1
Baker Mayfield - Oklahoma - Quarterback - 7-1
Lamar Jackson - Louisville - Quarterback - 8-1
J.T. Barrett - Ohio State - Quarterback - 10-1
Jake Browning - Washington - Quarterback - 12-1
Deondre Francois - Florida State - Quarterback - 12-1

Six quarterbacks lead the way according to Las Vegas Superbook, but I could not help to notice that Alabama Quarterback Jalen Hurts was not listed. The returning SEC Offensive Player of the Year was 240-382 passing (62.8%) for 2,780-yards with 23 touchdowns, tack on his 954-yards and 13 rushing touchdowns, Hurts as a Freshman accounted for 3,734-yards of offense and 36 touchdowns while leading Alabama to a 14-1 season. So to not see Hurts on the preseason list seemed very surprising, considering his production numbers in 2016. While the past does not dictate the future, there have been no signs of Hurts slowing down and overall, he’s looked much more polished as a passer enter just his second year at Alabama.

2. Texas Locker Rooms

The Texas Longhorns Football Program just released a new feature to their locker rooms. A 43-inch monitor atop each locker with a running highlight of that particular player. The monitor replaces the standard nameplate, so instead of reading, for example, No. 34 Damien Harris now the locker has a big screen monitor above where the player gets ready, which plays highlights and has photos that particular player.

Coming off a 5-7 season and the firing of former Head Coach Charlie Strong, it is clear that the Longhorns need every advantage to revamp their program under First Year Head Coach Tom Herman. The new monitor is obviously a recruiting tool to draw in more of a wow factor to help sell the program, but at the end of the day, recruits want to go to a place that wins and competes for a championship every year. This is what has separated Alabama Football from others. It starts with Nick Saban’s process to succeed and the rest continues to fall into place.

3. Distribution of the football in 2017

How is the Alabama offense going to keep the overwhelming amount of highly talented offensive skill players they have fed during the season? Last season Running Back Damien Harris carried the football 146 times, Bo Scarbrough 125 times, Josh Jacobs 85 times, and BJ Emmons had 35 touches. All those backs return in 2017 along with Najee Harris and Brian Robinson, two early enrollees at Alabama that could start likely anywhere else in the Country. That is just the running game. You also have to get the football to one of the best receivers in the SEC in Calvin Ridley, who last year he caught for 72 receptions plus getting the football to rising stars like Jerry Jeudy, Cam Sims, among others. Everyone is interested to see how Alabama’s new offensive coordinator Brian DaBoll handles this gigantic task.

4. Secondary Concerns

Is the defense really getting torched by the offense as much as we’ve been hearing? Seems the case after the last two Alabama scrimmages and by our count, Alabama Quarterbacks, Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa have already accounted for seven passing touchdowns. Anthony Averett is projected to start corner along with Trevon Diggs, Averett who is now a senior led the team in pass deflections last year with 8, Diggs is a first-year starter or at least projected to be a starter in April. Besides Diggs being new at the position, Alabama does have plenty of experience in the secondary with Minkah Fitzpatrick (Junior), Hootie Jones (Senior), Ronnie Harrison (Junior), and Tony Brown (Senior) all returning so it’s been really surprising to hear that the secondary group has been getting beat by the offense. We’re keeping our eyes on the secondary unit during A-Day as this could just all be hearsay.

5. Boating Season - Be Smarter than the water

6. Spring Game Attendance So Far

The bar has been set by Ohio State University with 80,134 fans that attended their annual spring game on April 15th. Last year, just over 75,000 attended A-Day in Tuscaloosa. The record fan attendance for an Alabama Spring Game is 92,310 which was set in 2011.

The bar has been set, will Alabama Football have more than 80,000 for A-Day

2017 Spring Game Attendance Numbers So Far
Alabama TBA (April 22nd) (Last Year 76,212)
Ohio State 80,134 (April 15th)
Nebraska 78,312 (April 15th)
Clemson 60,000 (April 8th)
Michigan 57,418 (April 15th)
Florida 48,000 (April 7th)
Auburn 46,331 (April 8th)
Oklahoma 43,331 (April 8th)
Texas 35,000 (April 15th)
Florida State 26,649 (April 8th)
Michigan State 25,000 (April 1st)
Texas AM 21,000 (April 8th)
Miss State 16,630 (April 8th)
Missouri 16,457 (April 15th
USC 14,781 (April 15th)
Ole Miss 8,000 (April 8th)

7. Recruiting In The SEC

Here is a look at who has the most commits in the SEC as of April 16, 2017

Rivals Recruiting Rankings Here
Alabama - Three Commitments - Three 4-Stars
Arkansas - Four Commitments - One 4-Star
Auburn - Five Commitments - Three 4-Stars
Florida - Six Commitments - Three 4-Stars
Georgia - Two Commitments - One 4-Star
Kentucky - Five Commitments - One 4-Star
LSU - Thirteen Commitments - Six 4-Stars
Missouri - 0 Commitments
Miss State - Seven Commitments - One 4-Star
Ole Miss - 0 Commitments
South Carolina - Four Commitments - One 4-Star
Tennessee - Three Commitments - One 4-Star
Texas A&M - Six Commitments - Three 4-Stars
Vanderbilt - Three Commitments - One 4-Star

8. Dreamland BBQ

I’m not happy. But, first, let me build this up. On a beautiful Sunday with my wife and two children in the great City of Tuscaloosa, BBQ was calling. We made our way to Dreamland and while I know there has been talk about Archibalds on the board, we opted for Dreamland as Archibalds was closed today. Dreamland BBQ according to their website first opened in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1958 (the first year that Bear Bryant started coaching at Alabama) the owner was John Big Dady Bishop who opened up the original cafe which is located on Old Jug Factory Rd in Jerusalem Heights. From their website: Legend has it that God told him in a dream that night to build a café on the land next to his home and Big Daddy made that dream a reality. I did not go to the original Dreamland, we went to the Dreamland which is located in Northport, Alabama at 101 Bridge Avenue.

Here is my review

A+ Customer Service, our waiter was awesome

A Venue, great feel with cool memorabilia

B Food, ok some of this is on me for what I ordered, but I have to be real their BBQ Sandwich was just ok IMO. There was not a lot of meat on the sand which, the fried okra was just ok, the baked beans were on point, and the slaw could have been better.

I ordered the BBQ Sandwich with came with two sides. Not much to write home about and look, I am not trying to roll into TTown dogging on places, like some snobby food expert. Haha, the place was cool and I will go back and of course, heck out the originally Dreamland. We sat right next to Ryan Fowler of 102.9FM (who does a great job by the way) and chopped it up with him and his wife for a long while, great conversation and such down to earth people. I also talked to the cook who was manning the smoker. Really nice people!

So to recap, I am not happy with my decision to order the BBQ Sandwich, but I will give them another shot if I’m allowed back!

9. Updated Tuscaloosa Food Rankings

1. City Cafe - No more needs to be said. This was my first experience of meat and threes.
2. Waysider - First experience with grits. Unreal
3. Robertson’s - BBQ Slab of RIBs is A+. Simple plus the Slaw has bacon bits… More here https://alabama.forums.rivals.com/threads/bbq.71696/
4. Chucks - Dig the food and atmosphere
5. Urban Cookhouse
6. Avenue Pub - Had a burger there the other day (my goodness) with Bone and Tony
7. DePalma's - Lasagna was 100%
8. River - New restaurant down on the Black Warrior, pricey, but good
9. Fuzzy Taco’s
10. Jalapeno’s Mexican Grill - Great service, good salas, good fajitas
11. Dickie’s BBQ - Had a Boston Butt. Bomb.
12. Glory Bound Gryo - Great greek salads
13. Dreamland BBQ - See
14. Side-by-Side - Fancy place, service a little slow, but food is spot on

10. Happy Easter

I sincerely hope you had a wonderful Sunday with your family and made time to enjoy life. We get just one chance to make it as best we can. You guys are going to get sick of me saying it, but I am sincerely grateful to be here. Tony, Andrew Bone, and I will have an action packed week for content ready for you, so sit back and enjoy A-Day week!

Extra Point: A-Day