Morning Kickoff: Crimson Tide News 1/24

Get your day started with the Morning Kickoff. All your Crimson Tide news in one place.

Round 1 of Anthony Grant vs. Bruce Pearl may be Grant’s biggest game yet at Alabama

"“You want to win them all,” Pearl said, “but there is no team I want to beat more than Alabama in the SEC because I am Auburn’s coach. That’s how I feel. That’s how our fans feel.”That’s what Auburn fans want to hear. Beating Alabama shouldn’t be Auburn’s only goal, but working to beat Alabama should be Auburn’s minimum daily requirement. And vice versa.Sanderson understood that. He’d lock the gates for practice before playing Auburn. He’d chastise the media for not treating basketball’s Iron Bowl like the Super Bowl. Far more often than not, his players rose to the challenge and beat Auburn, even when the Tigers were good enough to reach the NCAA Tournament five straight years.No doubt Anthony Grant understands the importance of this game, too. He might not say it as directly as Pearl or as colorfully as Sanderson, but his record reflects it.Grant is 7-3 against Auburn, 5-0 in Coleman Coliseum, but Saturday night’s game may be the biggest of his six-year tenure at Alabama. Lose to a wildly inconsistent Auburn team, a team that promises to be the weakest Pearl will put on the floor during his Auburn tenure, and Grant could lose a good portion of the support he still enjoys."

This is the truth. The game against Auburn is a must win. For one, it’s Auburn plus a loss will definitely hurt chances for the NCAA Tournament. Plus, the crowd that isn’t happy with the basketball teams’ performance will only get louder.

Ravens plan to release Terrence Cody, who is under investigation for animal cruelty

"The Ravens intend to terminate veteran nose tackle Terrence Cody’s contract after the Super Bowl, the team announced Friday morning.Cody is under investigation for animal cruelty, and the case is being discussed with the Baltimore County State’s attorney’s office, said Elise Armacost, the director of communications for Baltimore County police.Cody hasn’t been charged with a crime.According to multiple sources, the case involves the death of Cody’s dog."

If what the attorney is saying is correct, this could just be a misunderstanding. I really hope it is. Mount Cody was one of my favorites while at Alabama.

Colts won’t commit to RB Richardson

"Indianapolis Colts general manager Ryan Grigson would not commit Friday to having running back Trent Richardson back with the team next season.Grigson, who spoke to the media during his end-of-season interview session, said Richardson will be “lumped into that conversation with guys this offseason.”“Where’s he fit? Where’s he going? Is his arrow up, down, sideways, 45-degree angle?” Grigson said. “And we have to figure all these things out with guys in all different types of situations on this roster. There are guys across the board that are in a lot of different situations. But, again, when the coaches come back, when we seeing what’s actually out there — we have an idea, draft, juniors that have declared and things like that — once that evolves we’ll have a much better feel for what we need to do.”Things officially hit rock bottom for Richardson when he was inactive for the divisional playoff game at Denver on Jan. 11 and then was suspended for two games for missing the team’s walk through on Jan. 17. Richardson told ESPN.com on Jan. 18 that he missed walk-through because he was “dealing with a very serious family emergency … I wouldn’t purposely just miss walk-through.”"

Not a good day yesterday for former Alabama players. Whatever Richardson has going on that is affecting his play, I hope he gets it straightened out.

Nick Saban ‘hopeful’ Lane Kiffin stays at Alabama

"Alabama coach Nick Saban knows how this stuff works.So when asked Thursday night at the Alabama Football Coaches Association convention in Montgomery about Crimson Tide offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin being a top candidate for the same position with the San Francisco 49ers, Saban first reflected on how he was as an assistant.“I think what people need to understand is these coaches work really, really hard to do a good job,” Saban said. “Part of my motivation when I was an assistant coach or coordinator was to do a great job so I created opportunities for myself. It’s not bad for guys to look at those things and decide what their goals and objectives are in terms of what they want to accomplish and how that fits into it. I just think that everybody should have an opportunity to do that.”"

I figured when he was hired, Alabama would possibly get two years out of Kiffin if things worked out on the field. The California part could be the selling point to a guy that likes the West Coast though.

Alabama Swimming and Diving Sweeps Cincinnati on Senior Day

"The Alabama men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams each cruised to Senior Day victories over Cincinnati on Friday at the Alabama Aquatic Center. The women won by a score of 189-103 while the men were victorious by a 201-94 margin.Senior All-American Kaylin Burchell posted a victory in the 100 butterfly on her senior day with a time of 56.53. Sophomores Leah Bird and Bailey Scott each picked up individual victories as Bird won the 200 butterfly and Scott won the 50 freestyle.Sophomore Bridget Blood swept the breaststroke races, scoring times of 1:04.60 and 2:17.85 in the 100 and 200, respectively. Junior Emma Saunders continued her strong campaign by winning the 100 backstroke and the 500 freestyle."

Gregg’s 5k PR leads Tide at Vanderbilt

"University of Alabama sophomore Allison Gregg shaved more than 30 seconds off her previous personal best in the women’s 5,000 meters on Friday night, highlighting the first of two days of competition for the Crimson Tide at the Vanderbilt Indoor Invitational held in Vanderbilt’s Multipurpose Facility in Nashville.Ten Crimson Tide athletes (5 men, 5 women) competed in eight events on Friday evening. Gregg’s performance was impressive as only three seniors finished ahead of the sophomore, who finished in 17 minutes, 0.17 seconds, cutting 33 seconds off of her previous 5,000-meter indoor PR and a full 22 seconds off of her outdoor 5k all-time best."

8 Alabama Track & Field Athletes Ranked Among Best in World & U.S. in 2014

"Eight University of Alabama athletes and three relay foursomes ended the 2014 world track & field season ranked among the best on the final United States and/or World Lists for top performances in the sport by Track & Field News magazine. The magazine, known internationally as the foremost authority on the sport, produced its top 10 World and United States rankings as part of its review of the entire 2014 athletics season in the February 2015 issue.Sprinter Remona Burchell of Jamaica and thrower Hayden Reed of the USA were the most prominent members of the 2014 Crimson Tide team on the year-end lists, but by no means were they the only athletes to earn mention among World or US leaders in their respective events over the course of the entire 2014 calendar year."