Alabama football and basketball weekly news and tidits, August 13

Catch up on Alabama football, basketball and more, news and tidbits. A weekly update that lists the lesser known events of the past week.

Former Tiders back in Tuscaloosa

Two former Alabama football stars are back in Tuscaloosa working with the football team. Glen Coffee has joined the team as a graduate assistant while he finishes a degree. Javier Arenas is serving in an off-the-field capacity as an avenue to explore a coaching career.

Coffee is still hoping for a return to the NFL. Arenas failed to make a CFL roster earlier this summer and his playing career is probably over.

As reported by Aaron Suttles of tidesports.com, Saban commented,

"“I’m very loyal to our players. We probably have a half of dozen guys around here now that have played for us in the past. They understand the culture, they understand how we do things, they buy into it and they believe in it. I’m happy to have them back if they want to be coaches or be in the strength and conditioning program or get in some kind of athletic administration, we certainly want to help them have the opportunity to do that.”"

Football Recruiting

Alabama football got good news this week when 2018 cornerback, Nadab Joseph de-committed from LSU. Joseph is a 4-Star recruit and rated as the No. 24 cornerback in the nation by 247 Sports. He has 22 offers and attended a Tide camp in mid-July. Alabama football appears to be in a strong position with Joseph.

The next Alabama football commit could be Asa Martin. Martin is currently the top running back on the Tide’s recruiting board. The 4-Star player is scheduled to announce his college choice on August 24.

FSU O-Lineman not worried about the Tide D-Line

FSU sophomore Landon Dickerson said he isn’t concerned about blocking the Tide.

FSU does have a very good defensive line. Better than Alabama is a big claim. Dickerson’s bold statement could backfire. We think a member of the weakest position unit for the Noles, is doing a bit of whistling in the dark. We will all find out soon.

Alabama basketball Canada exhibition games

The Tide was 2-1 in its three-game exhibition pre-season in Canada. The young team showed considerable promise. Freshman phenom Collin Sexton was banged up late in the second game. He did not play in the third game against the University of Ottawa.

Freshman John Petty and sophomore Braxton Key showed plenty of offensive firepower. Freshman Alex Reese was a pleasant surprise in the third game. Check out the highlights of the Ottawa game in the tweet below.

Big early season games for SEC teams

Last month we wrote about the SEC re-establishing its dominance in 10 out-of-conference early season games. To whatever extent SEC football has lost some swagger, week one and week two of the new season is the remedy.

Here are the seven games in week one and the current odds from sportsbookreview.com. The odds listed below are from the bookmaker, Pinnacle.

• South Carolina is a five-point underdog to North Carolina State
• Florida is a two-point underdog to Michigan
• Vanderbilt is a six-point favorite against MTSU
• Alabama is a seven and a half-point favorite against FSU
• LSU is a 13.5-point favorite against BYU
• Texas A&M is a three-point underdog to UCLA
• Tennessee is a three and a half-point favorite against Georgia Tech

Next: 10 Tide Football Records that will never be broken

Check in with us every Sunday when we bring you news and tidbits from the past week. Share your own lesser known Crimson Tide stories on Facebook and Twitter.