CW Thursday | Bama's back, baby!

View this email in your browser

Vol. CXXVII, Issue XI

Thursday, September 23, 2020

Hi. Here's the news.
The Crimson Tide will take on Mizzou this Saturday in Columbia. The! Crimson! Tide! Will! Take! On! Mizzou! This! Saturday! In! Columbia! THE CRIMSON TIDE WILL TAKE ON MIZZOU THIS SATURDAY IN COLUMBIA!!!

Need more sports content? Don't worry. The first episode of The Crimson White's new sports podcast, "The Pregame Presser," drops Saturday. CW / Hannah Saad | Graphic CW / Leah Goggins

Did you hear? The Crimson Tide will take on Mizzou this Saturday in Columbia. Ahead of the game, reporter Ashlee Woods recaps the off-season press conferences and bets that 2020 will be a banner year for Alabama football.

Mac Jones will start as quarterback when Alabama football travels to play Missouri this weekend. According to a depth chart released Monday, the redshirt junior will lead the charge against the Missouri Tigers Saturday, which is probably the right call. As columnist Austin Hannon writes, Mac Jones has already proved himself to be a great helmsman for the Tide.

COVID-19 cases are down on campus. In the UA System’s weekly update to the COVID-19 dashboard, the University reported a record low of 119 student cases and 17 faculty cases. Two of those faculty cases came from sentinel testing, which began last week on campus.

Netflix’s “The Social Dilemma” is a learning experience. But it offers up more questions than answers, and the answers it does muster up are pretty ugly.

Families of those killed by police are grieving all over again as scenes of police brutality sweep across the news. At a virtual event hosted by the Mobile chapter of the NAACP on Sept. 17, participants reflected on the changes they want to see in policing and how police brutality has affected their communities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a wrecking ball. But in the wake of its destruction, maybe it's been able to teach us a few things. For Generation Z, columnist Hayden Kimbrough argues, the pandemic has been a time to reflect and learn to empathize, be engaged and get involved.

Here are the off-campus goings-on:

Sept. 30 is the looming deadline for the 2020 Census, and Alabama has landed in last place in response rates across the country. The state will need to see a huge surge in responses to rise up the list and receive the federal funding it needs. Fill out the Census here.
Auburn University trounced Alabama this week when their COVID-19 test results came in at an even lower record-low: 53 cases. Auburn also reported a 0% positivity rate after its first round of sentinel testing.
The Department of Defense reportedly spent a majority of its $1 billion dollars in CARES Act funding to support defense contractors rather than secure personal protective equipment for Americans.

From the Newsroom
notes from inside the video calls and group chats of The Crimson White

Remember the Sideline Photographers
by Hannah Saad, Photo Editor

Hannah Saad has been on the fringes of the Alabama football action for years. As Bryant-Denny lowers its capacity, Saad reminisces on her days as a photojournalist in the thick of things—an experience that, for now, has come to an end.

Working on the sidelines at Bryant-Denny Stadium has by far been my favorite part of my university experience. Every play brought a new opportunity to take the best photo of my career and then get to go back and try and best that photo on the next play. My best memories come from plays that came right toward me, where I would have to grab some close-up pictures while avoiding getting bulldozed over by players in the heat of the game.

The most wholesome part of working on the sidelines for me was when I would get a text message from my parents, who would get super excited whenever I made a cameo appearance on the game’s television broadcast. It warms my heart when I think of my parents being more invested in bragging about their daughter being on television than they are in watching the game.

Hot Takes
Wise (read: opinionated) words from contributing columnist Austin Hannon.

Najee Harris should have known that with Auburn bringing the blitz on the goal line, he needed to be ready for Jones to get the ball out quickly. Rather, Auburn intercepted the ball and returned it 100 yards for the score. But what Mac learned quickly was that what can go wrong at Jordan-Hare Stadium, will go wrong. It’s hard to beat the luckiest team in America, especially when the referees are handing Gus Malzahn free time-outs at the end of the first half so that Auburn could gain three more points. People were quick to jump on Jones after the game, saying that if not for his two turnovers, we would have won the game and maybe reached the College Football Playoff. Maybe, but Mac walked into that stadium that day and did everything in his power to pull the Tide through. He took a huge hit from 326-pound Derrick Brown, got right back up, and lit up the scoreboard for 45 points. Just as a reminder, Joe Burrow and the Tigers only scored 23.

Hot Dates

Tonight, the Alabama Student Association for Poetry and the English Majors and Minors Association host Get Lit, an open mic night featuring representatives from campus literary magazines and Jennifer Horne, the Alabama State Poet Laureate. Sign up to read or grab the Zoom link on ASAP’s Instagram.

Also tonight, Baumhower’s Victory Grille hosts a live recording of “Hey Coach!” at 6:30 p.m. Nick Saban will be interviewed remotely, and ESPN’s Todd Blackledge and UA head baseball coach Brad Bohannon will appear in-person.

On Saturday, get some fresh air and fresh produce at the Tuscaloosa River Market, open from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. We won’t blame you if you zone out by the Black Warrior River for a while.

Missing the movies? The Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema hosts screenings of Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” all weekend. Check times and tickets here.