aubiefifty 18,231 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Senior Bowl will have different look in 2021 By Creg Stephenson | cstephenson@al.com 6-8 minutes The 71st Reese’s Senior Bowl on Saturday in Mobile will be different than any of the others that came before it in a number of ways. COVID-19 restrictions mean practices will be closed to the general public, and most Senior Bowl-associated fan events have been canceled for this year. Attendance for the game will be restricted to a little more than 6,200. There’s a new venue this year for practices and the game — Hancock Whitney Stadium on the campus of the University of South Alabama. For the first time since 1950, the Senior Bowl won’t be played at city-owned Ladd-Peebles Stadium. There’s also a new format for this year’s game, with teams designated as “National” and “American” replacing the standard “North vs. South” alignment. College teammates will in some cases be split among the two teams, though most of the SEC players will suit up for the “National” squad. But it’s still the Senior Bowl, with more than 100 of the top college football players in the country descending on Mobile for a week of practices, interviews and next Saturday’s game — all taking place under the watchful eye of hundreds of professional football scouts, coaches and talent-evaluators. With a number of other all-star games canceled and the upcoming National Scouting Combine greatly reduced from its usual week-long schedule of workouts, the Senior Bowl has arguably taken on even greater importance in the annual NFL draft process. “It’s been a challenging year for sure, but when we kick off on the 30th, it’s going to be really rewarding,” Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy said. “I will say this — we were not going to move forward with this year’s game if we didn’t know we could do it safely for the players and the NFL personnel coming to town. But once we came up with a plan that we could execute and pull it off safely, it’s been full speed ahead. … It’s going to be absolutely huge for these players that are here, as well as the NFL teams who have not had any face-to-face interaction with them in the past year. This might be the only chance they have for that before the draft in April. “The most unfortunate part of this year’s Senior Bowl for us here in the office is that the fan interaction won’t be anywhere near what it is in a normal year. There’s just no way around it. This community is so important to us, but part of the community being important is getting people to Mobile and providing that economic impact to the city. And the only way to pull this event off was to create a strict bubble.” RELATED: 10 players to watch in 2021 Reese’s Senior Bowl As usual, this year’s Senior Bowl features a number of players with in-state and local ties, including seven members of Alabama’s national championship team. Quarterback Mac Jones, running back Najee Harris, wide receiver DeVonta Smith (the Heisman Trophy winner), offensive linemen Alex Leatherwood, Deonte Brown and Landon Dickerson and long-snapper Thomas Fletcher will all be in Mobile this week, though Smith and Dickerson won’t play due to injury and Harris is at least questionable health-wise. Auburn has sent linebacker K.J. Britt to this year’s Senior Bowl, while UAB will be represented by wide receiver Austin Watkins and linebacker Jordan Smith. South Alabama linebacker Riley Cole will play one final game on his college home field. Florida wide receiver Kadarius Toney, a former Blount High School star, gets an opportunity to play one last game in his hometown. Michigan wide receiver Nico Collins, a Clay-Chalkville graduate, is also in this year’s game. Jones is one of seven quarterbacks confirmed for the 2021 Senior Bowl, along with Florida’s Kyle Trask, Texas A&M’s Kellen Mond, Texas’ Sam Ehlinger, Arkansas’ Feleipe Franks, Wake Forest’s Jamie Newman and Notre Dame’s Ian Book. The Carolina Panthers and Miami Dolphins will provide coaches for the game, with the Panthers directing the “American” squad, and the Dolphins the “National.” This is the second time the Senior Bowl has scrapped the North vs. South format for something more generic, after having gone to “NFC vs. AFC” from 1991-93. That alignment was wildly unpopular with fans and changed back to North vs. South in 1994, but Nagy said that given the current social climate in the country, removing the game’s association with Civil War imagery was the right thing to do. “It’s a different time,” Nagy said. “Everything that happened in the spring should have made a lot of people look in the mirror, and if they didn’t, shame on them. I just thought it was time for a (format) change and I didn’t get any blowback from our board or our chairman on that. So we went with National and American, and that’s what it’s going to be moving forward. It does give us a little wiggle room with the rosters, where we can move guys around to balance things out. I want it to be a hard pick as to which roster the teams coaching the game decide they want to work with during the week. The team with the higher (NFL draft) pick gets to choose first, and I wanted it to be a tough choice for them.” One other virus-related change for this year’s Senior Bowl is that if players are forced to pull out of the game due to injury or illness, they will not be replaced on the roster. NFL-style COVID-testing will be in place throughout the week for all players, coaches and other game personnel. To account for any roster depletion, the Senior Bowl has invited a larger number of players to this year’s game. There will be 130 players available to begin the week, up from around 110 in previous years. “We’ve had to ‘over-invite’ from where we are in a normal year, just so we can be prepared to absorb any COVID-related losses or injury-related losses,” Nagy said. “In a typical year, we can fly a (replacement) in from California on a Tuesday or Wednesday and practice a couple of days and then play on Saturday. That’s not going to be the case this year — who we’ve got to start the week is who we’ll have on Saturday for the game.” Tickets for the reduced-capacity 2021 Reese’s Senior Bowl have already sold out. Practice and game coverage will air on NFL Network, with kickoff set for 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aubiefifty 18,231 Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 list of players for senior bowl School First Name Last Name Pos. Conf. Missouri Joshuah Bledsoe DB Georgia DJ Daniel DB Missouri Tyree Gillespie DB LSU JaCoby Stevens DB Florida State Hamsah Nasirildeen DB Florida Shawn Davis DB Central Florida Richie Grant DB North Carolina Central Bryan Mills DB Georgia Mark Webb DB Central Florida Aaron Robinson DB Central Arkansas Robert Rochell DB Syracuse Ifeatu Melifonwu DB Kansas State Wyatt Hubert DE Florida State Marvin Wilson DL Wake Forest Carlos Basham Jr. DL Tulane Cameron Sample DL Iowa Chauncey Golston DL Georgia Malik Herring DL Houston Payton Turner DL USC Marlon Tuipulotu DL Florida State Janarius Robinson EDGE Miami Quincy Roche EDGE Baylor William Bradley-King EDGE Northwestern Paddy Fisher LB Virginia Charles Snowden LB South Alabama Riley Cole LB LSU Jabril Cox LB Houston Grant Stuard LB Georgia Monty Rice LB Auburn KJ Britt LB UAB Jordan Smith LB Tennessee Trey Smith OL Grambling State David Moore OL Kentucky Drake Jackson OL Iowa Alaric Jackson OL Georgia Ben Cleveland OL Alabama Alex Leatherwood OL Alabama Deonte Brown OL Texas Tech Jack Anderson OL Texas A&M Dan Moore Jr. OL Western Michigan Jaylon Moore OL Texas A&M Kellen Mond QB Florida Kyle Trask QB Wake Forest Jamie Newman QB Missouri Larry Rountree III RB Mississippi State Kylin Hill RB Michigan Chris Evans RB Louisiana Elijah Mitchell RB Georgia Tre McKitty TE Duke Noah Gray TE Bowling Green Quintin Morris TE SMU Kylen Granson TE LSU Racey McMath WR Houston Marquez Stevenson WR UAB Austin Watkins Jr. WR Tennessee Josh Palmer WR South Carolina Shi Smith WR Florida Kadarius Toney WR Florida Trevon Grimes WR Clemson Amari Rodgers WR Clemson Cornell Powell WR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUnCullman 601 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Wow only 2 bama players?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
around4ever 4,139 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 37 minutes ago, AUnCullman said: Wow only 2 bama players?? The article has 7 uat players listed. Auburn has 1 and UAB has 2. SMH. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUnCullman 601 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Ok. I only see 2 in the message above. Didnt look at the actual article though. My bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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