But the Crimson Tide’s first-round game Thursday against South Carolina has stiff competition for headlines this week.

It’s a pretty busy week for Nick Saban’s football program, too.

President Obama welcomes Alabama’s 2009 national championship team to the White House today. The team will also spend some time with DC-area youth to talk to them about staying active, eating healthy and making good choices. Included in the itinerary are tours of the Capitol, spending time on the National Mall and a tour of the Pentagon. Talk about a tough defense.

The week gets much busier for Nick Saban’s program. On Wednesday, Alabama will hold its Pro Day workouts. Seniors, along with early NFL Draft enrollees Rolando McClain and Kareem Jackson, will try to impress scouts from most NFL teams in a series of drills used at the NFL Combine.

It’s a huge job audition, particularly for those who didn’t attend the combine or would like to improve on their performances in Indy.

On Friday, Alabama will start spring practice. It’s the first and only workout of the NCAA-allotted 15 the Tide will use before spring break. The team will resume a more routine spring drills when players return from spring break on Monday, March 22. The A-Day Game, which wraps up the spring, will be televised on ESPN and is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 17.

The coach indicated that other schools didn’t back off and some recruits kept the process going.

“When a guy commits early to us, to me, then we just become the target,” Saban said Wednesday in Tuscaloosa.

“Every other school keeps recruiting them and they know the kid wants to come to Alabama, so now they’re bashing Alabama every day. Whether it is taking our depth chart out and saying we have too many players at that position. I don’t know how all these other schools know about our team, because I know nothing about their team and they know more about our team than I know about our team.

“They get the depth chart out and they know how good players are that haven’t even played before, haven’t even been on the field, haven’t lettered, haven’t done anything. It’s amazing to me. I’m talking about convincing, being an expert.

“We don’t do that. We do not negative recruit in what we do. We have a good product to sell and we try to sell it in a positive way. I feel like you just become the target for other schools when guys early commit to you. You have to keep recruiting them and sort of manage them.”

Saban said he would prefer if a player commits that he wouldn’t entertain advances from other schools.

“I’m old fashioned. I think a commitment is a commitment,” he said. “We tell guys when they commit that we want the recruiting to be over or we really don’t want them to commit. If you’re not really ready to stop recruiting then you aren’t really ready to commit, because committing means that you are coming to that school.

“I would rather you go visit other schools until you’re sure that this is what you want to do rather than making a commitment and then not feeling comfortable and wanting to go explore other opportunities.

“There is an old saying ‘if you’re shopping, then we should shop.’ It shouldn’t be that way, but when guys make commitments and don’t stick up for them, then you kind of get stuck a little bit, because there may be other guys that you didn’t recruit, that you could have recruited, that could have actually taken their place.”

Saban shrugged at the process.

“I wish there was a better way, but there is not,” he said. “We’ll just have to manage it and keep recruiting guys and do the best we can with them.”

Murphy’s softball squad lost a number of starters, but a deep pitching staff and 13 letter winners from last year’s team that went to the College World Series in Oklahoma City mean the Tide won’t be sneaking up on anyone. In fact, Alabama is ranked No. 2 in the nation, behind only defending national champion Washington.

Gaspard, who was promoted from assistant to head coach when Jim Wells retired last fall, promised a more aggressive, tough-minded team this spring.

Gaspard’s club is very experienced, particularly its position players. The new coach acknowledged the pitching staff will be its biggest question mark.

“We’ve got 16 pitchers on the staff,“ Gaspard said. “At least 12 of them we feel like can pitch an inning for us, and 10 of them could pitch significant innings for us. ... We want to build a staff, not rely just on two or three starters.“

Junior cornerback Kareem Jackson is declaring for the NFL Draft.

A three-year starter from Macon, Ga., Jackson’s stats don’t jump out at you — but neither did whoever he was covering. He served as the lockdown cornerback, while opponents were picking on Marquis Johnson and trying to find out from where Javier Arenas was blitzing next.

Jackson confirmed last month he’d submitted paper work to the NFL for information regarding his draft status.

“I’ve thought long and hard about this decision and I have decided to declare for this year’s NFL Draft,” Jackson said in a statement released by the school Friday night.

The 6-foot, 193-pound corner made 49 tackles this season, including three in the BCS Championship Game against Texas. Jackson broke up 13 passes.

His lone interception of the season was a big one. In the first minute of the fourth quarter against Ole Miss, he stepped in front of Jevan Snead’s pass for Shay Hodge at the 5-yard line and returned it 79 yards. It was huge play because instead of cutting into Alabama’s 19-3 lead, the Rebels faded in the Tide’s 22-3 victory.

“I want to thank all of the coaches at Alabama, especially Coach Saban and Coach Smart, for making me the player and the person I am today,” Jackson said in his statement. “I also want to thank my teammates and everyone in the Alabama family for making my three years here the best of my life. Most importantly, I’d like to thank my family for all of their love and support.

“I set a goal and made a promise to myself and my parents to finish my degree so I definitely plan on doing that. I look forward to coming back to visit everyone because the University of Alabama has become my second home and my second family.”

Saban’s stance on coming out early is well known. He supports the decision if the prospect is a first-round, particularly in the first half of the first round.

If they’re not that highly regarded, Saban would like them to return to reach that status — and the guaranteed dollars that go with it.

I don’t know what the NFL analysis on Jackson is. I’d be surprised if he’s a projected first-rounder.

Still, Jackson will get an opportunity at the next level. The fact that his resume includes a national championship and 40 games started in Nick Saban’s defense will impress scouts.

The loss of Jackson adds to the defensive headaches for next season. Of the 11 defenders who started against Texas, only two will return — sophomores Mark Barron and Robby Green. And actually, Green isn’t a regular starter. Senior sam linebacker Cory Reamer did not start.

What’s alarming, too, is several backups in the secondary — Tyrone King, Chris Rogers and Ali Sharrief — are also seniors.

And for a defensive system that puts pressure on the secondary, that considerably speeds up the timetable for guys like Green, Dre Kirkpatrick, Rod Woodson, B.J. Scott, Robert Lester and even incoming freshman Demarcus Milliner.

There will be opportunities for all of them to step forward.

More than one will need to.

Marcell Dareus’ improbable interception of a shovel pass and 28-yard return for a touchdown with just three seconds on the clock gave the Crimson Tide a commanding 24-6 halftime lead.

“At halftime, because of that circumstance, it was like the locker room after the SEC Championship Game,” Saban said Friday. “We were very flat in the third quarter, and I had to stand up on a chair and say, this is a 60-minute game. You know, we need to refocus, re-center what we’re doing, get our energy right and quit wasting energy. You only have so much of it; you’ve got to channel it in the right direction.

“And I felt that that affected our play in the second half. And that’s not to take anything away from Texas because their team showed tremendous resiliency and competitive spirit to keep fighting in the game. Their defense never gave up. We never got a first down in the third quarter, and they finally made a play that got them back in the game offensively.”

It’s 90 minutes before kickoff and I just got an e-mail from a New York public relations firm that the just-installed sod that Mark Ingram, Colt McCoy et. al. will be playing on will be sectioned and sold as the “ultimate game-used collectible.“

Yikes.

The painted end zones and the giant logo at midfield will be divided into 3-inch by 3-inch squares and sold to fans in preserved UV glass top display cases. Stadium Associates, LLC will be gifting the first 100 pieces to the athletic departments at schools for their own distribution.

Sod from each end zone and the BSC logo at the 50 yard line will be available for $99.99 each (plus S & H).  Fans who want the complete set of a piece of each end zone and the BCS logo can buy this combination of one each for $249.00 while supplies last at http://www.stadiumassociates.com.  (Allow 6-8 weeks for the freeze dried process and encasement).

Saban said true freshman quarterback AJ McCarron, who has not played, is the team’s No. 2 quarterback — and has been since the Tide’s open date the first week of November.

If starter Greg McElroy gets hurt, Saban said he likely would play McCarron, who would lose his redshirt year if he plays.

“Star Jackson is also an option for us, but we would make the decision on who would be the guy in the game that would give us the best opportunity to win,” Saban said.

The coach also said Rolando McClain, who was very limited at practice Tuesday due to a stomach virus, likely would play.

“We had a couple players who were sick,” he said. “Those players are better today. everybody will go through walk-through. If they continue to improve, they should be able to participate in the game.”

Saban was asked specifically about McClain.

“We’re not going to let him play unless the doctors say he can play,” Saban said. “If he’s sick and he’s dehydrated, he’s not going to play in the game. ... He did not do much in practice yesterday and I think he’s better today. ... But I think he’s capable to recovering and being able to play in the game if he’s medically cleared to play.”

Photographer Jay Hare just sent in his first photos from sunny, balmy California.

Ken Rogers, Jon Johnson and Jay attended a press conference at the Newport Beach Marriott this morning. Texas Coach Mack Brown and Alabama Coach Nick Saban were there. So was the BCS Coaches Trophy.

Jay will be sending back photos for the next two days of the trip to the BCS National Championship game. His photos will be added to the gallery.