Tide to Grace the Cover of Sports Illustrated Again

Sophomore running back Trent Richardson will join what has become a long list of Alabama football players to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated when the weekly magazine hits newsstands this Thursday. Richardson appears on the cover leaping over a San Jose State defender for the cover story centering around breakout players and answered questions from week one. This marks the ninth time Alabama has been the center of an SI cover since head coach Nick Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa in January of 2007. The Crimson Tide was also featured on one of four regional covers in this year's Sports Illustrated college football preview edition. Some of the more memorable Alabama SI covers during the Saban era include Glen Coffee's cover after the 2008 Clemson game, Mark Ingram's "Pride of the Tide" cover on his Heisman candidacy, the cover story on Alabama's win over Florida in the 2009 SEC Championship featuring Colin Peek and Ingram's second appearance on the cover after last year's BCS National Championship victory.