Alabama quarterback Blake Sims is having a good year.
The fifth-year senior has led the Crimson Tide to a 12-1 record and a berth in the inaugural College Football Playoff, and now he’s on the cover of Sports Illustrated and ESPN the Magazine in the same week.
The Sports Illustrated cover is one of four regional covers with Oregon’s Marcus Mariota, Ohio State’s Cardale Jones and Florida State’s Jameis Winston. Sims’ cover will mostly circulate around the Southeast, along with subscribers in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Montana, per SI.
The ESPN the Magazine cover, on the other hand, is all Sims. It’s a part of the magazine’s college football year in review issue, and analyzes the season week-by-week. The story focusing on Sims and Alabama is the dominating 59-0 victory the Crimson Tide had over Texas A&M and how that turned around the team’s season.
Sims acknowledged the honor of being on both covers and thanked his teammates via Twitter.
Alabama plays Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl semifinal Jan. 1 at 7:30 p.m. Central on ESPN.