Tide Tidbits – January 23, 2009

How good will Alabama’s recruiting class be? Nick Saban speaks!
“I think that when the signing day comes, if we get some of the players that we have committed right now and a few more to complement them, it’ll be an outstanding class for us in terms of what we need,” Saban said. “We don’t have quite the numbers that we had last year in terms of numbers of scholarships, but we feel good about the position that we’re in right now and we just need to finish it, just like always. It’s the fourth quarter and we need to finish it.”

Tide safety plays for scouts
Rashad Johnson would rather be a dog than a cat. The All-American safety from Alabama didn’t hesitate to fill in that answer on an NFL team’s questionnaire at the Senior Bowl. He even readily supplies a detailed explanation for his choice. “A dog is man’s best friend, but when his territory’s threatened, he’s ready to fight,” Johnson said. “I guess that’s how you’ve got to be as a football player. You can be a friendly guy off the field, but once you get inside these lines it’s time to scrap for what’s yours.”

Recruiting: Second wave of elite prospects set to visit Alabama campus
University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban and his staff, including newly-hired assistant James Willis, will host another elite group of prospects for official visits this weekend. While the last two weekends brought bigger numbers to the Capstone, this weekend’s roster of expected visitors includes some of the most sought-after recruits in the South. National Signing Day is fast approaching, with time becoming scarce to sell recruits before they make their college decision to sign on the dotted line Feb. 4.

Just one step closer
Rashad Johnson doesn’t know Taylor Mays, but he might want to send the Southern Cal football star a thank-you note. Mays announced last week that he plans to stay at USC for his senior season, putting Johnson in the mix to possibly become the top safety picked in April’s NFL Draft. Johnson, the former University of Alabama player from Sulligent, is one of four players — along with Missouri’s William Moore, Western Michigan’s Louis Delmas and Oregon’s Patrick Chung — who are vying for that position. Johnson is working this week at Senior Bowl practices to earn the best possible draft position.

Lance Thompson will make $350,000 at Tennessee
The University of Tennessee just announced salaries for the new hires on its football staff. The bill for former Alabama linebackers coach Lance Thompson? $350,000. That’s signficantly more than the $225,000 Thompson was earning at Alabama, but it’s not as high a total as many were suggesting when Thompson was hired last week.

Recruiting: Linebacker recruit Petey Smith to Alabama … soon
In [his] picture on his Rivals recruiting profile, Seffner, Fla., linebacker Petey Smith is wearing an orange and blue Auburn cap. And yet, Smith is telling reporters from multiple online sites that he has made up his mind on a school — Alabama. Think he might have noticed linebackers coach James Willis’ move from Auburn to Alabama, which was made official by Nick Saban soon after the story broke yesterday? “I had been feeling Alabama for awhile already, and when I found out they hired Coach Willis, that just put them over the top,” Smith told

Roll Tide!

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