Tide Tidbits – January 31, 2010

The expensive pursuit of elite athletes
As football recruiting classes go, Mike Shula’s final one at Alabama in 2006 was productive. It was ranked 11th in the country by Rivals.com — although only fifth in the SEC — and produced standout players such as Andre Smith, Javier Arenas and Greg McElroy. Alabama reported to the NCAA spending $237,774 on football recruiting in 2005-06, accounting for 32 percent of the athletics department’s recruiting expenses that year. Few SEC football teams listed lesser amounts that year than Alabama. That was about to change as Alabama football, amid consecutive No. 1 classes under Nick Saban that helped produce last season’s national title, entered a different financial level. By 2008-09, Alabama reported $750,045 in football recruiting expenses, meaning the sport spent 49 percent of the athletics department’s recruiting dollars. [More]

RECRUITING: Crimson Tide looks toward the future
While other schools are trying to use this weekend to make a final push for commitments in the 2010 recruiting class, Alabama coach Nick Saban already has turned his attention to 2011. Saban and the Crimson Tide are still trying to close the door on four remaining recruits, but offensive linemen James Stone (of Nashville, Tenn.) and Arie Kouandjio (of Hyattsville, Md.) visited two weeks ago, junior college cornerback Dequan Menzie (Copiah-Lincoln Community College out of Wesson, Miss.) came to Tuscaloosa last weekend and offensive lineman Shon Coleman was in town earlier this week. This weekend, Saban and his staff will turn their attention to next year’s class with “Junior Day,” an opportunity to up-and-coming high school seniors to get an early taste of the recruiting process. “We’ve always done this at this time of the year and we’ve always been pretty much finished (with the current recruiting class) at this time except for a few guys,” Saban said. [More]

Where success is concerned, Alabama does it by the book
Shortly after he settled in as head football coach at the University of Alabama in the early days of 2007, Nick Saban issued a 148-page book to every player. The cover stated Saban’s vision for the kind of program he wanted to build: “To hunt, To stalk, To intimidate, To have a killer instinct, To create a nightmare, For this is the way of the Crimson Tide.” Linebacker Cory Reamer, who had just finished his second season as a redshirt freshman under Saban’s predecessor, Mike Shula, thumbed through those pages and was overwhelmed. “Just wow,” he said, recalling his first impression. “You’re pretty wowed by it when you first see it and you flip through it.” There was a lot to digest. [More]

Ranking recruits is not an exact science
Everyone’s a winner on college football’s signing day, except the recruiting services that provide the rankings. After the prospects become actual college players, the star rankings will be dissected, and when another Aaron Curry or Mark Ingram falls through the system, it will be Miller Safrit’s fault, or one of his colleagues at Scout.com or its competitor, Rivals.com. The rise in popularity of college football has created the thriving cottage industry but has also relegated football talent evaluators to the same circle of public opinion as Congress, the media and lawyers. When a five-star recruit busts and a one-star booms, the talent jockeys will be blamed by everyone from the college coaches and high school coaches to the parents and especially the message board illuminati. [More]

Alabama’s Nick Saban uses personal touch with recruits
Alabama is on the verge of finalizing its third straight top-five recruiting class when national signing day arrives Wednesday. Those who’ve seen Saban’s recruiting up close and personal describe a much different coach than the one who throws headsets. Former Crimson Tide tight end Colin Peek went so far as to say one meeting with Saban left him “smitten.” He’s genuine; others say — concerned more with post-football success more than anything else. That’s hardly unique in the cutthroat world of recruiting. But there’s just something different about Saban’s approach, said Brian Vogler, a tight end from Brookstone, who committed to the Tide over the summer and will sign Wednesday. “Some coaches, you get really excited to talk to,” the tight end said. “Other ones, not so much. Whenever you’re talking to coach Saban, you’re really excited and just happy to be able to talk to him.” [More]

Roll Tide!

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