Top Team, Top Recruits
By MARQUAVIUS BURNETT, New York Times: The Alabama Crimson Tide ended the 2011 season as the B.C.S. national champion, and on national signing day their success continued by securing the No. 1-ranked recruiting class, according to ESPNU and Rivals.com. Coach Nick Saban announced Wednesday that 18 student-athletes signed national letters of intent to play football [...]
John Calipari Is Obsessed With Nick Saban
By Jon Solomon, The Birmingham News: John Calipari appears to have a new obsession related to his No. 1 Kentucky basketball team: Recreating Alabama’s dominant football victory over LSU at the BCS Championship Game. Speaking Monday at The Birmingham Tip-Off Club via video conference, Calipari said he mentions Alabama’s performance in timeouts to his team. [...]
Ending ‘grayshirting’ hurts players
By Jake Gray, The Crimson White: For years, many coaches would accept more than 25 commitments in anticipation of not all 25 enrolling in school the following season. Because of this, a few players are asked to “grayshirt,” so their scholarship does not count against the original 25 that year. All the grayshirt means is [...]
Smelley’s Strong Finish Was Rewarding
By Mike Tankersley, The Montgomery Advertiser Early in his career at Alabama, Brad Smelley was better known as the younger brother of the quarterback Mike Shula let slip away to Steve Spurrier and South Carolina while Shula was caught up in his pursuit of Tim Tebow. In his senior season, however, Smelley emerged as a [...]
Signees Often Attacked By “Fans”
From thenewsstar.com “Why sell your soul to the devil?” That’s the “funniest” comment Bastrop linebacker Denzel Devall said he heard after committing to Alabama in September and eventually signing with the Crimson Tide this past Wednesday. No matter what you think about Alabama coach Nick Saban, I’m pretty sure Devall’s college choice won’t determine his [...]
Is Saban The Best Alabama Coach?
By Sanjay Kirpalani, Bleacher Report I realize what I am about to write will probably be considered sacrilegious, blasphemy or even borderline lunacy. With this full disclosure in mind—a crazy thought entered my mind and managed to get through the filters, urging me not to transcribe the thoughts to the keyboard. After what Nick Saban [...]
Grading Every Commitment
By Jonathan McDanal, Bleacher Report National signing day is in the rear-view mirror, and it was a productive day for the Crimson Tide. The Tide landed an immense class of potential that, in theory, will carry Alabama to BCS bowls for quite a few years. As for the contribution each recruit will make, that remains [...]
