Saban A Challenge For Recruiting

[FoghornLeghornCock]

GEORGIA REPORT
Saban a challenge for recruiting

By CARTER STRICKLAND (cstrickland@ajc.com)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/18/07 Athens — Alabama coach Nick Saban has started to grab the national spotlight with his team's 3-0 start and its move into the top 25. Now Georgia has got to keep Alabama from moving into its territory.
"Mark Richt now has got to be very careful and very wary of what Nick Saban is doing," said Tom Lemming, a recruiting analyst. "I think it is not a matter of if but when he will win a national title at Alabama, and with that he will attract the majority of the major talent in the Southeast."
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Saban has one national title in his back pocket, a pro career he can at least use to show the players he knows what it takes to get to the next level and a recruiting style similar to Urban Meyer's.
"They both have that aggressive, non-stop personality," said Lemming, who publishes the Prep Football Report. "When he was at Michigan State, even though he was always second fiddle to Michigan, he was still able to get big name stars."
Plaxico Burress and T.J. Duckett, to name two.
"He is relentless in his style, which really works well in recruiting," Lemming said. "And he throws some pretty good personality in it too, which might surprise some people.
"The perception will be through the roof," Lemming said. "If he is winning, Auburn could be in trouble."
It's not just Auburn. Saban has already started to reach into Georgia and established Alabama as a player again on the recruiting scene in this state. He's hired two coaches with Georgia backgrounds, Kirby Smart and Lance Thompson.
"[In recent years Alabama] hasn't been out there and hasn't gone out and aggressively recruited the great player," Lemming said. "Now, he is doing it with a purpose."
As for whether Saban's presence is being felt yet, Richt was noncommittal.
"I don't know yet," Richt said. "It is hard to say. Shoot, there is just X amount of kids out there and we're all going after them. Not everybody can get them all.
"I really think everybody is going to get their fair share of players and have enough good players to win, and it is a matter of how you coach them and how fortunate you are with injuries or what guy decides to stay and not go pro."

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/uga/stories/2007/09/17/gareport_0918.html


I know some of our top players are from Alabama we have Chris Smelley, Captain Munerlyn, and Darian Stewart that I can think of. I saw according to Rivals Alabama is the #2 SEC team and #7 nationally on their recruiting list with 18 recruits 13 are from Alabama. They have 1 5 star recruit and 10 4 star recruits. I would suspect it might get harder for us to recruit in Alabama if they start to have success? I think an important recruiting ground will be GA right now they are #3 nationally in recruiting for Rivals and the only team rated above AL in recruiting. What may surprise some is only 11 of 19 recruits are from GA. They have 2 five star recruits and 9 4 star recruits. The big question in FL will be is will teams like South FL and Central FL make FL harder to recruit if they continue to have more success. I think we do need to work GA and NC hard as I see AL getting harder as Saban has success.

[brat]

Getting kids out of the state of Alabama is an aberration. The history of both programs there is so strong, when a kid gets out of state there is usually an usual circumstance involved.

Think how most people are in this state. It is either Carolina or Clempson growing up. Now imagine how fierce the recruiting would be if both programs were historically very good teams. Not many of the top kids would ever leave.

The Lindsey twins situation was similar to the Brinkley twins, if I remember correctly. Bama wanted one but not the other, so both left to go somewhere they could play together.

Smelley was always a backup recruit for Bama as they were certain they would get Tebow out of Florida. When they didn't, they tried to get Smelley to commit, but it was too late. If they had not taken him for granted, they would have gotten him. Oh, by the way, Smelley's younger brother will play for Bama.

Munnerlyn, was the proverbial sleeper and did not get enough attention, if any at all, from those schools. I am not sure about Stewart's situation. Just like in the state of Florida all the schools cannot take every recruit as there is only so much room, so one or two serviceable kids will get left out in the cold by the in state programs and we might luck into signing one, but no way, no how can we expect to steal top recruits from there unless there is some unusual circumstance (i.e. family ties to S.C., poor grades makes everyone back off until it is too late and we steal them away, the schools had previously snubbed a family member in recruiting, etc.)

Our bread and butter in recruiting will always be in the Carolinas and Georgia. Anything after that is gravy. At least SOS still has a big enough name down in Florida and a national enough name where he can lure a few kids out of Florida and outside the extreme Southeast. That is enough to be competitive in the SEC and after we really start winning, we might be able to expand our recruiting base further, but even with that, to get a great recruit out of any state beyond our region is an unexpected bonus and/or good luck.

[AmonRa777]

Getting kids out of the state of Alabama is an aberration. The history of both programs there is so strong, when a kid gets out of state there is usually an usual circumstance involved.

Think how most people are in this state. It is either Carolina or Clempson growing up. Now imagine how fierce the recruiting would be if both programs were historically very good teams. Not many of the top kids would ever leave.

The Lindsey twins situation was similar to the Brinkley twins, if I remember correctly. Bama wanted one but not the other, so both left to go somewhere they could play together.

Smelley was always a backup recruit for Bama as they were certain they would get Tebow out of Florida. When they didn't, they tried to get Smelley to commit, but it was too late. If they had not taken him for granted, they would have gotten him. Oh, by the way, Smelley's younger brother will play for Bama.

Munnerlyn, was the proverbial sleeper and did not get enough attention, if any at all, from those schools. I am not sure about Stewart's situation. Just like in the state of Florida all the schools cannot take every recruit as there is only so much room, so one or two serviceable kids will get left out in the cold by the in state programs and we might luck into signing one, but no way, no how can we expect to steal top recruits from there unless there is some unusual circumstance (i.e. family ties to S.C., poor grades makes everyone back off until it is too late and we steal them away, the schools had previously snubbed a family member in recruiting, etc.)

Our bread and butter in recruiting will always be in the Carolinas and Georgia. Anything after that is gravy. At least SOS still has a big enough name down in Florida and a national enough name where he can lure a few kids out of Florida and outside the extreme Southeast. That is enough to be competitive in the SEC and after we really start winning, we might be able to expand our recruiting base further, but even with that, to get a great recruit out of any state beyond our region is an unexpected bonus and/or good luck.

If we keep winning we'll get great football players from all over the southeast and up north....Winning has always been the best recruiter....The big advantage we have is our staff has shown to be superb talent evaluators....

[CockyDemon13]

Saban learned Pete Carroll's recipe for Kool-Aid.... Michael Jackson invented it.