Question: Out of state recruiting?

[SouthHSV]

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Alabama's out of state recruiting prowess isn't what it used to be. Trent Richardson was huge, but does Alabama have the ablility to again become a recruiting juggernaut? The #1 class was great, but undeniably the state was loaded with talent. My question is, year in and year out, does Alabama have enough juice, even with Coach Sasban at the helm, to consistantly haul in big time out of state talent.
EX. If the state of California didn't exist, USC would still field a great team.

[BigEasyTider]

Frankly, I don't think there is much of anything to worry about for a variety of reasons.

First and foremost, we do well in terms of out-of-state recruiting. Given that we are bordered with Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida, that gives us great access to go into those states and get talent. We couldn't do that for several years because of the NCAA sanctions and the lingering effects that stemmed from that, but we have recently had a lot of successes in those areas, and that should continue. In his first two years at Alabama, Coach Saban signed 14 different out-of-state prospects rated as four stars or higher, and we have several more lined up for the 2009 class as well. Again, there is no reason to think that our out-of-state recruiting successes won't continue.

Moreover, while 2008 was a banner year for the state of Alabama in terms of prep talent, you shouldn't read too much into that. The truth of the matter is that the state of Alabama traditionally turns out a ton of top prep talent year in and year out. Some years are better than others, of course, but nevertheless it is some of the most fertile recruiting ground you will find anywhere. That has been the case for decades and will continue with no end in sight. It isn't like we are some state like West Virginia that rarely turns out talent and we somehow turned out an ungodly class last year; the fact is that great prep classes are the norm for the state of Alabama. If anything, the biggest problem we have in that regard is arguably scholarship limitations in regard to the 25 and the 85 not giving us the ability to sign a bunch of kids that we would otherwise love to have (see kids like D.T. Shackleford and Willie Bohanan).

When you put it all together, it's just a non-issue for us. We are in a talent-rich state and we generally get the majority -- if not all -- of the top in-state prospects. Moreover, given the tradition and overall name brand of the program, combined with the direct access to several fertile out-of-state recruiting grounds, we can consistently go out of state and get top talent as well.

Again, it's really a non-issue. You'd be hard pressed to find many programs in the country that wouldn't kill for a recruiting base like we have. Make no mistake about it, all of the history of success here at Alabama is no fluke, and you don't have success to that degree without having a constant influx of top-end talent coming in from a fertile recruiting area.

[SouthHSV]

Visiting this site daily for years, quite frankly I though I might be vilified for posting a question like this. Personally, I believe coach Saban is the best recruiter in the nation, and our talent base is second to few. Alabama's past success is a source of great pride for me(attending the university currently). I was just wondering if, even with success on the field, Alabama could eventually reach to the west coast, or the southwest, to snag a blue-chipper here and there? I was once highly recruited in a different sport and I realize players choose certain schools for a variety of reasons.

[LCN]

I don't really understand his concern either . Last year , our state produced more D1 signees per-capita than any other . Regardless of the perception , GA is always better per-capita than Fla . Mississippi ain't too shabby either . Plus , we traditionally own at least 2/3 of TN .

Other than isolating our aim & efforts on a few top-notch nationally ranked prospects , where else would we really need to look ? Texas ? Strong state for prospects but like Fla , there's a ton of competition from across the country for their better players which usually are far fewer in # than most would ever believe .

East coast ? There are some quality prospects from some areas of the Carolina's & MD but , not very many . Northeast ? Other than Pennsylvania , that area is usually completely void of top tier D1 talent .

Out West ? Honestly , there's nothing much out there . Missouri has been upping their D1 #'s recently but , there just aren't that many to pick from .

California ? That state is generally a myth or flat out farce . There's a bundle of schools recruiting the state and the D1 #'s per-capita are actually quite poor . In 2007 , Fla nearly doubled Cal in D1 signees while having a smaller population .

If there was one area that I had have to pick for us to put a little more effort into , it would be the state of Ohio . Other than that , We've got it about as good as it gets .



Now that I've typed myself to near death , I'm off to see what kind of chart I can locate to backup my mouth

[M2J]

Yeah this is definitely a talent rich state. If Ranking I'd say 1. Texas/2. Florida/3. Cal/4. GA/5.Ohio/6 Alabama or Louisiana (probably fluctuates).

We'd be nuts to not go hard after the in-state talent. And as BET said we have done great with out of state recruits, high quality ones at that.

As for USC being great without California talent (one of the 3 elite states for talent). You go down their lists for every recruiting class and it is littered with Cal talent. Sure they go out and get elite talent from around the country probably better than anybody besides Notre Dame (who do it at a crazy rate), but USC is USC due to Cal talent.

Will we be able to draw in elite level out of state guys like USC? While we are recruiting top level talent out of state at a great rate, and better than most, I must admit that we're not doing it on USC's level or Florida's. They are having classes where they can get multiple 5* guys from several different states, not even counting the 5*s in their own state.

I think we can get there, but we can only draw in elite prospects out of state on that level when we PROVE they'll have a chance to win championships here. Where Florida and USC amongst other schools like them, have proven it. Should Saban get this program where he got the LSU program, combined with the name and tradition that Alabama provides, well I think it will happen.

It would be nice to go out to California and get a few blue chippers, but we do need to get it done on the field first. We actually came close to getting a 4* rb from Cal last year, but that fell through when Applewhite left. But we got Ingram instead, and all is well that ends well .

To play off of LCN's point, I would like for us to be more visible in Ohio. Pennsylvania wouldn't be bad either. However, if you really look at it the most frustrating state for us has been South Carolina. Its not the most talented state, but the past few years it has been improving and has had quite a few blue chippers and a lot of them have looked our way. A lot of them have had us as one of their top 2-3 or favorites overall at one point, but something ends up Maybe its just them changing their minds in some situations or sometimes they wait too long and we move won...whatever, something keeps happening and we haven't gotten a big time recruit from there. If we could get some of these guys that seem to put us high every year from South Carolina it would be MAJOR for us. 1-2 would be great. And they're really there for the taking because many of them want to leave the state.

[LCN]

	Quote:
	M2J .... the most frustrating state for us has been South Carolina. Its not the most talented state, but the past few years it has been improving ...

True . SCar has greatly improved from what they were producing 20 years ago and the rate is still accelerating . You made mention of La . That's another state which has made up a lot of ground in recent years . Plus , many of the La players used to be rather risky on the qualifying side of the equation and that problem seems to have changed a lot . The same can be said for Mississippi .



What I was able to find is not ideal by any stretch but , it's still a decent indicator .

* Before I get to it I'd like to ask if there are any members who recall any of the 2007 maps which were posted on the board . If so and you replied to any of them , you can find them by searching your past 150 posts under your profile . I post far too often for a search of mine to work . Anyhow there's a very good one from 2007 if you can find it .

These #'s are based on NFL players & population from a few of the states we've discussed as I have no desire to attempt checking all 50 of them . They're from 2001-2002 & you'll have to do your own math or per-capita estimate . Still , these do paint a fairly accurate picture .....

# - St - Pop
191 - CA - 36m
189 - FL - 16m
176 -TX - 22m
97 - GA - 8m
46 - AL - 4m
68 - OH - 11m


As you can see , Fla clearly pounds & exposes CA & TX per-capita . Then , GA edges Fla with AL coming up on their heels . OH wasn't quite as good as I had expected .

[LCN]

	Quote:	SouthHSV
	Visiting this site daily for years, quite frankly I though I might be vilified for posting a question like this. Personally, I believe coach Saban is the best recruiter in the nation, and our talent base is second to few. Alabama's past success is a source of great pride for me(attending the university currently). I was just wondering if, even with success on the field, Alabama could eventually reach to the west coast, or the southwest, to snag a blue-chipper here and there? I was once highly recruited in a different sport and I realize players choose certain schools for a variety of reasons.

Welcome to the site

Nah , it's an interesting question which hopefully has helped to offer some perspective for others . You just made us use our brains

[bama61]

	Quote:	LCN
	..........These #'s are based on NFL players & population from a few of the states we've discussed as I have no desire to attempt checking all 50 of them . They're from 2001-2002 & you'll have to do your own math or per-capita estimate . Still , these do paint a fairly accurate picture ..... # - St - Pop #/Million Pop 191 - CA - 36m - 5.3 189 - FL - 16m - 11.8 176 -TX - 22m - 8.0 97 - GA - 8m - 12.1 46 - AL - 4m - 11.5 68 - OH - 11m - 6.2

Adding the ratios you had already mentioned, and adding a few more states that I found interesting:

65 - PN - 12m - 5.4
62 - LA - 4m - 15.5
49 - SC - 4m - 12.3
47 - MS - 3m - 15.7
47 - IL - 13m - 3.6
10 - DC - 0.5m - 20.0

I expected the ratios for PN and IL to be much higher and didn't expect much of a result at all from DC. I was sure that MS and LA would have good ratios, but would have dream they would top FL, GA, and AL. SC was also much higher that I anticipated.

And to put it all in perspective, the following figures courtesy of the NFL:

• About 5.7 percent, or approximately one in 17, of all high school senior boys playing interscholastic football will go on to play football at a NCAA member institution.
• About 1.8 percent, or approximately one in 50, of NCAA senior football players will get drafted by a National Football League (NFL) team.
• Approximately eight in 10,000, or approximately 0.08 percent of high school senior boys playing interscholastic football will eventually be drafted by an NFL team.

[derek4tide]

Does anyone else smell cow patties?

[LCN]

	Quote:	derek4tide
	Does anyone else smell cow patties?

Moorav

[wastedmason]

Coach Shula signed some highly rated California kids, one whom is still on the team. I remember him signing a 4 star QB and I think a 5 star LB also. But realistically thats a long way to go and recruit when you got the talent we have in our own backyard that in most cases was born and raised on Bama football. But occasionally we will get one from a far.

[WAW4Tide]

Just a quick count...in the last two years we have signed 27 players from out of state. Granted A few of those have not ended up on campus yet but that is 47% of our total signees from the last two years. I'd say out of state recruiting is going well.
As far as reaching out west and up north...I think the addition and success thus far of Mark Ingram will help us in the MidWest and if somehow we get Charles Siddoway, even though he is not a blue chip recruit, it could go along way in setting up some sort of pipeline from the pacific states.

[BigEasyTider]

I wouldn't get too carried away with recruiting in distant lands. The massively overwhelming majority of Alabama players will come from either the state of Alabama or one of our border states, and that is almost always the case. You do see some exceptions, to be sure, but that is the general trend.

The truth of the matter is that you really cannot recruit the entire country. You have to pick some areas and then focus on those; otherwise you will simply overwhelm yourself with the task. There are just too many football players out there to be able to effectively scout the entire country, and hence no one even tries. Honestly the only people doing that are the recruiting experts, and frankly they cannot do what they claim, as LCN and I have discussed on several occasions.

Once you really get far beyond the reach of the state of Alabama, we aren't, for the most part, actively recruiting these areas. Yes we may get some players out of other places, but it's generally because a coach has some personal contact with the area and just happens to find out about a particular prospect. It's a very different thing to recruit a random player out of a certain area as opposed to recruiting an entire area.

Take a look at a few of the far-off guys we have gotten / looked at lately:

Mark Ingram was from Michigan, but again there was the connection because of Saban and his past at Michigan State; he knew the family really well, and in particular Ingram's mother. Luther Davis and Robby Green were from Louisiana, and that was mainly Saban using his previous ties to the region to what little extent he could. Damian Square was from Houston, and the biggest reason we jumped on him was because of Major Applewhite; he had recruited him at Rice (and Steele's former connections at Baylor didn't hurt), and the same goes for Nick Fanuzzi. With Mike Marrow, again, Saban is personally very close with the family. And as for Charles Siddoway, he actually contacted us wanting to attend a camp and get an offer, not the other way around, and the fact that he has a lot of family living in Birmingham is key.

Again, when you go beyond the reaches of the state of Alabama, there is generally an individual connection there driving a particular recruit. We may get some players from places like Ohio, Oregon, and Texas, but are we really actively recruiting those areas? No, not really.

As I said before, the overwhelming majority of our recruits come from Alabama or one of our border states. Using the Scout.com database, counting the current commitments, we have signed 187 players between 2002-2009. Of those 187 players, only 15 of them (8.0%) did not come from either the state of Alabama or a state that borders the state of Alabama.