Re: CB Marlon Humphrey Updates (Page 15)
Love ya BET but no, we do not. The guys we have on campus now plus the ones coming in will do nicely. If we need to mine the JC ranks to shore up the position next year then so be it but no, any perceived "must have" recruit in this or any other class is unwarranted IMHO.
Like I said, I'm loathe to utter the statement, but basically I think it's right.
Now I don't necessarily buy into this "must have" notion -- and I didn't say that, just so we are clear -- but I do think it's a fair (and true) statement to say Alabama needs Humphrey more than Humphrey needs Alabama. On his end, if he goes to FSU, he essentially plays in the exact same scheme we have, under fine tutelage, with loads of talent around him, and in a program that has also turned out loads of top-flight NFL defensive backs. Basically, given his talent level, Humphrey will be as good as he wants to be, and that is true regardless of whether he ends up in Tuscaloosa or Tallahassee.
But as for us, we had a pretty dire situation at corner this season, and moving into next season we lose our only SEC-caliber option at cornerback. Now, I understand Belue was never really a top-flight player, but the point remains that he was a viable option, which is not something that could be said this season for any other CB on the roster. Getting Tony Brown was a massive coup, of course, but if we don't land another top-end guy -- I was hoping it would be Tabor, so we wouldn't have to worry with Humphrey, though obviously that didn't pan out -- we are going to be sitting around just hoping for different outcomes from players who haven't been able to really get it done in their first two or three years to suddenly improve and save the day (i.e. Geno, Cyrus, Sylve, and Washington).
Now, I'm sure one or two of the current crop at CB will be quality contributors in time, but that alone is not going to cut it. As I stated in some other threads the past few months, on a team in this day and age you need one or two really good corners on the team -- an '11 Kirkpatrick or '12 Milliner type, mixed with say a '11 Milliner -- and then you need at least a couple of more quality, SEC-starting level cornerbacks to round out your five and six DB packages (think '09 Arenas or Marquis Johnson, or '11 Menzie). As of right now, we just don't have anything near that, and unless several of the returning kids make some very big strides, we aren't going to be getting that in 2014 and beyond either.
Unless the pass rush finally takes off (and we've been waiting on that to happen just about since 2007), we are just going to have to revamp this ship on the recruiting trails, and for the time being that begins and ends with Humphrey. I'd love to say we just had someone else on the board to make his decision a moot point, but I'm afraid that's just not the case. We need Humphrey. Badly.