Production of Alabama WR Signees Since 2007

Thanks for the breakdown RTR. I did not realize how much attrition we had at WR. Pro baseball killed us in the 2008 class. I would have liked to have seen Hood and Ray both at 6'3" along with Julio terrorizing secondaries.

Wide receiver recruiting has been a bit of a bane for the staff for the past few years. We've signed numerous prospects the past four classes and we've had a lot of outright busts from kids who literally never caught a ball. And we've signed a lot of "athletes" over the years, which are not listed above, that we thought we could get some mileage out at wide receiver, but none of them worked out either (Scott, Grant, Washington, and Sylve).

That actually led to some real issues in 2011 -- lack of size in the WR corps was what really hurt us against LSU in the Game of the Century -- but we've been fortunate in that the two real hits we had were absolute grand slams (Julio and Cooper), and we've recruited a couple of more kids that, while not contributors on an overly consistent basis, have produced when we needed it the most (Norwood and Bell).

Admittedly it hasn't been a strong-suit for the staff, and has generally been one of their weaker points. We've changed some things in evaluations, and hoping that it pays dividends. FWIW, Raheem Falkins has been one of the kids identified through the revamped process, and he had a very strong spring a few months back and looks like he will get on the field even as a true freshman, so hopefully that is a sign of good things to come.

I still don't know why shinn transferred. He really got some meaningful after Bell went down. The only thing I can surmise is he saw White looked this spring after his rehab and decided there just wasn't going to enough reps to suit him.

He would have had an opportunity to be a veteran leader next year.

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JDCrimson said:

I still don't know why shinn transferred. He really got some meaningful after Bell went down. The only thing I can surmise is he saw White looked this spring after his rehab and decided there just wasn't going to enough reps to suit him.

He would have had an opportunity to be a veteran leader next year.

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In hindsight, I'm not sure it was the best decision on his part, and I think a lot of it had more to do with his own disappointment that he wasn't living up to the expectations that he had coming in. Again, people tend to forget this in time, but when we took his commitment as a junior out of Vigor, he was billed to be an absolute superstar, and obviously that didn't happen in Tuscaloosa. I think he expected to come to UA and be a three-and-done player, and after a redshirt and an under-the-radar season, obviously he wasn't even remotely near that level.

Problem he had all along was that he was kind of a tweener... not a great enough of an athlete to be a true burner on the outside, but also a bit of a string bean who needed some time in the S&C program before he could be a physical target as a possession guy (though he was getting there). He was more of a developmental project who needed time to bulk up and perfect route-running and leverage.

As I've said before, though, I think he was probably in line to take over Norwood's role in 2014, even if his opportunities would be fairly limited this season in the absence of injuries (which are certainly a possibility, of course). I would imagine he would have been fifth or sixth in the rotation had he stayed, and while that's not exactly Jerry Rice, he played in every game last year and there was no reason to think he wouldn't do the same this season as well. Even without injuries really striking, he could have probably stuck around, played in every game, got some meaningful special teams work, and caught 10-15 balls, all the while putting himself in line for some real playing time as a junior and senior in 2014 and 2015.

Again, just not certain it was a good decision on his part. He's going to sit out this year anyway -- so the fact that he wouldn't have played that much in T'town had he stayed becomes moot -- and to my knowledge he has yet to pick a destination school, which can't be a good sign. Sometimes I think the star signees become their own worst enemy when they encounter some adversity at the next level, and I'm afraid that is what Shinn has done here.

TIDE-HSV said:

I think his reason is in black and white...

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I like what you did there. Kind of like an old Batman riddle.

BigEasyTider said:

Wide receiver recruiting has been a bit of a bane for the staff for the past few years.

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Had to look "bane" up BET. Good word and I learned something today.

Con said:

I like what you did there. Kind of like an old Batman riddle.

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BigEasyTider said:

Wide receiver recruiting has been a bit of a bane for the staff for the past few years.

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Speaking of Batman humor...

Wow, I didn't realize the attrition and how much that 2007 Wr class carried us for a few years (not discounting Julio's contributions,of course).

Hopefully, the staff will be able to develop the WR talent that is on campus. Julio and Cooper showed up ready to play. I've never seen a WR arrive as polished as Cooper. If ever there was a young man born to play WR, it is him.

Safe to say production has picked up and taken off.