LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama, Signs With South Alabama

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

BAMARICH said:

Here's the thing though. You bash Bama for doing this. Do you also bash recruits for changing in the middle of the stream as well as schools who encourage them to do so?

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I absolutely do. I have many posts on this forum in which I question the use of the word "commitment" from kids who then go on the recruiting trail and talk about their "leaders". If you are committed, have fun on the recruiting visits, but you should only have 1 leader. And if you change your mind, you lied.

I tel my boys not to make promises that they cannot keep. I try to live my life that way. Again, this is about integrity.

And I am not "bashing" Alabama or Saban - I am calling them out on this one issue. That is far from being an Alabama basher. I have said more times than I could count that Saban is my favorite coach in college football, and the best in the business. But just as he deserves credit when Alabama does something particularly well, he deserves criticism for things like this.

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

BAMARICH said:

Do you verbally state the same kind of thing about your Buckeyes as you do towards the Tide? Do you criticize Meyer & company for encouraging these guys to abandon commitments they've made previously? Do you criticize Haskins, Jones, Arnette, and Hamilton for flipping - especially for doing so late in the recruiting game? Somehow, in this day and age, the media has created the perception that it's "ok" for a player to abandon a school... and for schools to encourage a player to abandon another school. BUT... it's not "ok" for a school to change IT'S mind on a player. Knowing a school can't comment on the issue prior to signing day, the media jumps on the comments of the player and thus the school is ALWAYS the "bad guy". Little bit of consistency on your part (and their's as well) would be nice to see.

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You obviously do not read my posts about OSU. I am hyper-critical of OSU on issues of integrity. I would rather see OSU lose every game next season than live with another Tressel. Meyer jumps back and forth with me - his suspension of JT this season was a joke, and I called him for it right here and argued with another OSU poster about it.

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

B1GTide said:

I absolutely do. I have many posts on this forum in which I question the use of the word "commitment" from kids who then go on the recruiting trail and talk about their "leaders". If you are committed, have fun on the recruiting visits, but you should only have 1 leader. And if you change your mind, you lied.

I tel my boys not to make promises that they cannot keep. I try to live my life that way. Again, this is about integrity.

And I am not "bashing" Alabama or Saban - I am calling them out on this one issue. That is far from being an Alabama basher. I have said more times than I could count that Saban is my favorite coach in college football, and the best in the business. But just as he deserves credit when Alabama does something particularly well, he deserves criticism for things like this.

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But it's absurd that you would do that when the kids father isn't even doing that.

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

RedStar said:

But it's absurd that you would do that when the kids father isn't even doing that.

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Yes, he is. Listen again. He said that his son would sign elsewhere because this change was thrown at them at the last minute. What speaks louder than having his son sign elsewhere?

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

B1GTide said:

You obviously do not read my posts about OSU. I am hyper-critical of OSU on issues of integrity. I would rather see OSU lose every game next season than live with another Tressel. Meyer jumps back and forth with me - his suspension of JT this season was a joke, and I called him for it right here and argued with another OSU poster about it.

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Then your consistency means that you don't go "back and forth" with Meyer... because if there's one thing he's known for in recruiting, it's flipping guys who are committed to other teams every year.

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

B1GTide said:

Yes, he is. Listen again. He said that his son would sign elsewhere because this change was thrown at them at the last minute. What speaks louder than having his son sign elsewhere?

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It sounds to me like this change might have been based on the change in defensive coordinators. I suspect most of us would believe that a coaching change does factor into these situations.

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

The dad said they were briefed about a red shirt, but the delayed enrollment came out of nowhere. While most on this board say a semester would not matter to them, it did to the Coles, particularly that they felt they were given little time to respond or come up with a new plan.

It doesn't make them right or wrong or over-reactive. It was their choice

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

B1GTide said:

Yes, he is. Listen again. He said that his son would sign elsewhere because this change was thrown at them at the last minute. What speaks louder than having his son sign elsewhere?

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Listen again, he said the fault wasn't with Saban. Things got mixed up when Kirby left for UGA. It happens.

And if you think Saban gives complete autonomy to his assistants when it comes to recruiting, please DM me about some land I'm selling at a cheap discount.

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

RedStar said:

Listen again, he said the fault wasn't with Saban. Things got mixed up when Kirby left for UGA. It happens.

And if you think Saban gives complete autonomy to his assistants when it comes to recruiting, please DM me about some land I'm selling at a cheap discount.

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He also said that this ultimately lands at Saban's feet.

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

RedStar said:

Listen again, he said the fault wasn't with Saban. Things got mixed up when Kirby left for UGA. It happens.

And if you think Saban gives complete autonomy to his assistants when it comes to recruiting, please DM me about some land I'm selling at a cheap discount.

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Then who is responsible, RedStar? An overzealous assistant or the the man who doesn't give complete autonomy to his recruiters?

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

Tidetwin said:

Then who is responsible, RedStar? An overzealous assistant or the the man who doesn't give complete autonomy to his recruiters?

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Read between the lines. The dad said this doesn't fall on Saban, and you and I both know Saban doesn't give autonomy to his assistants to make recruiting decisions, so what's the likely scenario that actually went down?

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

RedStar said:

Read between the lines. The dad said this doesn't fall on Saban, and you and I both know Saban doesn't give autonomy to his assistants to make recruiting decisions, so what's the likely scenario that actually went down?

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If this was the scenario don't you think Saban would have corrected it by now?

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

BAMARICH said:

Then your consistency means that you don't go "back and forth" with Meyer... because if there's one thing he's known for in recruiting, it's flipping guys who are committed to other teams every year.

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Back and forth on different issues - not the same issue. My problem with Meyer has nothing to do with recruiting. If he has done this at OSU, I have not heard. He has been really tough on players who even touch women in the wrong way at OSU, and I thought that his punishment of players for other things was solid until the thing with JT. That showed me that he is still all about winning and it has me ready to jump off the Meyer bandwagon.

You guys still want to hang Meyer for the mistakes that he made at Florida. I get that. I don't care about that unless he brings it with him to Columbus.

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

TiderJ said:

If this was the scenario don't you think Saban would have corrected it by now?

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I think the option to greyshirt has always been there based on several things. His health & other players. Ask anyone who has ever greyshirted at Alabama and they'll tell you the same thing, it's always discussed up front. I'm going to take the word of former players over anyone else's.

I think the closer we got to NSD, the more Riley Cole thought the offer to enroll immediately became more and more likely as no one from the staff had contacted him in a long time about it. Enter Pruitt. A week before signing day a coach who Cole has never spoken to informs him that they want him to delay enrollment for 4 months. A kid who increasingly thought he was going to enroll this fall because of poor communication from a staff in flux suddenly has his hopes crushed a little. I don't blame him. We should have had better communication and it sounds like Pruitt dropped the ball here. But I have no doubt that this was discussed ahead of time because history shows us that it always has been.

A simple case of "well they haven't told me I'm going to greyshirt yet so I don't think they're going to." Except they did, very, very early on, and never mentioned it again.

His dad is now calling into radio shows trying to play both sides of the fence. He doesn't want to make the staff look bad and he doesn't want to make his son look bad. He's in a tough spot.

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

RedStar said:

Read between the lines. The dad said this doesn't fall on Saban, and you and I both know Saban doesn't give autonomy to his assistants to make recruiting decisions, so what's the likely scenario that actually went down?

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No, the dad says that it ultimately does fall on Saban. He says that he might not be directly responsible, but he is still responsible. He believes it enough that his son will not be playing football at Alabama. That says a lot more than his words.

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

B1GTide said:

No, the dad says that it ultimately does fall on Saban. He says that he might not be directly responsible, but he is still responsible. He believes it enough that his son will not be playing football at Alabama. That says a lot more than his words.

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This thread is clearly making you mad as you are no longer capable of rational conversation. You're taking tiny bits of truth and trying to mount a case out of it. Take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

I think if we are being real with ourselves, we know that Saban was aware of what was going on and had final say on the change. Communication effectiveness may have been an issue...things aren't black and white, but in regards to the overall strategy to grayshirt, Saban knew what was going on. Saban cares for these kids, but he is paid millions to win football games. He didn't tell the kid to take a hike, he asked him to wait a semester. That's not egregious. I can understand it causing some frustration with a family close to national signing day, but these schools are under no obligation to hand out free educations to anybody, so I maintain that this is just part of that cycle. It's the kid's prerogative to not wait and get his education elsewhere if he likes. If he is interested in the NFL, so much college football is on tv now that he'd get noticed. It's inconvenience and nothing more, though I understand the backlash for switching things at the last minute. It's a great life lesson, nothing is settled till the ink is dry. Everything is negotiable until the cap is back on the pen. That's been my life experience.

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

RedStar said:

This thread is clearly making you mad as you are no longer capable of rational conversation.

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I am not angry. I totally respect your desire to only see the best in Alabama and Saban. I was just clarifying a point.

I don't respect your attempt to have me banned because we disagree about this, but I can't do anything about that.

Again - really like Saban - would prefer him over Meyer any day - but this was wrong (IMO).

Re: LB Riley Cole De-Commits from Alabama After Asked to Take Greyshirt

Did I just dream I heard the dad say he understood Saban and Pruitt had a meeting when Pruitt got back to Tuscaloosa because Saban wasn't happy about it?