Has Alabama ever finished with a #1 recruiting class?
- Thread starter J4Bama
- Start date
I doubt it. They weren't ranking them in the Bear days, and Alabama has never recruited the Heisman-type players because we prefer team mentality.
No, but the Barn just did..............
People's National Recruiting Champions...........Trophy is ordered and the John Deeres are lining up............... :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:
People's National Recruiting Champions...........Trophy is ordered and the John Deeres are lining up............... :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:
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The now-infamous (re: Albert Means) 2000 class was ranked #1 by a couple of places, but it wasn't unanimous.
There were a couple of classes during Stallings' tenure that were easily top five.
As for the theory of not recruiting the "Heisman-type" athletes, I don't think that's accurate. We chased both Ryan Perrilloux and Fred Rouse pretty hard this year, as well as the tight end that ended up at Texas A&M and pretty much every other top-level athlete in the Southeast with the exception of the Smith kid at RB. Believe me, if they had committed here, Shula would've signed them.
There were a couple of classes during Stallings' tenure that were easily top five.
As for the theory of not recruiting the "Heisman-type" athletes, I don't think that's accurate. We chased both Ryan Perrilloux and Fred Rouse pretty hard this year, as well as the tight end that ended up at Texas A&M and pretty much every other top-level athlete in the Southeast with the exception of the Smith kid at RB. Believe me, if they had committed here, Shula would've signed them.
skrayper77 said:
yeah, I guess that's why we had guys like David Palmer (finished 3rd), Jay Barker (7th) and Shaun Alexander (top five contender until his injury)
and back in the days of the Bear we had several Heisman-worthy players they just didn't have Heisman-worthy stats because the wishbone splits carries (and therefore yardage) between four guys
I do not know nor do I care.
Recruiting rankings really dont mean anything.....its what the players do on the field that counts.
Recruiting rankings really dont mean anything.....its what the players do on the field that counts.
poker analogy
I kinda look at recruiting like a hand of poker. Its easier to win when your holding good cards, but its more about what you do with the cards.
More or less, its easier to win with top notch athletes, but good coaching (improving your players, getting them in the right position on the field, etc.) is just as important if not more important.
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"If it weren't for luck, I'd win every time." Phil Helmuth
I kinda look at recruiting like a hand of poker. Its easier to win when your holding good cards, but its more about what you do with the cards.
More or less, its easier to win with top notch athletes, but good coaching (improving your players, getting them in the right position on the field, etc.) is just as important if not more important.
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"If it weren't for luck, I'd win every time." Phil Helmuth
#1 or not it's really not important
A guy can come out of high school and be the best we've ever seen and do nothing in college---and that guy that was the avg. player in hs and be a star in college. YOU CAN NOT SEE THE HEART AND THAT TO ME IS THE GREATEST WAY TO SEE HOW GOOD A PLAYER WILL OR CAN BE.------ONE REASON THE SPEED OF THE GAME FROM HS TO COLLEGE IS ALMOST 2 STEPS ----YOU COULD HAVE BEEN THE FASTEST GUY ON YOUR TEAM OR IN YOUR AREA AT A 4.5 BUT WHEN YOU GET COLLEGE ALMOST EVERYONE RUNS A 4.5----SO I LOOK AT THE HEART, THE WILL, THE GRIT OF THE PLAYER
RTR
A guy can come out of high school and be the best we've ever seen and do nothing in college---and that guy that was the avg. player in hs and be a star in college. YOU CAN NOT SEE THE HEART AND THAT TO ME IS THE GREATEST WAY TO SEE HOW GOOD A PLAYER WILL OR CAN BE.------ONE REASON THE SPEED OF THE GAME FROM HS TO COLLEGE IS ALMOST 2 STEPS ----YOU COULD HAVE BEEN THE FASTEST GUY ON YOUR TEAM OR IN YOUR AREA AT A 4.5 BUT WHEN YOU GET COLLEGE ALMOST EVERYONE RUNS A 4.5----SO I LOOK AT THE HEART, THE WILL, THE GRIT OF THE PLAYER
RTR
I remember when Bama would get 7 or 8 players of the National top 100 on a regular basis. I am sure some of Coach Bryant's recruiting classes were up near the top in the 70's.
The problem with today's top 100 is that most of them don't have the brains to be in college so recruiting them may be a futile effort.
GulfCoastTider
Hall of Fame
I've said this before and it's worth saying again.
If recruiting rankings always translated into on-field success, Tennessee would be playing Texas for the MNC every year.
It's one thing to haul in a bunch of four- and five-star prima donnas. It's a completely different thing to coach those egos and make them work together for the common good. A lot of those kids were the best players on their high school team.
Scenario #1: They'd been told since puberty that they were great. All of the sudden, they step on the college football field, and a fully developed, full-grown, 22-year old 5th-year senior lays the lumber on that boy and everything he ever thought about himself goes crashing to the turf with him. See Auburn's dismantling of the UT two-headed quarterback.
Scenario #2: The kid really is that good, but he knows it and he's already looking ahead to the NFL Draft. He's all about highlight reels, stats and stardom. Problem is, his showboating and self-centeredness hurt the rest of the team. He's a ball hog and a distraction in the locker room. See former UT receiver, Kelley Whatshisface.
Scenario #3: The kid is everything the recruiting services said he was. A good student, on the field and in the classroom. He's a team player, a leader and a producer. His gutsiness translates into team success, even when he's not seen as the best of his kind. See former Michigan QB Tom Brady.
If recruiting rankings always translated into on-field success, Tennessee would be playing Texas for the MNC every year.
It's one thing to haul in a bunch of four- and five-star prima donnas. It's a completely different thing to coach those egos and make them work together for the common good. A lot of those kids were the best players on their high school team.
Scenario #1: They'd been told since puberty that they were great. All of the sudden, they step on the college football field, and a fully developed, full-grown, 22-year old 5th-year senior lays the lumber on that boy and everything he ever thought about himself goes crashing to the turf with him. See Auburn's dismantling of the UT two-headed quarterback.
Scenario #2: The kid really is that good, but he knows it and he's already looking ahead to the NFL Draft. He's all about highlight reels, stats and stardom. Problem is, his showboating and self-centeredness hurt the rest of the team. He's a ball hog and a distraction in the locker room. See former UT receiver, Kelley Whatshisface.
Scenario #3: The kid is everything the recruiting services said he was. A good student, on the field and in the classroom. He's a team player, a leader and a producer. His gutsiness translates into team success, even when he's not seen as the best of his kind. See former Michigan QB Tom Brady.
NashTIDE said:
I agree. I think that recruiting is important to a certain extent, however it is what the players do on the field that really counts. That's what determines the outcome of the games and season. I just expect those who are new and old to pull their weight and win!
I believe that one of Coach Bryant's last classes, the one with Walter Lewis, Joey Jones, Jessie Bendross, Joe Carter and Linnie Patrick was actually considered the nations best by many. Of course recruiting rankings was in its infancy at that time. Of course that was near the end of Coach Bryant's career, and the class never achieved on the field what such a lofty ranking would suggest. Many in that group never played, and some, most notably Linnie Patrick, underachieved.
GulfCoastTider
Hall of Fame
PsychoJoe said:
That was the class of 1980. I remember that, because I went to High School with Joey Jones in Mobile. He was (still is) about 5-6 and weighed about 155. But geez that dude could FLY. I've still never seen a white boy run that fast!
I also lived around the corner from Bill Condon, who was three years behind Joey and I. I'm pretty sure that class was ranked highly, too. I think it was also Bryant's very last.
I say GulfcoastTider has the right Idea. I have seen a lot of the top recruits that do squat when given the chance IF they qualify and anyone remember a cat named Doug Flutie who played at BC and they said would never win the big game (BCv Miami) or make it anywhere in the NFL cause he was so short? Yeah Doug never did anything did he?
YES... While the University only claims 62 of the ellusive #1 recruiting titles, the NCAA states that we actually can claim 102 #1 Titles. Of course, our retarded in-bred cousins to the south bemoan our claims. Most of these titles came prior to the likes of Rivals, Scouts, Lemming, and other recruiting guru's. :biggrin: 
:eek2: :biggrin:
:eek2: :biggrin:I only care about the rankings at the end of the year, and Alabama has had several pretty good recruiting classes based on those rankings.
A wise man named Paul Bryant once said that you could never tell about a class until 2-3 years after they were signed. It might be interesting to go back and look at some of the Rivals Rankings 3-4 years ago and see how they panned out.
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