Link: *** LB Jonathan Atchison commits to BAMA ***

[derek4tide]

Welcome to the Capstone, Jonathan! Roll Tide!:BigA:

 

[Squirrely]

Welcome to Bama Jonathan................


:BigA: ROLL TIDE :BigA:

 

[12 rings]

woooooaaaaaah now. dont get my hopes up.... Barron, myles, lawerence, green, kirkpatrick (possibly), lester, woodson.... fastest, biggest hitting secondary in america?

That is downright scary! Hey, lets just throw Loston in the mix as well , and call it a day!_wink: Welcome Jonathan! You made the right choice!

 

[Tider@GW_Law]

Admittedly, I've not been the biggest fan of our push for Atchison. However, now that he's committed, I've watched his film a couple times and I have to say that he does have some great quickness off the ball and a great motor. Also, it appears that he could put some serious weight on his frame, probably 20-30 pounds easy.

I think CNS is definitely looking at Atchison's potential, and he appears to have a ton of it.

 

[bamaboy 7]

Re: Jonathan Atchison commits to BAMA!!!!

I'm not sure where you picked up that he didn't have a "commitable offer." He stated several times in articles that we offered him last spring and that our coaching staff never stopped recruiting him. The staff has wanted him all along. I guess you thought that since he committed to the Barn, we must not have offered him. It was one of the few battles they won over us. I said in the "Barn" thread that Montez and Atchison would be the 2 guys we would take and they could have the rest.

The guy's a player. Outside LB who may also be a candidate for Jack LB, as he has some very good film from his Jr Year when his hand on the ground.

Having an offer and having a commitable offer is not the same. Some offers are conditional upon other things happening or not happening with other recruits.

 

[deliveryman35]

Nice pickup, but like others have said this leads to other questions, like does this mean the staff doesn't feel confident about some of the others that are left on the board?

 

[Bama1970]

Great news!!!! Welcome to the Tide, Mr. Atchison.

 

[BigBama]

Welcome to the family! You won't regret your decision. Bring your friends!

 

[Crimson Surfer]

Welcome to the family! You won't regret your decision. Bring your friends!

If he brings one or both of his Atlanta buddies Branden Smith and Darren Myles Jr. that would be a great thing to see.

 

[Airborne Tider]

Well color me surprised. Great to have you Jonathan. Bring Branden and Darren with you. RTR.:BigA:

 

[crimson_blood]

Re: Jonathan Atchison commits to BAMA!!!!

Having an offer and having a commitable offer is not the same. Some offers are conditional upon other things happening or not happening with other recruits.

Thanks for the info

 

[BAMARICH]

Believe this developments means something has happened with either other recruits of current players.

 

[HKSpwrdZ]

Could some of the current scholarship players be giving up their scholarship to have their families pay tuition? i.e. Tiffin?

 

[Joe89e]

Could some of the current scholarship players be giving up their scholarship to have their families pay tuition? i.e. Tiffin?

I seriously doubt Saban or anyone would make them do that, especially Tiffin.

 

[BigEasyTider]

I'm not sure where you picked up that he didn't have a "commitable offer." He stated several times in articles that we offered him last spring and that our coaching staff never stopped recruiting him. The staff has wanted him all along. I guess you thought that since he committed to the Barn, we must not have offered him. It was one of the few battles they won over us. I said in the "Barn" thread that Montez and Atchison would be the 2 guys we would take and they could have the rest.

The guy's a player. Outside LB who may also be a candidate for Jack LB, as he has some very good film from his Jr Year when his hand on the ground.

All of the information that we had prior to this was pointing to the fact that Atchison did not have a firm offer. Now he may very well have had some sort of conditional offer, but we had no information that it was a commitable offer. We were clearly recruiting him, and keeping him very much on our radar screen, but I do believe that his offer was something that came up recently.

The only piece of information that we ever had indicating that Atchison had an offer was what he said, and honestly in the recruiting business it's tough to put much weight on that. At the moment, there are probably 100 prospects out there that are proclaiming that they have Alabama offers. Even Auburn guys like WR Brandon Heavens claim that.

Don't get me wrong, I agree that he's a good player, but that's not enough in this class. Honestly, we've got a literal boatload of guys that are good prospects who don't have firm offers, and prior to his commitment we had no real evidence to think that Atchison was any different than those guys.

Believe this developments means something has happened with either other recruits of current players.

I hope you are wrong, but I'm afraid you are right.

The problem is, I don't know where the concern is coming from. It's not Trent Richardson, or otherwise we'd be adding another tailback, and it's not one of the receivers (Randle, Kelly, etc.) or we'd be adding another wide receiver. It really makes me think we have concerns about a linebacker, and the only legitimate one left on the board could be Tana Patrick, but honestly there really isn't any negative news on his front. Heck, he's not even really started going strong into the recruiting process at all, and he's still widely expected to sign with Alabama.

What I am wondering, and what I am hoping, is this... Michael Bowman is a wide receiver prospect, but many have speculated that he could very well end up going the ol' Devonta Bolten route and moving to linebacker. Now, it's clear that [ame="http://tidefans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80639"]Georgia is coming on strong[/ame] with him, so perhaps the staff things that Bowman will end up going to UGA and that will create a possible void at linebacker... hence the extended offer to Atchison.

Maybe that's it, maybe not. Either way, I am afraid this means we are not feeling so good about someone else, but honestly I just cannot see where it's any of the major guys.

Anyway, it might all be for not. The AJC has an article up talking about how Florida is supposedly going to offer Atchison in person on Monday, and he talked there like he was going to take visits to Alabama and Auburn, and I'm sure that he will to Florida as well. Either way, his recruitment isn't a closed case just yet.

 

[Crimson Surfer]

Douglass LB to meet with Florida coach on Monday

Douglass linebacker Jonathan Atchison is scheduled to meet with Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong on Monday. Atchison, who is committed to Auburn, said Florida has been recruiting him very hard, and that he expects an offer on Monday.

“Coach Strong wants to see me in person, and I’ll get the offer,” said Atchison told the AJC’s Phil Giltman.

Atchison has scheduled an official visit to Alabama on Jan. 17. He will take his official visit to Auburn on Jan. 10, pending on who is named as the team’s coach.

The AJC writer Giltman must not have gotten the memo...

 

[BamaInBham]

Many are acting as though Atchison is some kind of project or at least not 'up to par' with other prospects. Well, ESPN has Atchison rated very highly, essentially the same as Patrick. Despite what ESPN has rated him, it could very well be that Coach Saban has him rated as highly as any of the others. My guess is that no one here knows how highly Bama has rated JA; I assume they are just going by Scout and Rivals rating JA as mediocre. We all know, or should, that that means little.

 

[runtheoption22]

I'm surprised by his commitment, and skeptical about someone else being off the board or a current player not going to be around.

However, Atchison was the fastest of any of our LB prospects.

 

[crimson_blood]

Many are acting as though Atchison is some kind of project or at least not 'up to par' with other prospects. Well, ESPN has Atchison rated very highly, essentially the same as Patrick. Despite what ESPN has rated him, it could very well be that Coach Saban has him rated as highly as any of the others. My guess is that no one here knows how highly Bama has rated JA; I assume they are just going by Scout and Rivals rating JA as mediocre. We all know, or should, that that means little.

That's what I'm screaming, Bham! Some on this board seem to be "down" on JA for whatever reason. Our staff never let up on him...that's a pretty good sign that he was "on our list" the whole time. Seems to be the mentality of "if he committed to the Barn, he must be a 2nd-rate player." I guess you could say that about 80% of their class...but Atchison and Robinson are 2 guys that could really fit into our defensive scheme because of their size and speed.

Watch his film and you'll understand why CNS and staff are so high on him. He reminds me a lot of Brooks Daniels in his prime. Very explosive LB.

 

[BJ4TIDE]

Rivals reports him with a 4.54 40 time. With good short range speed, could he become a viable option as a speed rusher from the DE spot?