Thursday, February 3, 2011

thoughts on Signing Day: Same song, different verse

Yesterday I checked in with the live blog at Bama Sports Report, where a bunch of people I (sort of) know were discussing the impending announcement from someone named Cyrus. Full disclosure: I've barely followed the run-up to Signing Day, and so have only the vaguest sense of who any of these people are, so this Cyrus person could've been Billy Ray Cyrus as far as I knew.
Anyway, apparently he announced he was committing to Auburn, followed by a number of the folks on the live blog gnashing their teeth. And I wanted to be upset, but ... I mean, at that point I couldn't even tell you what position the kid plays.
That, in a nutshell, describes my feeling about National Signing Day, and recruiting in general, every year: I spend months and months attempting to ignore it, then wind up checking the web a billion times on the day itself trying to find out how it's going. I think next year I'm going to seriously consider leaving the country.
In any case, I'm posting these links out of obligation: As Coach Saban said aptly, we're very happy with our recruiting class, just like everybody else is happy with theirs; unlike (nearly) everybody else, our recruiting class is the creme de la creme in the nation today, meaning that coach Saban and his staff have landed a top-3 class for the fourth consecutive season. In a related story, the team has won 36 games on the field in the last three seasons, as well.

Some other thoughts:
— Following up on our opener, the dominant story that came out of Wednesday's flurry of activity is the saga of Cyrus Kouandjio, which should serve to underscore just how fragile this thing is (and, conversely, the value of a quality recruiting staff). Honestly, I don't even care that much where he goes: We'd love to have him here, of course, but the poor kid needs to make a decision, for the sake of his own personal sanity.
— For Bama fans, the only other huge headline was the firm commitment of Russellville's Brent Calloway, who caused some consternation leading up to the big moment before flashing a pair of Bama gloves to the crowd. Good for him. And good for us.
— Calloway's announcement was nothing compared to Isaiah Crowell's statement; Crowell brought a bulldog puppy with him on stage, to announce his commitment to Georgia. He just became dead to Peter von Herrmann, sadly.
— A notable story from the T-News: Alabama has devoured Mobile this year, something the savviest college football gurus predicted when Nick Saban set foot on campus. Recall that Saban and his staff at LSU were all over Mobile in the early part of the last decade (Jamarcus Russell, et al), a trend that continued until Saban showed up in Tuscaloosa. So you could argue that LSU actually took the biggest hit when Nick Saban came to Alabama.
— This was an interesting vignette from SbB: a Tennessee commit accused Alabama media of trying to influence his decision. Note that he also refers to himself (or rather, implies) as "the best player in the country." Good for him.
— Finally, two more fun links: EDSBS rates the classes (semi) seriously; and TBL shares your standard "gratuitous scantily clad woman shown from an interesting camera angle" for today.

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