In the words of the 2008 Detroit Lions “f-em until next year.” That’s my opinion as a Michigan fan.
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Will be interesting to see how it plays out for UM. Lots of people that do care that have surplus wealth. However a significant amount of nerds that could care less about athletics. Overall though, NIL helps them in the long run as it does many other programs that weren’t paying at OSU’s level until it became legal to pay
I could be wrong, and I do like Alabama’s head coach, however it seems they are already have more departures than typical. Are things already on a downward trend for that program?
I see this take pretty frequently, and as someone that has followed both recruiting and Alabama football pretty heavily, I want to comment on this.
None of the guys that are leaving were any good, and most of them were never going to see the field. But, because it’s Alabama, people assume the program is taking a downturn, because they assume the players are leaving are on the same level as the players that Saban had on his best teams.
Now, it might be that Alabama is declining. I definitely think it’s too early to know for sure, but it could be. It’s not going to be because they’re losing good players to the transfer portal.
Nick Saban did not recruit well his last several years at Alabama. I didn’t publish my take on that here back when it was happening, but during the 2021 and 2022 recruiting cycles, I was telling many of my Alabama fan friends and family that I saw a decline in talent coming in the near future to the actual college program. The kids they were bringing in just weren’t as talented as the kids Saban used to get on the regular.
The problem is that even the recruiting services themselves assumed that Saban was still a master at pulling in talent, and began overusing the concept of what is referred to as the “Bama Bump” in the recruiting community. What happened many times is that a kid would receive an offer from Alabama, or even possibly commit to Bama, and the recruiting services would second guess their ranking of that kid. Then, they would bump that kid up in their next ranking release, under the (I assume) premise that they believed Nick Saban knew more than they did about evaluating talent, even though that was LITERALLY THEIR JOB.
Another problem is that many of these top prospects never seem to see the field. This, to me, is the most drastic difference between Alabama and Ohio State as far as their football programs are concerned. If Ohio State gets a five star prospect, it’s assumed that that player will become an impact player down the road for us, and that he’ll be one of the reasons we win football games on Saturdays. At Bama, they can recruit a five star (especially an in state five star), and then you just never hear from him again. It’s like he just totally disappears, and there’s no pressure from the fanbase for him to get on the field either.
For example, Jeremiah Alexander was a 5 star DE from Thompson High School in Alabaster, AL, who just recently entered the transfer portal. I think I can remember one game in my two years of school where I saw him on the field, let alone making any plays. Keon Keeley was the #2 prospect in the COUNTRY behind Arch Manning in 2023, and he didn’t take a single snap as a true freshman. He FINALLY appeared in the bowl game against Michigan, and looked like a really great athlete in the…three or four plays he got on the field for. It really blows my mind how many guys have gone to Bama as highly ranked players and just never amounted to anything.
I’m sure the immediate rebuttal to that is “well those five stars sit on the bench because they’re behind other five stars”. That’s true a lot less often than you’d like to think. Jeremiah Alexander, Keon Keeley, 5 star redshirt freshman Yhonzae Pierre, and others all sat behind Que Robinson, who I believe was a JAG kind of guy, and I can’t remember for the life of me where he came from. This issue seems to be most prevalent on the defensive line for Alabama, but it happens elsewhere too.
List of guys that match the description I just provided with their recruting class years:
- Keon Keeley (2023)
- Yhonzae Pierre (2023)
- James Smith (2023, although he actually got to play in the bowl game and looked good)
- Desmond Ricks (2023)
- Tommy Brockermeyer (2021)
- Damon Payne (2021)
- Camar Wheaton (2021)
- Antonio Alfano (2019)
- Eyabi Okie-Anoma (2018)
I also like to frequently call out the clear an obvious lack of talent in the wide receiver room that Alabama has had since Jameson Williams went to the NFL, and I also call out how the fanbase really overrates their players. Kobe Prentice was most likely a victim of the Bama Bump, and he never really flashed any great athletic ability in his three years of play. Kendrick Law was a great blocker…and that was about it. And yet, Alabama was counting on those guys to make plays. Why is that? The fans expect those guys to be on the level of Devonta, Jeudy, Waddle, Ruggs, and Jamo when they’re just not. The two JAGs transfered to Baylor and Kentucky respectively, so…that pretty much shows you how good they actually were.
I think it’s a good idea to watch not just where a player transfers from, but also where he transfers to. It’d be one thing if guys were leaving Bama to transfer to Oregon, Ohio State (without the Saban departure obviously), Georgia, and other major programs. Instead, the bottom of the roster is turning itself over more frequently than used to be allowed pre-transfer portal.
All this to say, Bama hasn’t recruited well over the past four or five years, and you’re seeing the results of that both with the product (or lack thereof) on the field, and in the transfer portal.
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God damn I just wrote a lot.
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What about the two Olinemen that I believe jumped in the portal, looks like they’ve played some snaps. Not very good players in your opinion?
These two were unique circumstances. Head screwed on right at 18 and I think those make it and perhaps make it pretty big.
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Pritchett is going to get a ton of attention. Nebraska wants, no needs an OT. They’ll definitely be in it IMO. Though I think they’ll get outgunned. Oregon got Isiah World and and Fa’alili Fa’amoe is following Dickert to Wake. Those were Nebraska’s two big fish.
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Prichett and Devonta Smith are the only two portal guys that showed flashes, but Prichett really regressed as the season went along. We have no clue why.
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Oh definitely. I just had to include them because of how highly the both of them were ranked. The reasoning was different, but the result was the same.
And there you go…
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Man you guys are crushing it. Now if only Rhule can coach.
Yeah. We’ll see about Pritchett. Definitely more of a maybe than World or Fa’amoe would have been. They’re still in on an All Conference OT from NMSU but USC, Michigan, etc. are after him.
Nebraska just needs to bridge to last year’s banner OL recruiting class. It was one of the better OL classes nationally but they’re all still just 19.
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I think Nebraska is going to be a very dangerous football team, if not next year then bare minimum two years from now
I’m split on this.
I think their 2025 roster is likely the most talented at least since the early Pelini days. The talent back then was of course concentrated on D. This squad should be significantly more balanced.
I still think they’re a little short at RB after EJ (though the Freshman Parker is supposed to be the real deal) and they could use one more OL and perhaps a NT. But it’s definitely going to be the most talented pro style(ish) offense personnel group in the program’s history. That’s kind of like winning the NIT of course but it’s still a really good group.
The WR room is absurd and with Holgerson back orchestrating things I expect Raiola to make a huge jump.
Their new DC John Butler is largely unproven. Things looked good in the bowl game but Tony White was terrific so I’d expect a step back. They’ll also miss Nash and Ty. They won’t be as surfy up front but their team speed on D is going to be miles ahead of where it was last year.
Special teams really needs to be much, much better. They hired a new ST coach so hopefully that helps. Bu the big issue is Matt Rhule’s game management.
There is a reason that he’s 3-22 or whatever against top 25 teams in his career.
Schedule is reasonably favorable so I don’t think 10 wins is at all unrealistic. If Rhule comes in below that the pressure should be on IMO.
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Having the right ST’s coach can make a huge impact on Special Teams. If they made the right hire, someone who doesn’t over complicate things and connects easily/is a great communicator, could be a huge boost.
Was lucky enough to recruit E Johnson in HS, what an awesome kid. I’m hoping he’s able to have a pro career
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I don’t know if Emmett has quite enough juice to be a pro RB his size but I think he can be an accomplished college runner. I think they are going to go after a kid from UNI. 6’3" 240. So the type of runner they need to fill the void left when Dowdell went to Kentucky. But Parker is the potential game changer. A Cardinal Ritter great like our very own Jamo. He and Jeremiah Love are probably the two most decorated St. Louis backs of the last 10 years or so. Hopefully he’s ready to contribute early.
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This kid’s intriguing, watched him in person last year and he was like the only player that looked like a player on that UNI roster. Will be interesting to see how he looks playing up a level if he’s surrounded by other competent players.
Yeah Emmett’s game has never been outright juice, which is why he wasn’t overly recruited-late take by Nebraska. We’re seeing now that his recruitment should have been heavier though. It’s not very uncommon for those same guys that are overlooked like that, to also be undervalued by Pro teams and then go on to have some success in the NFL
He played well against Nebraska. Think he was under 4 a carry but their OL was completely overwhelmed but Tye Edwards had to be gang tackled. Tough guy to bring down. He’d do just fine as the hammer.
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24 posts were split to a new topic: CFB Playoffs: Semifinal