If he dropped this kid on signing day, which seems obvious that he did, he's the biggest piece of garbage in the game. That's embarrassing.
Do have a question. Davis left almost like a thief in the night. Kiel, even if unwittingly, changes his mind also at the last minute of the early signing period. Both situations left no time to recoup the losses. Don't you think Les is going to stack and push that limit, to hedge against the ill winds of impetuous recruits?
Les and the staff will do and did what was needed, including a little damage control during recruiting. When you have 18 year old guys who constantly have all kinds of thoughts and people in their ears telling them what to do, I know the toll that takes. Some of these kids, however, are just straight up dishonest flakes. Zero substance. That's part of the nature of the beast though, having to deal with all the different personalities and all of their families meanwhile showing that your program is maintaining its competitive edge. Damage control. Little Nicky on the other hand is known for sparing no expense and pulling no punches, referring to any and all tactics possible to achieve the desired result. History repeats itself. When something "better" comes along, he'll leave, meanwhile the entire time denying it with every bone in his body. He's brought your program back from two decades of mediocrity, but don't put all your trust in him. Friendly advice.
That lack of loyalty also extends itself to players. The minute a bigger/faster/better player comes along someone does not get their scholarship renewed - or as was seen on NSD - he'll deny a local kid that was promised a scholarship months before because a last minute higher ranked recruit came through. Tusk, I agree with b_leblanc, enjoy the Saban roller coaster while you can. Ultimately, you should realize that the clock is ticking and if Texas coms offering Saban a significant raise he'll be packing faster than your dog sneezes.
i read the article and thought it was very nicely written. Saban is a piece of work, but you know what, I think most of you would love to have him be your coach...and part of the reason is because he is ruthless. Fans would still feel obligated to slant their way of thinking to justify as long was the W's and NCs keep piling up. I don't like Chizik but the 4 year scholarship offer is huge and I wouldn't doubt in pays dividends going forward. I did especially like these couple of sentences from the article: "For years, Saban has treated college football like a cutthroat business. He's skirted recruiting rules, danced around scholarship limitations and been surrounded by more career ending injuries to third-string players than any coach in the history of organized athletics."
all one needs to do is view the video of Philon's commitment ceremony to see the pain and emotional suffering that saban put this kid through ... and none of it was necessary. saban knew long before the 2 DE's committed that Philon wasn't going to be a part of alabama's plans. but to most bama fans, such tactics fall into the "end justifies the means" category. the timing was the issue, and Philon was only one of 4 recruits that were treated in a similar manner. Just like Bear Bryant, the timing was more about denying his competitors access to talent as much as it was about roster management. alabama greyshirts and feaux medical hardships are being abused on a scale that dwarfs all other programs. (see oversigning.com)
here's some interesting comments from Nick Saban from his 2010 NSD presser: Keep in mind, the 4 kids saban "cut" to make way for better recruits were not shopping other offers. Taylor was committed to bama since March 2011 and Philon committed in September. The other two kids weren't as high profile, but were left in the same lurch. worse behavior was exhibited by Philon's HS coach, who attempted to deflect the blame from alabama and saban by pointing the finger at the SEC for implementing the 25 soft limit. Of course, this coach was a former alabama player and is driving a fancy new crimson colored pickup truck, so what does he care, right?
What about Justin Taylor? He had been committed since his junior year, got hurt three weeks into his senior season, and that slimeball tried to get him to sign a fake 1-year non-competition clause, where the kid basically would've wasted a year of his life waiting for Saban to fit him into the next year's class ... and we already know that class would be full too when it came time for Nick to finally honor his word. Glad he wised up and saw the raw deal he was getting and signed elsewhere, but yeah, Saban has a lot of audacity trampling on 18 year old kids like he does.
