TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Nick Saban doesn’t engage in rankings.
However many stars a recruit has beside his name has as much use to Alabama’s head football coach as a preseason poll. Which is to say, next to nothing.
“I don’t know how we’re rated,” Saban said. “I didn’t know where they were rated, how many stars they had. I don’t know anything about that.”
As is often the case, the school’s signing day announcements betray him, boasting of so many top-ranked recruiting classes through the years. Shortly before Saban took the podium on Wednesday afternoon to recap his latest haul on signing day, reporters were given a news release with a headline in bold letters: “Crimson Tide Finish with No. 1 Recruiting Class in 2017.”
Even that was an understatement as Alabama signed a whopping 21 ESPN 300 prospects, which is the most since ESPN began tracking commitments in 2006.
In some corners of the Internet, it’s being called the best signing class ever. There’s a five-star quarterback (Tua Tagovailoa), a five-star running back (Najee Harris), a five-star offensive tackle (Alex Leatherwood) and a five-star athlete (Dylan Moses). There are 21 four-star recruits, including the top offensive tackle (Elliot Baker) and top defensive end (Isaiah Buggs) in the junior college ranks. There’s even a top-five long snapper (Thomas Fletcher).
To put the class into context, consider that those 21 ESPN 300 signees were more than Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee combined. Alabama had so many quality players that it didn’t have room to accommodate Jarez Parks, ESPN’s No. 11-ranked defensive end, who verbally committed to the Crimson Tide on Wednesday but might have to wait to enroll at a later date as a gray shirt.
At the end of the day, who pans out and who doesn’t is all guess work, and Saban knows that.
“Recruiting personnel evaluation is not an exact science,” he said. “Everybody’s going to say they had a good day and things went well and they got what they need. You never have a bad recruiting class and you never have a bad spring practice.”
In fact, the true worth of a signing class can’t be measured on paper when the clock strikes midnight on the first Wednesday of February. Instead, it takes time and is measured in championship rings and draft position.
By that assessment, it’s going to be hard to top some of Saban’s previous Alabama signing classes.
In terms of sheer importance, the 2008 Class might be No. 1. Signing the likes of Mark Ingram, Julio Jones, Marcell Dareus and Dont’a Hightower not only infused much-needed talent early in Saban’s tenure, bit it also arguably set the tone for the future of the program. The class, which ranked third nationally, yielded wins on the field and momentum on the recruiting trail. Jones and Co. bought into a program that hadn’t won a thing and helped create the powerhouse we know today.
Looking at talent alone, the 2009 Class deserves attention as well. There was Heisman finalist Trent Richardson, along with a slew of high-round draft picks: Dre Kirkpatrick, D.J. Fluker, Eddie Lacy, Chance Warmack and James Carpenter. That’s not to mention AJ McCarron, who won two national championships as a starter, and could go down as the most decorated quarterback in Alabama history.
Three years later, half the 2012 Class was ranked among the top 150 recruits in America and produced pros Landon Collins, Amari Cooper, T.J. Yeldon, Reggie Ragland and Kenyan Drake.
The 2013 class was headlined by a future Heisman Trophy winner and second-round pick Derrick Henry. A’Shawn Robinson, a four-star in the class, went in the second round. And at least half a dozen fellow signees will join them in the pros this year, including Reuben Foster, Jonathan Allen, Tim Williams, O.J. Howard, ArDarius Stewart and Eddie Jackson. There was even Alvin Kamara, who transferred after one season, landed at Tennessee and has the look of a potential NFL running back.
There have been busts like Burton Scott and Brent Calloway along the way, of course, but on the whole they’ve been few and far between, with one strong recruiting class bleeding into the next.
With more time and evidence, maybe we’ll look at the 2014 and 2015 classes in the same way. The 2016 class, with freshmen standouts Jonah Williams and Jalen Hurts, is well on its way, too.
Though Saban might look at recruiting as an inexact science, it doesn’t take a mathematician to draw a correlation between a decade of finishing in the top three of the recruiting rankings and winning three BCS Championships and appearing in every College Football Playoff during the past three seasons.
The 2017 Class is guaranteed nothing. It hasn’t accomplished a thing, but with a record-setting number of top prospects, its future is as promising as any group to ever sign with Alabama.
On paper, it’s the best.
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