Alabama Numbers?

Isn't D. Sentimore already counted among the commits?

Yea gumps, what what? :bowup: :kickass:

I saw on one of their boards where a poster broke down, by class, the numbers. He factored in JR's declaring, transfers, Bryant Scholarships, and also the grey shirts from last year. From what I remember, they were having real problems even getting the 25 to fit.

But none of them were worried, "Because Coach Saban will make the numbers work."

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Hey, Gumps!

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You've just been BOOMED.

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You take out Randle and Lacy (JUCO) and it's still 31. That's 63 recruits Alabama has signed in 2 years.

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What they've done here, is hire the guy that used to do the luxury "tax" calculations for the Yankees. Apparently he's found a loophole in the NCAA regs that if you end up signing too many over, it generates a negative number of available scholarships, which allows more freedom of maneuver. Plus they are invoking the old, Bear-era codicil of "Bama can do whatever the f*ck Bama wants to do."

Silence from the gumps...so quiet that you can hear the roaches in their mobile homes stir.

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You guys signed 32 last year.

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I think they had 4 of those that will never play another down of football in their life because they are playing professional baseball (Destin Hood, Melvin Ray, etc).

They also has 2 (I think) that academically did not qualify.

That cuts the 32 down to around 26 which is a reasonable number to actually make work.

Eddie Lacy will be a sign and place, Greg Reid is an FSU lean now from what I have read/remember, and RR is a LSU lean now. That takes care of 3 from the list of 12. More than likely, the other 9 will not want to commit/be allowed to commit so lets say BAMA only takes 7 out of the remaining 9 (seems very reasonable).

Add the 7 to the 21 current commits and you are at 28. Again, they can make it work.

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As far as cutting the scholarships of the older players to make room for the younger "cream of the crop" guys, I think there are two ways to approach the situation.

Is a scholarship a year-by-year agreement, or a 4-year deal? I tend to think of it as a 4 year agreement, but this is more of an ethical question than anything else. Some view scholarships as a yearly thing that can be revoked due to poor performance (aka BAMA).

At the same time, do not fool yourself into thinking that LSU has never "urged" a guy to transfer if they knew he was locking up a scholarship that could be used better elsewhere. LSU may not flat out say "we have revoked your scholarship," but "recommended attrition" is not out of the question.

(Do not put your purple and gold glasses on and think LSU does not do bad/NCAA illegal actions in athletics -- It happens in every program including this one -- deal with it).

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So there is my explanation. It is a very logical course of events for BAMA to find room for their guys, and it is not unrealistic for them to do so.

I rather the approach Miles generally takes, but it does not mean it is the only way of doing so. Both programs are successful at their own method of recruiting and I will not judge another program when I do not know all the details that go on behind the scenes at my own program.