Do you trust this staff...

Trust more than the recruiting services? Yes. I trust the coaches more than the recruiting services.

I think you have to take it one staffer at a time, because this staff hasn't been together that long.

Everyone trusts Raymond. Dude's a proven commodity. He missed on Surtain and Goodrich last year, but he def gets a pass for that.

Everyone trusts Aranda. Dude's brought in some big-time backers since he's been here and he locks them up early. He's also been able to pull in big-time prospects from out-of-state, which is what we love to see.

Ed O is hit or miss. He locked up Key, Chaisson, and Lawrence. He's also done a good job of coaching up the projects. But, he's missed on some prospects we thought we locked up and is still getting poached by Bama. This class sucks so far.

Meatball kind of falls in with Ed O since he's his protege.

Bill Busch is an unknown right now.

Cregg's brought in a good haul, though we still don't seem to have that prototype LT in this class. It's nice to hear that we've had some interest from some big time tackles though, but we haven't seen that turn into any results yet.

T-Rob, imo, has opened up a nice pipeline to Alabama talent. He missed last year on the big targets. This year's class is a homerun.

Joseph...I have no clue. I heard he helped with Emery, so that's good.

Ensminger seems to be bringing in some great talent.

All that said, I think the faith in the staff in recruiting will get tangled up with faith in the staff as coaches. But, yeah, it's going to be a good class. If we can get two more d-lineman it will be a phenomenal class. Who knows where the hell they're going to come from though.

What the hell? It's kind of early to tell isn't it? And you're just going to throw this out there with no specific examples that have you worried?

Ok. Here's a quick list:
Tae Provens over Slade Bolden - too early to tell, but Provens looked good in limited action

Pat Surtain & Mario Goodrich over Eddie Smith - considering Surtain started I think it's safe to say he was better. No idea about Goodrich. Of course, kinda sucks we didn't get any of them, but you asked about talent evaluation

Marcel Brooks over Bryton Constatin - too early to tell

Donte Starks and Kendall McCallum over Christian Harris - too early to tell

Devonte Lee over Makiya Tongue - too early to tell

Traeore is a miss. Johnathan Giles is a miss.

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Aranda did not want Christian Harris. We trust Aranda. I do not know about the other guys

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Correction, Aranda wants him as a Linebacker, but Harris wants to play on the offensive side of the ball. Though theres no doubt he will end up on defense anyways if he wants to see playing time at Alabama

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Correction, Aranda wants him as a Linebacker, but Harris wants to play on the offensive side of the ball

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Wrong

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Correction, Aranda wants him as a Linebacker, but Harris wants to play on the offensive side of the ball. Though theres no doubt he will end up on defense anyways if he wants to see playing time at Alabama

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You got that backwards. But Bama will no doubt convince him to play offense.

Pooka and Beal

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to pass on a highly rated in-state guy if they feel he is overrated and or doesn’t fit what they are looking for? I don’t have an exact example, just wondering your level of trust in the ability of this staff to evaluate talent and close on the guys they want.

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Yes, knowing what to do with them and develop them no I do not.