A Commitment To Nick Saban Is An Iron-Clad, One Way Street
Georgia blogger, Doctor Saturday contributor, and general blogosphere bon vivant Doug Gillett’s recently completed list of college football’s 50 most loathsome people is generally accurate save for three things:
- ⇥Exclusion of Mike Patrick, indicating that Doug would like to put him anywhere other than the nearest volcano.
- ⇥⇥Homeristic inclusion of not only Paul Johnson, who I bet most people like for his old-school offense, but George O’Leary, who may or may not even exist anymore.
- ⇥⇥No Nick Saban.
Gillett excuses Saban because all he’s done is win and winning doesn’t seem like a crime. Apparently he’s missed the last four signing days, when Alabama’s signed 25, 32, 27, and 29 players. This is 113 players, which you will note is slightly larger than the 85 you’re allowed to have on the roster. Every year there are stories headlined “Attrition likely to continue for Crimson Tide” that detail a rash of transfers and dubious medical scholarships. This is because every year Alabama goes into the offseason way, way over the 85 limit and has to slash its way down. Whether the cuts are explicit or not, the mathematical inevitability is clear: if you go to Alabama you will either start or get the axe.
Heavy losses to attrition are not uncommon in the SEC, where Houston Nutt’s 37-member class finally shamed the conference into adopting a cap of 28 signees. (The Big Ten already has a similar cap; the SEC is trying to take the rule national.) A new website focusing on the sketchy practice of oversigning shows that from 2002-2010, the eight most LOI-happy teams in the country were all SEC schools. So he’s not exactly alone.
But no one else has the sheer contempt to say things like “It’s none of your business. Alright? And don’t give me this stuff about the fans need to know, because they don’t need to know.” Or what Saban just dropped when one of his hyped commitments defected to Cal (so he could play with his brother, a Buffalo transfer) late in the recruiting cycle:
⇥⇥“I’m old-fashioned,” Saban said. “I think a commitment is a commitment. ⇥⇥
⇥⇥“We tell guys when they commit that we want the recruiting to be over or we really don’t want them to commit. If you’re not really ready to stop recruiting, then you aren’t really ready to commit because committing means you are coming to that school. ”⇥⇥
Jesus. WHERE’S IVAN MATCHETT, NICK? WHERE’S ALONZO LAWRENCE, NICK? NICK!
Saban is #1 with a bullet on any list of the most loathsome people in college football, I say.
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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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