Rivals.com gives recruiter award to Alabama’s Thompson
February 07, 2008
As Alabama basked in the afterglow of landing the consensus No. 1 class in the country, it enjoyed some spoils from the recruiting wars, too.
Lance Thompson, Alabama’s outside linebackers coach, on Thursday was named Rivals.com National Recruiter of the Year. Thompson recruited the Mobile area for Nick Saban, which held the key for the class. Two five-star Alabama signees, receiver Julio Jones and Burton Scott, who is so versatile he’s listed just as an athlete, are from the Mobile area.
That fertile ground also produced commitments from three St. Paul’s teammates—Ivan Matchett, Destin Hood and Mark Barron. Defensive end Glenn Harbin, defensive back Robert Lester and running back Jermaine Preyear were among the Mobile-area contingent.
Alabama had not enjoyed much success recruiting the area in recent years. Saban and Thompson changed that in a hurry.
“I appreciate this recognition from Rivals, but it should really go to our entire staff and to the University of Alabama,” Thompson said in a statement released Thursday by the university. “Everything we do here is about family and that is what you heard when you listened to our signees yesterday at their press conferences. Alabama’s family atmosphere, coaching staff, players and tradition make this a very special place.”
Saban, in the same statement issued by the university, called it a team effort.
“Lance did a good job and worked extremely hard, but at Alabama we recruit as a team. I don’t really think that an assistant coach or head coach gets a guy to come to school. I think it’s the university itself, the relationships of the people and the players,” Saban said. “It’s the overall philosophy of the program. Every single one of our coaches is a great recruiter and we all work together to develop positive relationships with those we recruit. We have a lot of guys involved. I think Lance did a great job of setting the table and developing a plan for how we would have the best chance to be successful, and I think we all worked hard to try and make it happen and it worked out very well for us.”
