Rivals.com gives recruiter award to Alabama’s Thompson
Ken Rogers
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.”
Posted by Ken Rogers on 02/07 at 04:16 PM
(0)
Comments |
Permalink
Alabama finishes strong
Ken Rogers
Alabama was going to land a great recruiting class anyway. But signing day commitments from coveted five-star wide receiver Julio Jones of Foley and four-star outside linebacker Jerrell Harris of Gadsden likely cemented Nick Saban’s program with the nation’s top recruiting class today.
Jones and Harris brought the class to 32 commitments. According to rivals.com, three of those are five-star athletes (scale of five)—offensive lineman Tyler Love of Birmingham, Jones and Burton Scott of Prichard. Harris is one of 19 four-star athletes in the class and there are eight three-stars.
By mid-afternoon, rivals.com had Alabama ranked first in the country with its class, ahead of, in order, Notre Dame, Florida, Miami and Oklahoma. Georgia, Florida State, Ohio State, Michigan and Southern Cal rounded out the top 10.
One of the signees, four-star defensive end/linebacker Courtney Upshaw of Eufaula, said he felt special pride in being part of the elite class.
“It just adds to the day,” Upshaw said. “I just heard we got Julio, too. It was good to get him. I feel great about (the class). My name will be one of the the names that people when Alabama gets back to where they used to be. That feels great.”
Saban’s press conference is scheduled for 4 p.m. today to discuss the class.
Posted by Ken Rogers on 02/06 at 02:23 PM
(0)
Comments |
Permalink
Bama getting ready to take on Vols
Jon Johnson
Alabama takes on Tennessee tonight with the national TV cameras rolling of ESPN.
It’s expected by most that No. 7 Tennessee will take down the Tide, but history in Coleman Coliseum says otherwise.
Alabama has dominated Tennessee in this building, so maybe the Tide can pull off the upset.
The Tide certainly should have some added confidence after the strong showing over Auburn on Saturday.
Here’s believing it will be a good one, but the talent of Tennessee takes over late.
Posted by Jon Johnson on 01/29 at 07:22 PM
(0)
Comments |
Permalink
Gottfried should consider turning up the heat on opponents
Ken Rogers
There is much hand-wringing and angst about Alabama basketball and it’s 0-4 start in Southeastern Conference play.
Solutions to a turnaround are much tougher than identifying problems — poor defense, both inside the 3-point line and beyond; poor perimeter shooting — a combined 7-for-34 in consecutive losses to Georgia and Mississippi State; and sloppiness with the basketball — a combined 36 turnovers in its past two games.
Maybe the key to starting over is identifying what the team does well, or what advantages it may have on opponents. Every coach in the league, whether he means it or now, raves about Alabama’s athleticism. Mark Gottfried can throw speed on the floor. He has played a lot of people and his core starting unit hasn’t won a conference game.
If Gottfried concludes his offense and defense can’t get things turned around, I would suggest using that depth and athleticism to its fullest. I think they should go to a Nolan Richardson-style all-out attack.
Is there a risk of fatigue? Yep. Is there a risk of giving up too many easy baskets? Sure, but how are they doing now? It’s all a gamble. But playing in that style wears on an opponent, too. And, sure, if you give up some easy buckets, that style also is designed to create easy baskets in transition.
It’s unsolicited advice, and perhaps worth only what you paid for it, but there is enough athletic ability on the roster to be disruptive and enough quick hands to get turnovers and turn them into easy points.
I think it’s worth a shot. Besides, 40 Minutes of Hell beats the 40 minutes of torture Tide fans have been seeing in the past four games.
Posted by Ken Rogers on 01/22 at 05:52 PM
(0)
Comments |
Permalink
No reason this can’t be win-win
Ken Rogers
I heard an interesting sound bite out of the Major Applewhite press conference at Texas this morning.
It was played on the Paul Finebaum show in the afternoon.
Texas coach Mack Brown said he expected Applewhite, Alabama’s offensive coordinator who joined the Longhorns staff as running backs coach, to bring “new ideas and new energy” to the staff.
He then added, “And he’ll be in a room where they’ll listen to him.”
Hmmm. Was he implying that Applewhite felt ignored in Tuscaloosa? Speculation varies widely on why a guy would take a demotion. Was he pushed out? Did an overwhelmed Applewhite bolt as the earliest opportunity? Was he frustrated that his more aggressive offensive ideas weren’t being implemented?
Or was the opportunity to go home to Texas too much of an opportunity to ignore? Believe it or not, there are people out there who put happiness over dollars in their career pursuits.
We still don’t know, definitively, the answers here. Both sides were playing nice and saying all the right things today.
Applewhite gushed about learning much under Nick Saban, but repeated how happy he was to be on Brown’s staff.
Alabama issued this statement attributed to Saban:
“Although we are sorry to see Major go, we wish him the best at Texas. He’s a fine young coach and he did a great job for us.
“It’s always special to go back to your alma mater, especially a place with as much tradition and history as Texas. Major was a big part of that during his playing days there and will again be a part of it moving forward as a coach.
“We appreciate all of his hard work and dedication during his time at Alabama.
“We will use this as an opportunity to find the best available candidate and improve our staff in the process.”
Demotion or emotion, defection or deflection, this should turn out to be a win-win for both Applewhite and the Alabama football program.
Nothing wrong with that.
Posted by Ken Rogers on 01/17 at 08:00 PM
(0)
Comments |
Permalink
