Minutes after the finish of Wednesday’s training the third day of planning for the SEC Championship Game Alabama mentor Nick Saban recapped the main day of the early marking time frame, which saw the Crimson Tide sign each of the 24 players focused on the program.
Saban called attention to the trouble of shuffling both the last advance of the selecting cycle and the groundwork for the No. 7-positioned Florida Gators, however he additionally applauded crafted by his staff.
“I think the coaches did a really good job of preparing for practice, continuing to do the things they need to do but stay in contact with all the players,” Saban said. “We didn’t have any issues today in terms of guys we thought were coming, they all signed and came. I continue to have Wednesday and Thursday as my phone call, video, setups and all that. I’ll continue to do that tonight. It’s more difficult, but it’s manageable. We didn’t have a lot of guys that were vacillating. These guys, for the most part, have been committed for quite some time now.”
“We were very pleased and happy with the decisions they made. We didn’t have any issues.”
Alabama at present has the country’s No. 1 selecting class, as indicated by the business created 247Sports Composite rankings. Recorded by position, the Crimson Tide added five linebackers, four guarded backs, cautious linemen, hostile linemen and wide recipients and one player each at quarterback, tight end and competitor. The class incorporates players from 11 states.
Saban said Alabama distinguished its necessities from the beginning and “got some really good players at each one of those positions.” One of those was at beneficiary, where the Tide marked four players that are among the main 68 possibilities in the nation in Jacorey Brooks one of six 5-stars to sign a letter of goal with UA on Wednesday JoJo Earle, Agiye Hall and Christian Leary.
“I think that sometimes when you have four guys like we had the two that went out last year, Jerry and Ruggsy, and the two we have this year, Waddle and Smitty everybody knows they’re on your roster, so it becomes a little bit difficult and we’re probably a little bit thin in numbers at receiver,” Saban said. “And knowing that there’s the potential to lose a couple more guys this year, we thought it was really important for us to sign a minimum of three wide receivers, and we were happy to get four.”
“These guys are of different types, I’ve talked about receiver, the position, before. It’s kind of like a basketball team. You need a point guard, a shooting guard, a power forward. You need different kinds of players to make an effective receiving core and I think that we have some big guys and we have some fast guys, so I’m really pleased with that group.”
Earle was one of two possibilities from the 2021 class that flipped their responsibilities from LSU to Alabama on Wednesday’s marking day, alongside frail side cautious end Keanu Koht.
“We’ve been recruiting these guys for a long, long time, and I think both guys started, several weeks ago, showing a little more interest, maybe not being satisfied with where they were in their recruitment or whatever,” Saban said. “So, we were pleased and happy to get both those guys. We think they’re both really, really good players, really good people, great families. We’re excited about those two guys, for sure. Those are two guys that we’ve had discussions with in the last couple of weeks that were still up in the air.”
Alabama’s 2021 marking class is almost full, yet a portion of the Crimson Tide’s top targets will stand by until February to sign, including protective end J.T. Tuimoloau and security Terrion Arnold. Saban was inquired as to whether there are any more positional requirements following the mid 24-player pull.
“There’s still players out there that are available,” he said. “I think you guys know the rules in terms of how many guys we can take. So we’ll manage it the best we can, but I think at this point if we can get a really, really good player, we would certainly be pleased to be able to do that.”
