re: Alabama Class of 2014 Recruiting MEGATHREAD (Goodnight sweet Prince)

It seems like Miller is more solid to us now than he was before. I think hanging with Cam Rob and the rest of the commits helped him feel more connected to Bama.

On Evans: I just don't see us pulling it out. Wish we could though. Kid should be the #1 player in the state.

With a lot of these kids, it seems their commitment is dependent on us winning championships every season. That can be great and very bad.

We're seeing the very bad.

Evans could be the missing link and a great candidate for the guy needed that could fill a defined role in Saban's D against Spread and HUNH offenses. While Spread/HUNH are often used by the same offenses there are subtle differences in the philosophies and they aren't mutually inclusive.

While Evans is an OLB type body him being on the DL could be a great weapon against HUNH teams. He could be scary good in the role Eryk Anders played in 2009/Upshaw played in 2011. As a DL by scheme that is played by a guy extremely athletic for a true DL because they are a LB by body type. Evans can be that guy if he plays for us or Auburn. Hopefully we can land him. Especially after losing the kid to UCLA tonight.

The concept that Stoops and Saban spent summer 2009 working together on still influences both of their D's today. Smart football did a whole article on the concept. It is taking the concept of the mirror that is used all kinds of advanced defensive football and applying it to each level of the defense. We played a guy smaller than the ideal for each position in a new position and it fooled Florida very well. We had a true mirror against Tebow on the DL (Eryk Anders usually a LB spied Tebow on all the between the tackles stuff), at LB (Mark Barron played the entire game in the box except for obvious deep passing down despite being a Sophomore safety) and at DB (Javier Arenas played Tebow's eyes from a Safety spot despite normally being a corner)

We were able play basically the same 11 guys for entire drives no matter Florida's formations, tendencies or down and distance. While Florida was not a HUNH team every down they still employed a lot of heavy personnel changes. Saban after having his players play tough but get mentally tired in the 08 developed this "Speed chess" version of his D with Stoops. But against teams that can both go Up Tempo and run the ball effective they can "Substitute" Saban's D to death. Saban has a great strengh and conditioning program but the Terrence Cody's of the world getting absolutely ran down because they are having the constantly substitute. And they are getting ran down because of stuff they are doing without playing.

Saban loves his Defense as anyone can tell. Its almost "West Coast Defense" in that he goes through an amazingly diverse group of packages, blitzes, checks, and even defensive trick plays). Nick Saban is the defensive version of a football nerd a term usually associated with offensive guys.

Saban against UF like I said played a version of his D that was almost "Speed chess" (I told you Saban was a nerd). He played very few guys, kept them on the field and went more on diversity of the playmakers instead of the perfect play every down.

Spread and HUNH don't have to always be together but when they are they can give Saban fits.

His defensive speed chess (which btw Stoops and his brother used to some great effects to bust us in the mouth last night with) can be used against these HUNH teams. The only problem is because the D is so verstatile he needs a relatively experienced D. That 2009 D was filled with guys who had because of expediency/pure necessity when Saban arrived had learned his system early and had been playing in it and together for 3 years. His defensive speed chess also requires a lot of trust, those 11 guys have to trust each other, trust Saban, Smart, whoever is making the calls, they have to trust their captains making the checks, and they ultimately have to trust the whole play call.

Assuming no one on the roster knocks over the Cowboys on McFarland and everybody that comes back comes back. And yes I know its a pipe dream (and by pipe I mean meth pipe (haha)

Hopefully next year you will see us be able to play Saban's speed chess some more. We did it in 2009, and 2011 to great effectiveness with those experienced and talented defenses.

But I could see these 11 guys being the next great "Speed Chess" version of Saban's D.

DE - Jonathan Allen

NG - A'Shawn Robinson

DE/DT Hybrid - D'Shawn Hand

DE/OLB Hybrid - Adrian Hubbard/Rashaan Evans

LB - Trey Depriest/Reuben Foster

LB/DB Hybrid - Vinnie Sunseri/Christian Miller

CB - Eddie Jackson

DB - Geno Smith

DB - Landon Collins

DB - Jarrick Williams (or Haha if he came back)

CB - Mo Smith/Tony Brown

Whitley to UCLA is far from a done deal. I know he decommited, but I feel Bama is still very much a player.

It will suck if Elam picks UK then, though, since we wouldn't have time to flip him.

quote:

---

Whitley to UCLA is far from a done deal. I know he decommited, but I feel Bama is still very much a player.

---

When did he de-commit?

quote:

---

Whitley to UCLA is far from a done deal. I know he decommited, but I feel Bama is still very much a player.

---

Don't see it at this point. He would have to be on his way to end up at UA. IIRC he is an EE and they have to be in class on Tuesday. Maybe the staff is in Texas as we speak but the window of opportunity is narrow.

Is Thomas the backup plan to Elam? If so, I imagine the staff was waiting on Elam to decide today before really pressing on Thomas, and now that's been screwed up.

I wonder if we won't just try to get Thomas now, in case Elam doesn't pick us on NSD.

Every time a recruit says he is 100% to us, it's almost a guarantee he will flip. It fricking sucks.