re: Class of 2018 Recruiting MEGATHREAD: So Long Old Friend Edition

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Between injuries, preparing to face Clemson in the College Football Playoff and early-signing day, University of Alabama coach Nick Saban had a lot to talk about during his press conference on Wednesday.

The Crimson Tide had signed 15 players when Saban took the podium: Eyabi Anoma, Joshua Jobe, Christian Barmore, Cameron Latu, Slade Bolden, Emil Ekiyor, Jordan Davis, Tommy Brown, Stephon Wynn, Xavier Williams, Jalyn Armour-Davis, Saivion Smith, Jarez Parks, Jerome Ford and Skyler DeLong.

Smith and Parks are already participating in bowl practices on campus.

Here were the highlights:

• Good work so far during practices. Pleased with enthusiasm and effort. It’s important for players to have a vision for what they want to accomplishment, plus take ownership to do their job — faith, trust and confidence are keys, not only that each does his job, but the others do as well..

• Injuries: Freshman linebacker Dylan Moses foot injury resulted in surgery, required a pin in his foot. Out indefinitely. Similar to what Mack Wilson had, it takes a minimum of 3-4 weeks of rehab. Sophomore safety Deionte Thompson had a lower leg bruise, it’s not really a problem.

• Saban says Alabama signed 15 players so far and they’re very pleased with all of them. Have 23 slots total, so are looking to add eight more. Have a lot of work to do and hope to finish strong.

• On signing a quarterback, Saban said they’ve tried to recruit one and would still like to land one if possible. Always wants to have four on the roster. It’ll depend on how things go.

• On the running back rotation and giving the ball more to Harris. “There’s only one ball,” he said, and “we’re going to run the ball only so many times.” We’re going to have a plan, and the guys who are playing well will probably get the ball more as the game progresses.

• On filling needs in secondary: We still feel like we’re recruiting more defensive backs, and we’re going to lose five if not more. We need to replace at least that many. We feel really good about the three we got today. They’re all really good players. Smith is off to a good start, can already tell he’s going to be a good player.

• A lot of guys stepped up and accepted their roles and responsibilities after losing so many players last year. Clemson did likewise, and their offense is almost as good as lead year

• On the next step in recruiting to signing day. “I can’t tell you because I’ve never done it before.” Just that there’s a whole lot going on here. Will probably recruit the rest of the class pretty much like before, but with smaller pool of players.

• On Thompson’s role, filling in for Hootie Jones: We’ll have to make a decision on that, still trying different combinations. We have a lot of confidence in him, though, and he’s improved a lot. We need him to play well for us. I’m not happy Hootie’s not here as a senior (out with a knee injury), but we’re excited for the players who have an opportunity to do more.

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He committed to 3-4 different schools in the process. Delayed decisions several times. And promised to commit to a school if he got a certain amount of followers on Twitter.

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• On signing a quarterback, Saban said they’ve tried to recruit one and would still like to land one if possible. Always wants to have four on the roster. It’ll depend on how things go.

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Did you see that shite about Saban that AlixB dj person posted on his twitter? Holy shite. Who is this AlixB person and who is she saying raped her in 2008?

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