re: Saban recruiting, way back when (per 247)

quote:

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With Saban’s success at Bama over the years on NSD, I was interested in what he did at LSU. Granted, recruiting has greatly evolved from where it was 20 years ago...

2000: #21
2001: #2
2002: #21
2003: #3
2004: #4

The two #21 rankings seem odd and maybe older LSU fans know the reasons for that. There’s no doubt that he has fine tuned things to be the machine he is today.

I checked Bama’s rankings and it’s easy to see what NCAA sanctions can do to a program.

2000: #4
2001: #28
2002: #47
2003: #41
2004: #21

It was odd to see Tennessee at #1 and regularly in the top five in those days, based on where they are now.

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I think Saban's recruiting success at LSU was largely tied to the quality of the LA High School talent in a given year. In 2001 for example, LA had I think 4 of the top 30 in the country, he signed all of them. Marcus Spears from Baton Rouge, Michael Clayton from Baton Rouge, Andrew Whitworth from Monroe (still playing in the NFL) and the late Marquise Hill from New Orleans.

The 2003 and 2004 classes were also loaded with LA talent but Saban started to get top guys from out of state, JaMarcus Russel from Mobile and Matt Flynn from Texas were both QB's in that 2004 class, for example Glenn Dorsey was in that 2004 class was in-state, along with Early Doucet another top elite guy from in-state.