re: Alabama Recruiting

No… he hasn’t done anything to warrant top 5. A 37-9 HC record is good but not top 5 worthy. He recruited worse than both his predecessors at Washington. He won like 7-8 games last year by a TD or less so easily could have finished 8/5 with a senior laden team that he didn’t recruit lol

And be ready for all the bitching when Keelon becomes a 5 star.

Not spinning at all. You had way better options yet you hired a guy with four years of FBS HC experience. If you told Bama fans a year ago who their HC and two coordinators would be today, most would hysterically laugh at you or jump off a bridge. Or both

quote:

---

quote:
still trails them in the rankings?



I'm gonna need a link for that dog

---

LSU's class is currently ranked #2 in On3's composite rankings.

LINK

Every year about this time some rival fans proclaim that Alabama isn't recruiting well, though in fact Alabama is recruiting better at this point this year than any year in my memory. When they close strong, as is always the case, some committments may be "encouraged" to seek other opportunites. It's an unfortunate situation but not uncommon these days.

I don't remember the last time LSU finished higher in recruiting than Alabama did, and probably won't this year either.

quote:

---

In 2016, Kirby Smart's first year as HC at Georgia 24/7 had them at 6th, behind BAMA, LSU and Ole Miss. On3 had them at 11th, behind BAMA, LSU, Barn, and Ole Miss and Rivals had them at 9th behind BAMA, LSU, Barn, and Ole Miss.

Coach DeBoer is in his first cycle as well. You have totally left out the transfer portal and these days that's stupid. And no one has played a down of Senior football yet. Rankings are about to change dramatically.

---

2016 was Kirby's transition year. Unlike Deboer, he didn't get hired after early signing day where Saban actually signed the majority of the class. While coaches who replace a coach fired before ESD have a harder time today then compared to when Smart was hired, Deboer had a great situation as Saban retired AFTER ESD. Saban already signed most of Bama's 2024 class before he resigned.

Kirby's first full class was the 2017 recruiting class which compares to this year's class for Deboer. UGA finished 3rd. The only two ahead of him were Saban and Day who are also acknowledged as elite recruiters.

UGA was #1 in 2018, #2 in 2019, #1 in 2020, #4 in 2021 (only 20 recruits), #3 in 2022, #2 in 2023 and #1 in 2024.

He's effectively been top 3 every year in recruiting he was there the full time (mostly behind Saban and/or Day when not 1st).

Kirby was #3, #1, #2, #1,#4, #3, #2, #1 in 247's rankings in the full years of recruiting he had at UGA. Saban was #1, #5, #1, #2, #1, #2, #1, #2 under Saban under the same time frame. Both of those are examples of elite recruiting.

Transfer portal recruiting is not measured well. It doesn't adjust players' "value" well when they transfer to account for what they've proven in CFB before transferring. UGA and Bama in past years have been underestimated as a lot of times players "transfer up" when going to UGA or Bama after having success at lesser schools and "transfer down" when leaving after failing at UGA or Bama.

Once we have a good measure of the actual talent transferring, I'd make the effort to include it. But we don't have that yet.

quote:

---

I can't wait for the "Rats from a sinking ship!" crowd after players left in the portal to switch over to the "He's winning with Saban's players!" group.

---

They can join the old crowds of "Saban's over-signing", "Medical red-shirts", "Gray-shirts", "Unfair cross division rivals", and "No holding penalties called", "Refs are paid" crowds of the old days.

quote:

---

It won't happen this upcoming season or even the season after. But as Saban's elite classes move on and Deboer's very good classes come in, it will happen over time. You're looking at having a similar level of talent to LSU, Texas, A&M and OU rather than an edge in talent on all of them. And you're likely looking at having a bit less talent than UGA rather than the same amount (and UGA had only gotten to the same level as Bama in talent in the last 3 seasons or so, before that you had an edge over EVERY SEC team in talent)

---

You keep completely discounting that Deboer might actually do well on the field which will help his recruiting. It's his first year, Saban's first class at Bama was ranked 10th. Deboer is going to do a shitload better recruiting at Bama tan he did at Washington

quote:

---

That explains the 2 SEC championships Kirby has won in 8 years. Doing less with more. I would suggest Kirby got fat residing in the East division and didn't have those annual trips to Baton Rouge and Tuscaloosa to weigh his record down. He still doesn't know what College Station looks like. Anointing Kirby as the next Coach Saban is about to blow up in your face Nostradamus.

---

Talent is the biggest part of college football coaching. Both acquisition and development. Always has been, always will be.

As Terry Bowden said, "You can have the X's and the O's. I'll take the Jimmies and the Joes."

Kirby Smart knows this. He learned it from Nick Saban. Recruiting drives success in college football.

And 2 national titles in 8 seasons isn't doing less with more. It's the same number of national titles Saban had in the last 8 seasons. And Saban is the GOAT.