Nick Saban brings in another number one class. (Photo Cedric Mason, TDA Magazine)

Saban Makes Recruiting Seem Easy, Brings in Another #1 Class

By: Larry Burton

Saban makes recruiting seem easy, but that’s only because you don’t see all the behind the scenes work he does. What is easy though, is predicting that this is a trend that seems to have no end in the foreseeable future.

While many Tide fans were worried seeing the Tide rated as low as 10th in the days before national signing day, this magazine told Alabama fans not to worry, that the Tide would roll in strong, hard and late when it mattered and that’s just what happened.

Instead of being in a celebratory mood, Saban seemed irritated that things couldn’t have been buttoned up earlier noting that this year many of their targets were waiting until the very last moment to pull the handle. But if the process that got the commitments bothered him, certainly the players he landed didn’t, although in true Saban fashion, he still is upset he didn’t get everyone he wanted. Only Saban would have something bad in a number one rated class.

What he did get was blocks to build another championship or two, or three on.

In just the last two days, Saban added four and five star players that easily pushed Alabama to the top of most all the ranking services lists. Here are those late signees:

Name	Pos	Location	Ht	Wt		Stars		Committed
Irvin Smith	TE	New Orleans, LA	6’4″	237		3		2/3/16
Terrell Hall	DE	Washington, undefined	6’5″	251		5		2/3/16
Lyndell Wilson	LB	Montgomery, AL	6’1″	235		5		2/3/16
Jared Mayden	DB	Sachse, TX	6’0″	199		4		2/3/16
Jamar King	DE	Ukiah, CA	6’5″	285		3		2/3/16
Aaron Robinson	ATH	Deerfield Beach, FL	6’1″	173		3		2/3/16
Joshua Jacobs	RB	Tulsa, OK	5’10”	200		3		2/3/16
Ben Davis	LB	Gordo, AL	6’4″	236		5		2/3/16
Shyheim Carter	ATH	Kentwood, LA	5’10”	181		4		2/3/16
Scott Lashley	OL	West Point, MS	6’6″	298		3		2/2/16
Nigel Knott	DB	Madison, MS	6’0″	170		4		2/1/16

To finish the list of earlier commitments:

Name                                   POS       Location                                       Ht    Wt            Stars          Committed

Raekwon Davis	DT	Meridian, MS	6’7″	305		4		1/18/16
Trevon Diggs	WR	Gaithersburg, MD	6’0″	188		4		11/7/15
Shawn Jennings	DB	Dadeville, AL	6’2″	217		3		7/28/15
B.J. Emmons	RB	Morganton, NC	5’11”	205		4		7/20/15
Quinnen Williams	DT	Birmingham, AL	6’4″	265		4		6/30/15
Miller Forristall	TE	Cartersville, GA	6’5″	215		3		6/13/15
Jalen Hurts	QB	Channelview, TX	6’2″	196		4		6/5/15
Charles Baldwin	OL	Brooklyn, NY	6’5″	305		5		6/5/15
Kendell Jones	DT	Killeen, TX	6’4″	351		4		5/22/15
Deonte Brown	OL	Decatur, AL	6’4″	320		3		4/29/15
Chris Owens	OL	Arlington, TX	6’4″	315		3		4/22/15
Jonah Williams	OL	Folsom, CA	6’5″	280		5		4/4/15
T.J. Simmons	WR	Pinson, AL	6’1″	191		4		2/19/15

Some coaches say that Saban doesn’t recruit, he simply selects the ones he wants and leaves the rest for them to fight over, but that’s certainly not true and certainly not true this year. But it does seem to others that he does make recruiting look easy.

For the ranking by teams, here is Rivals list down to 51st place where Vanderbilt comes in. That way you can see where all the other SEC and top schools were ranked.

Rank		School	Total	5 Stars	4 Stars	3 Stars	Avg	Points
1		Alabama	24	5	10	9	3.83	2885
2		Florida State	25	1	18	4	3.72	2816
3		Ohio State	24	2	15	7	3.79	2704
4		Michigan	28	1	15	12	3.61	2603
5		Clemson	22	3	10	6	3.59	2530
6		LSU	23	0	15	6	3.57	2515
7		Mississippi	24	2	10	12	3.58	2507
8		USC	20	2	11	7	3.75	2429
9		Auburn	21	2	11	6	3.62	2403
10		Georgia	20	3	10	6	3.75	2387
11		UCLA	29	1	10	15	3.31	2380
12		Notre Dame	23	1	12	9	3.57	2289
13		Texas	24	1	10	13	3.50	2259
14		Florida	25	1	9	13	3.36	2219
15		Tennessee	21	1	10	9	3.52	2202
16		Texas A&M	21	0	10	11	3.48	2109
17		Baylor	22	0	9	13	3.41	2104
18		Stanford	24	1	6	13	3.17	1981
19		Michigan State	18	0	10	7	3.50	1911
20		TCU	22	0	6	15	3.23	1854
21		Miami (FL)	18	0	7	10	3.33	1816
22		Penn State	20	0	6	13	3.32	1805
23		North Carolina	24	0	6	15	3.13	1773
24		Nebraska	21	0	4	16	3.14	1771
25		Oklahoma	18	0	8	7	3.28	1752
26		South Carolina	25	0	6	14	3.04	1724
27		Oregon	18	0	5	13	3.28	1705
28		California	25	0	4	16	2.96	1705
29		Kentucky	25	1	4	14	3.00	1702
30		Pittsburgh	24	0	5	16	3.08	1678
31		Duke	21	0	4	14	3.05	1656
32		Arkansas	20	0	4	14	3.10	1638
33		Wisconsin	24	0	4	19	3.13	1594
34		Arizona State	18	1	4	12	3.28	1590
35		Utah	23	0	2	17	2.91	1575
36		Mississippi State	17	1	3	13	3.29	1554
37		Washington	18	0	7	6	3.11	1541
38		Louisville	23	0	3	14	2.91	1541
39		West Virginia	27	0	2	16	2.74	1491
40		Maryland	21	0	4	10	2.86	1489
41		Oregon State	24	0	2	17	2.91	1488
42		Iowa	24	0	0	21	2.88	1455
43		North Carolina State	23	0	2	15	2.83	1453
44		Houston	19	1	2	10	2.89	1438
45		Texas Tech	24	0	2	19	2.96	1425
46		Oklahoma State	21	0	1	18	2.95	1408
47		Northwestern	20	0	1	16	2.90	1398
48		Brigham Young	24	0	4	9	2.71	1388
49		Virginia Tech	19	0	2	14	2.95	1365
50		Minnesota	20	0	1	12	2.70	1356
51		Missouri	18	0	3	11	2.94	1260
52		Iowa State	28	0	1	14	2.57	1260
53		Arizona	16	0	2	11	2.94	1247
54		Washington State	22	0	0	16	2.73	1245
55		Indiana	21	0	0	14	2.67	1215
56		Syracuse	20	0	0	15	2.75	1215
57		UCF	20	0	2	9	2.65	1214
58		Boise State	26	0	0	13	2.52	1200
59		Vanderbilt	20	0	1	9	2.55	1190

Larry has been published in almost every media outlet for college sports and now primarily writes here for Touchdown Alabama. Follow Larry on Twitter for inside thoughts and game time comments at https://twitter.com/LBSportswriter

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