Will Saban's Great Recruiting Classes Scare off New Recruits?

Some say great recruiting has a price.

Eventually, you build such a monster team that newer recruits are scared to sign for fear of never getting to see the field. With Nick Saban working on yet another top-five class following his other two No. 1 classes, is he reaching that point already?

This year the nation's top-ranked offensive lineman recruit, D.J. Fluker, sat on the bench and better learned his craft in practice. He would have seen the field on almost any other team in America.

Eddie Lacy, the nation's No. 5 running back, rode the pine while watching others set the record books on fire.

Other top position players such as linebacker Nico Johnson and the nation's No. 1 defensive back Dre Kirkpatrick also didn't playing time.

So it begs the question: Why do some of the nation's best continue to come to Alabama when the pipeline for playing time is getting so narrow?

The answer quite simply is, if you're not afraid of competition and want to play for the best, you'll come.

It only takes one season for a coach's reputation to be bolstered or bullied. Recruits know from reading the internet that Saban never promises what he doesn't deliver.

If you ask if you will have playing time, his answer is quick and unyielding: If you deserve it, yes; if you're the best, yes; if you're not, then no, but we'll prepare you to be the best and take what you brought to us and start multiplying it.

In other words, if you're as good as you think you are, then come here and get even better. If you think you're better than who we have here, come and prove it, otherwise we didn't want you anyway and are looking for only those kind of people who accept our challenge.

There's usually more than one spot for most players. There's lots of line spots, usually two or three running backs get to play and there are at least three linebackers in Saban's scheme. But there's only one quarterback.

Alabama lost one 2010 commitment this week who saw the writing on the wall that the pipeline was just too narrow for him. Rated by ESPN as the nation's No. 1 quarterback prospect, Blake Sims now seems ready to back out of his commitment after hearing that Saban is pleased with the progress of freshman A.J. McCarron of Mobile, Al. who was redshirting this year.

In a pre-national championship press conference Saban announced that McCarron was in effect the team's No. 2 quarterback since Alabama's bye week and would be used if McElroy could not continue.

He made this announcement so fans wouldn't be shocked to see him burn a whole redshirt year for just one game and Saban wanting fans to know this was not a knee jerk reaction. We knew as a press corp only after the national championship game that McElroy was playing with two cracked ribs, something no coach would want an opposing team to know.

So, Blake Sims may be the first Alabama commit to be scared off by the narrowing pipeline.

For others, they see it as a unique challenge. DeMarcus Milliner of Millbrook, Ala., the nation's No. 2 defensive back saw the stockpile of talent at Alabama and accepted the challenge saying, "I am a defensive back, you have to have confidence to be a great one, I have confidence. I want to play for the best, I want to be coached by the best, I want to be the best. I can do that at Alabama."

Milliner said that the Under Armour All American Game where he won the fastest player award.

So as long as Saban can continue to find men like that, there is no end in sight to the stockpile of talent that keeps building up in Tuscaloosa.