Alabama Football: Why Nick Saban WIll Keep the Tide on Top

On National Signing Day 2011, Alabama inked another top recruiting class to help add to the Crimson Tide legacy.   Disturbingly their hated foe to the south, Auburn University, otherwise known as "The Cow College,"  finished ahead of the Tide in two of the three recruiting services.  

Since the Orange and Blue finished higher last year as well, it's easy to hit the panic button, but go ahead and put that thing away.  Alabama and Auburn are on two different roads.

Here is the bottom line for recruiting at Alabama.  When a young man signs on the dotted line with Alabama it says several things about him.

He wants to be a champion:  

Alabama is a program that you can expect to be in the hunt for championships year in and year out.    That however doesn't make them unique.  Several other programs can make that claim to be at or near the top of college football.

He sees competition as a challenge to be overcome, not a roadblock to be avoided:  

Alabama has finished at or near the top of the recruiting rankings three out of the last four years.  There are many good football players who are on campus already.  Some kids see that and run, others see that and want to test themselves against it,  to overcome it,  to bring it under submission, to dominate it.

He has character:  

Most recruits look good out the outside, they measure up, have the impressive body. On the inside however, they have the mind of a 12-year-old.  It's all about Me,   I should be the big man on campus,  I want to start as a freshman.  I want a ticker tape parade every time I do something good.  This is not the kind of player Nick Saban is looking for.

He wants to be the best he can be:  

While early playing time is important to most recruits,  it doesn't really help to play early if you get your butt kicked.  At Alabama you WILL earn your playing time.  

There is simply never ever going to be an easy path to the field.  This is by design. Character is built from hardships and struggle.  Character is what pushes a talented team through to become champions.

Nick Saban has consistently shown that he can take talented players and make them much than that. Other schools will sometimes beat him in the subjective recruiting rankings,  but those rankings mean exactly SQUAT on the first Thursday of every February.  

From today on, the 2011 signing class at every school will have to make their legacy on the field of battle.  On that field maturity, competition, hard work and preparation mean more than recruiting stars.  

Every player that wears crimson and walks onto that field will have taken the hard road to get there and they will be ready.  

Bear Bryant once said,  "The same things win that always won...and we just have a different bunch of excuses if we lose."    

Nick Saban clearly understood this truth of humanity from an early age, and he will slowly and methodically press and mold these young men until they are rebuilt into an image of his design.  

That image may be "old school",  but like the hammer in your tool chest,  it just works, and no tool kit is complete without it.