Alabama’s Nick Saban rolls into Georgia for 2010 prospects
Nick and Blake shake on it (Photo submitted by Sims family)
Alabama’s Nick Saban dampened UGA’s national championship hopes last year. Now Saban is returning to the state to inflict more damage.
Gainesville QB Blake Sims is the latest 2010 prospect to pledge to Alabama. Sims picked the Crimson Tide over UGA, Michigan, Tennessee and West Virginia, among others.
Alabama has as many commitments from the state as Georgia Tech (3), and more than UGA (1). The other Tuscaloosa-bound prospects are North Gwinnett OL Austin Shephard and Westside-Macon WR Ronald Carswell.
The big questions are these: Now that Saban is scoring big early in Georgia, will he be able to finish as strong as he started with recruiting? And will he be able to hold on to the commitments he has? So far, so good.
UGA touched base with Sims this week, asking if he wanted to take another look at the Bulldogs. “[Assistant John Jancek] wanted me to come down there, so they could roll out the red carpet like Alabama did for me last weekend,” Sims said. “I told him thanks for the invitation, and I appreciated it. It was hard to turn down Georgia. I grew up a Georgia fan. I’ve been good friends with [Mark Richt] since my freshman year.”
“But I’ve already picked my school, and I’m going to keep my word because [Saban] gave me his word.”
Saban closed the deal with Sims at a dizzying pace. It was the stuff of recruiting legends. Last Wednesday, Sims said West Virginia, Michigan and UGA were his top three choices. Thursday, Alabama offered out of the blue. Friday, Sims talked to Saban for the first time in his life. Saturday, Sims visited Alabama for the first time. Within a few hours, Saban had Sims so fired up he was ready to learn words to the school fight song.
“Coach Saban showed me love, lots of love,” Sims said. “He let me know I was very important to the future of Alabama football. I was head over heels about the place. I surprised myself by committing. I just looked up and asked God to help me with my college decision.”
The quick commitment by Sims abruptly ended a long travel itinerary for his family over spring break. They were headed to West Virginia the next day, and then Michigan by the end of the week.
However, the recruiting journey has just begun for Sims, along with rest of Alabama’s seven overall commitments. As with all the top prospects, Sims will be pursued by other schools until he signs the scholarship papers in February. He got 11 letters from colleges on Thursday, including hand-written cards from coaches at West Virginia and Michigan.
Nice start by Nick Saban with next year’s recruiting class, especially in Georgia. We’ll see where everything stands in 10 months.
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116 comments Add your comment
Sound Reasoning
April 10th, 2009
12:53 pm
Rivals uses the Top 20 recruits only. So oversigning does not raise your rankings. Get your facts straight. They are about quality over quantity.
RJS
April 10th, 2009
12:47 pm
Tom- Yes, it is a lot more fun. I stand by my statement that it is a bad practice to sign more players than you have scholarships available and I misspoke when I wrote that many coaches do it. Many coaches in the SEC do it. It is not a common practice around the country. In fact, signing day is kind of joke out here on the West Coast because we know that the SEC schools will be ranked high even though many members of those signing classes will never play a down at those schools- much more than the rest of the country.
And no, I don’t believe Saban lies more than any other coach on the recruiting trail and he’s darn good at it as I stated before.
Brad
April 10th, 2009
12:44 pm
didn’t a bama fan commit murder last year over a game? bama fans have a lot of nerve complaining about GA. Why are you not living in your own state again?
outside i285
April 10th, 2009
12:23 pm
I have lived in Ga 16 years now , grew up in Alabama and have live in LA and other cites in the US. You Ga fans are worse than the Auburn fans. Saban get 3 kids from here and he is hated like Steve Spurier . Whats your problem with Bama we all live in trailers and drive pick up trucks. And some reporter for the communist paper the AJC whips you into a lather about Saban and one kid he recruited. I will say this. I have neighbors who are avid Ga and Tech fans. But dont take this personally . The general passion for college football in the state of Ga is half of what it is in Bama. Point in case. You have 2 boobs doing a talk show in the afternoon one was a QB at GA. The other some transplanted yankee that wouldnt know the veer from a steer unless he was eating the steak from the cow. They think they are funny. they also have a talk show that doesnt have a focus. Its all over the place. So I listen to it because that is all there is until i cant take it anymore. Maybe1/4 of the show is about GA or Tech football .
Yes Ala and Auburn football are the only 2 games in the state. But listen to the sports stations on the radio. and is 90% about Bama and API what Auburn’s original name was. You can hear them on the internet.
Why did we play Clemson in the Ga dome and will be playing the gobblers in the Ga. dome.
I didnt like Saban when he was at LSU. He was a ahole. But now he is our ahole.
Ask Furman Bisher why he doesnt write about Bama football or wont even go to a Bama game. He help write the story that Coach Bryant and Wally Butts rigged a Bama – GA in the early 60’s it was printed in the Saturday evening Post and Bryant sue and won over a million in 63 which was a TON of cash. Furman hates Bama to this day. So why is that relevant to this. I just like to remind Furman of the time Coach Bryant took him to the wood shed.
So Ga has twice the population of Al. thus more kids to chose from. You go find the low hanging fruit and you pick it.
Bama fan
April 10th, 2009
12:21 pm
JB,
I didn’t know you were present at these recruiting stops and that you saw exactly what Saban said and “promised” the young man. How do you do it? How do you manage to sit in on all these meetings to know exactly what is being said? You are remarkable.
Tom From Bama
April 10th, 2009
12:16 pm
But RJS – Who are the players who were DENIED a scholarship???? You CLEARLY imply that Alabama signees are in danger of getting gypped – showing up for fall practice and being cheated out of scholarship because mean ‘ole Nick Saban lied to them. So WHO has this happened to???
The truth may not fit your bitter view, but the REALITY is that our staff plans IN ADVANCE and doesn’t sign more kids than they will have scholarships available for. Since Saban has been at UA, every year we have had a combination of back-signers, &/or kids who knew they would not qualify and instead were placed, &/or kids who knew they were going to sign baseball contracts, &/or kids who had agreed IN ADVANCE to “gray-shirt”. ALL that is known and PLANNED FOR IN ADVANCE.
NOT ONE SINGLE KID has been lied to, deceived, or left standing without a scholarship. THAT is just the plain fact of the matter.
Of course, its a lot more fun to accuse Nick Saban of lying and cheating, huh?
Sound Reasoning
April 10th, 2009
12:11 pm
RJS,
All of those players may not qualify. Last yr, we had two to go play baseball and another is on a Bryant Scholarship. Please get YOUR facts straight before denigrating our math. UA has more USA Today Academic All-Americans than any other school including…wait for it.. Harvard and Princeton.
RJS
April 10th, 2009
12:06 pm
Tom- he’s signs more players than he has scholarships for- yes, I know you went to Alabama but the math isn’t difficult. This year Bama signed 27 players. When summer camp rolls around at the very least 2 of those players will not be there since the maximum scholarships that can be offered is 25 per year. That is a fact. I realize many coaches do this- Ole Miss signed over 30 players this year- but it is a bad practice.
Stormin' Mormon
April 10th, 2009
12:00 pm
Alabama = Overrated
How lame is it for a pretender like Alabama to brag about a meaningless win in October? Oh yea, they have nothing else to brag about since the Sugar Bowl trophy is in Utah!!
Tom From Bama
April 10th, 2009
11:58 am
RJS – please name all the kids Saban has signed at Alabama who were DENIED a scholarship? Really, since you “know” that’s what happened, please name the kids who suffered that fate.