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AJC College Sports Recruiting

Justin Taylor: Kentucky appreciative of “trust factor” in signing ex-Alabama RB commit

8:02 am February 28, 2012, by Michael Carvell

Kentucky coach Joker Phillips was appreciative that he won the “trust factor” with Justin Taylor, the North Atlanta RB who decided to sign with Wildcats rather than accept a controversial grayshirt offer from Alabama.

After Taylor was safely signed with Kentucky, his high school coach made it point to say, “We trusted the coaches at Kentucky … We felt comfortable with them, and they promised to take care of Justin.” [Click here to read more]

Kentucky’s coach was thankful for the complimentary words from North Atlanta coach Stanley Pritchett.

RB Justin Taylor signed with Kentucky rather than accepting a grayshirt offer from Alabama (AJC)

RB Justin Taylor signed with Kentucky rather than accepting a grayshirt offer from Alabama (AJC)

“We feel good that Stanley would say something like that,” Phillips told the AJC. “It had to do with relationships we have built with Stanley throughout the years. This was not our first time dealing with Stanley and one of his players. We have four or four guys on our staff at Kentucky that had some type of connection with him. And everybody here that has dealt with Stanley in the past has been honest and upfront, therefore he trusts us.”

When Taylor trusted Pritchett (who is also Taylor’s legal guardian), then Kentucky had one of Georgia’s top prospects at running back fall into its lap on signing day after an unsettling turn of events with Alabama.

“Justin leaned on the guys he knew, and Stanley leaned on the guys he knew, therefore we were able to get him,” Phillip said. “And again, I understand the commitment that Justin made to Alabama but that commitment changed [with the grayshirt condition], therefore he became available. We threw our name in the hat also, and we were able to land him, based on our relationship with Stanley and people at the school from the past.”

Kentucky has created a pipeline of talent from Georgia. The Wildcats have five coaches that actively recruit the state, including former LaGrange High School coach Steve Pardue. This year, Kentucky’s 26-member recruiting class had eight Georgia signees, led by Walton safety Zack Blaylock, Stephenson WR DeMarcus Sweat, Pebblebrook LB Khalid Henderson and Whitewater OL Jordan Watson.

Blaylock is the son of former NBA All-Star and Atlanta Hawks point guard Mookie Blaylock. Zack’s twin brother, S-LB Daron Blaylock, also signed a football scholarship with Kentucky.

“We had Zack and Daron in camp, and we used our contacts,” Phillips said. “A lot of people here in Lexington were familiar with his dad. His financial planner lives in Lexington, and I think his interior decorator is around here. Sam Bowie and Mookie Blaylock actually played together [in the NBA], so we had some contacts that gave us their names early … I think maybe at the beginning of their junior year, which is really early. We got on it and [assistant Greg Nord] went down and started establishing a relationship with them.

“We had a chance to get to know those guys and they fit the profile of what we’re looking for at Kentucky. No. 1, it was authentic when they committed. It was hard for other colleges to turn them because of the type of relationships we had established with them … There were people coming in and trying to turn them, especially with the year those two had, and we were able to hang onto them because they understand what the word ‘commitment’ means with the type of character that they have.”

Walton DB Zack Blaylock (pictured) or Stephenson WR DeMarcus Sweat could make an instant impact at Kentucky next year (AJC)

Walton DB Zack Blaylock (pictured) or Stephenson WR DeMarcus Sweat could make an instant impact at Kentucky next year (AJC)

One more question with Joker Phillips: How did the SEC’s new over-signing rules affect Kentucky’s recruiting efforts this year? “It had a little impact. A guy like Justin Taylor probably doesn’t fall to us, and is probably signed by Alabama. With the new rules, you have to be creative with how you handle recruiting now. It’s not going out and signing 28 or over-signing. You also can’t sign guys who are on the fence academically. If you do, you take a huge, huge chance … a huge risk. There were some good players who got away from the SEC because of that. Some other conferences were able to sign some guys that were at-risk academically.

“Here and now in this league, it’s becoming where you have to feel really good and really comfortable that a kid is going to qualify. You have to feel even better than that, really. You can still take chances but if it doesn’t work out, then you’re down a number on your roster. You had to play different [recruiting strategies] this year than you did in the past. But I also think a team like Kentucky benefits from the rule. It’s pretty much the same way we’ve been doing business all along. It actually helped us. We didn’t have to change as much as other SEC schools had to do.”

SINCE THE LAST TIME YOU CHECKED YOUR LAPTOP …

IT’S RAINING RECRUITING STORIES

INSTANT AJC RECRUITING CLASSICS

– By Michael Carvell, AJC Recruiting Blog

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120 comments Add your comment

AJTide

February 29th, 2012
8:57 pm

Charper… You’re right in saying that some Bama fans just can’t let it go. They’re still over here on the AJC blogs posting the same old stuff.

RTR

February 29th, 2012
9:19 pm

I’m signing off now because Best Buy is about to close and my shift cleaning toilets at the Days Inn starts in about 45 minutes.

2,000 lbs of grade A b_tthurt

February 29th, 2012
9:35 pm

@gutlessturdhandlestealingsheitbag – well, if you have nothing good to say about your dogScHEIET team, go ahead and lash out like a biznatch at the closest thing to awesome you can find. That’d be Bama and CNS. RTR. Deal with it and grow a pair already.

Vernon

February 29th, 2012
9:55 pm

@ 2,000 lbs of grade A b_tthurt

The other guy did bring up a good point. What does your handle mean? It does sound like you’ve been the “bottom” at an orgy or else maybe you’ve done hard time in prison. It sounds far from awesome I know that. But to each his own.

2,000 lbs of grade A b_tthurt

March 1st, 2012
3:15 am

@vernon (insomnia tnite, so boredom makes me troll) the other fella as well as yourself are a bit literal, I think. B_utthurt is an ironic expression directed towards anyone who demeans a superior opponent with any slander that is primarily jealousy-based. “2,000 lbs of grade A” is an example of making the ridiculous expression “b_tthurt” even more ridiculous by hyperbole; therefore, anyone who takes the expression literally – or, in your case, analyzes a homosexual fantasy from their own secret inhibitions – is a complete idiot. But I’m not surprised at the (lack of) a sense of humor in most sec fans these days: the Bama situation is certainly no laughing matter anymore. Get ready, boys and girls, the CNS train is gonna Roll Tide all over your hopes and dreams again! RTR!

Tucker

March 1st, 2012
6:23 am

How is it dishonest or misleading if you tell the recruit prior to singing day that you want to grayshirt him.If the recruit does not want to go that direction, then they can sign somewhere else. Nick Saban and Alabam are not the only schools that gray shirt players. I dare say that Mark Richt has done this in his time at Georgai and Florida State. If it were illegal or unethical, then (supposedly) that NCAA would not allow it. I get that you Georgai fans are jealous and don’t like Saban. However, At least atempt to make legitimate complaints.

Vernon

March 1st, 2012
2:58 pm

@ 2000

It still sounds homosexual; not that there’s anything wrong with that–what you do in your bedroom is your business and to each his own. There’s not a chance in hell that I (or most any other straight man) would go around using that handle though. Between that and your mentioning a “CNS train”, you could see why some folks would wonder about you when it comes to certain things. Again though, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Teddy

March 1st, 2012
3:29 pm

@ Tucker

1. The Taylor kid committed to Saban nearly a year before signing day. Saban mentioned nothing about grayshirting until just before NSD. Saban didn’t need the kid once he got the Auburn RB commit to switch to Bama. He was trying to push Taylor out the door to make room for others. He was hoping that Taylor would be ticked off and would go somewhere else and he got his wish. If Saban had told Taylor from day one that he wanted to grayshirt him, I don’t think anyone would have had a problem with it.

2. Nobody has ever said that Saban is the only one who oversigns. There have been rules put in place to try to end the practice. As for Richt, he has offered a couple grayshirts in his time at UGA, but he has always been up front with the kid from the start. He never told the kid that he had a scholarship, accepted his commitment and then months down the road, or in this case w/Saban & Taylor just days before NSD, come back and pulled it out from under him at the last minute.

3. What Saban did to the Taylor kid and the other kid from AL whose name escapes me at the moment is blatantly unethical. Any rational and objective person would be able to see that. It would be blatantly unethical no matter who was doing it. It just happens that Saban is the one involved in these two examples. If the coach at my favorite school did it, I’d be saying the same thing about him.

4. If you’re going to try to have an honest discussion on this, come to the table with facts. Don’t just throw out the view of a homer who can see no fault with his program no matter how many facts are staring him in the face. Rather than have an intelligent discussion on the facts, you seem content with throwing out your homer view while trying to claim everyone who dares mention the subject is “jealous” and out to get Saban. When I read that line, I didn’t even want to waste my time with a reply, but it’s a slow day so I threw one together anyway.

2,000 lbs of grade A b_tthurt

March 1st, 2012
6:16 pm

@ Vernon: you’re a funny guy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. RTR!!

Crimson Crush

March 1st, 2012
6:49 pm

@Teddy

The reason you can’t remember the “other kid who’s name escaped you” is you don’t know enough about EITHER ones recruitment to bring those “facts” you claim to so desperately crave . Every kid recruited by Coach Saban knows if there is a greyshirt CHANCE in their future or not .

In “the kid who’s name escapes you” case his odds of greyshirting were so publicly known that an Arkansas coach was calling the kid over two months earlier with the pitch ” we are hearing you will probably be a greyshirt” . How was it an Arkansas coach knew more about that kids recruitment than he did ? Even better … how is it that you can claim the young man in that case ” had no idea” after having it later confirmed that he was at least told by a minimum of one outside person with certainty months earlier ?

You typed a lot of words … but you are EXTREMELY short on the very “facts” you try to insist others bring to the table .

By “facts I am guessing what you mean is agreement with the air fluffed false premises you read in the AJC and decided to build your thesis around ….

Teddy

March 1st, 2012
7:29 pm

@ Crimson Crush

It sounds to me like you’re just trotting out the Tide talking points and building your thesis around them. Provide links to valid sources to support your version of the “facts” and I’ll consider them. Until then, I’m viewing your post as the very thing I described in point #4 of my previous post. You typed a lot of words, but they read as nothing more than hearsay and rumor at best. I’m guessing the reason you didn’t cite any sources for the information you posted above is because it’s all air fluffed garbage you read on a Crimson Tide message board that was written by homers who refuse to acknowledge anything that could be the least bit negative about their program and coach.

If you’ve got the “facts” as you claim, prove it. You say everyone outside of the Alabama fan base (the AJC certainly isn’t the only media outlet who has reported on this issue since Saban has been there so your insinuation that it is gives me a good hint as to your level of education on this subject) is wrong on this subject. Prove it! You say anyone who speaks negatively about Saban/Bama on this subject doesn’t know enough about the situation, so educate us with actual sourced facts as opposed to hearsay/rumor/company line.

Atlbamafan

March 2nd, 2012
7:22 am

@teddy… I know I am a little late with this post, but I will write it anyway. You sound like a backwoods country lawyer. You go on and on about providing proof for responses to your allegations when you provide no proof in the first place. How do you know when these kids were asked to take a greyshirt? Both of these young men knew well ahead of signing day that there was that possibility. I know this to be fact. I do not have to prove anything to you or anyone that posts here. The burden of proof lies with the accuser… YOU!!!

Teddy

March 2nd, 2012
1:05 pm

@ Atlbamafan

That’s a cute post. You sound like a backwoods Bama fan who ignores what every media report written nationwide has said on the subject because you don’t like the reality that those reports present. Instead, you’d rather ignore reality and cling to some garbage that you heard from Bama homers–rumors/hearsay/completely air fluffed horse manure–or read on Bama message boards. Like I told Crimson Crush, if you have sourced facts that disprove every media report written across the country on this issue, show the rest of us who are only going by the information we’ve accumulated from countless media reports from actual credible media outlets. If you actually have the sourced information that you claim, you’ve got one heck of a scoop because dozens of reporters across the country who are paid to cover the subject for a living haven’t found it.

The burden of proof here lies with YOU. You’re the ones (the ONLY ones) who cling to claiming something that none of the hundreds of media reports across the country have reported. You’re the one suggesting something other than what has been established as fact. If everyone in the USA outside of the Alabama fan base has this story wrong and you have sourced factual information that can “educate” the rest of us on the subject, we’d enjoy seeing it! Show us!

Teddy

March 2nd, 2012
1:15 pm

Look at it like this: It has been widely established that bigfoot/sasquatch doesn’t exist. If someone claims to have seen it, they must show us proof.

Crimson Crush

March 3rd, 2012
11:17 pm

@ the Teddy

The “hundreds of media reports” ALL link back to the AJC ya jackhole LOL

And even at their source … the article insinuated many things … provided no irrefutable “facts” other than those insinuations … yet you gulped em down because they fit YOUR cognitive bias .

Links have been posted repeatedly as refutations on other AJC articles … to interviews from DOZENS of kids or their guardians … all of whom talked about how incredibly detailed and thorough their recruitment actually was by the Tide . As multiple recruits and players have attested … Saban has a plan for everything … and they always KNOW where they stand if they commit or come close to it . And that wasn’t just kids that committed to Bama . Several who ended up elsewhere have saw fit to comment about the incredible attnetion to detail even AFTER eventually signing with another school .

If you want to believe the insinuations one AJC writer was able to spin out of the story of one recruit over multiple DIFFERENT reports from multiple DIFFERENT players and originating from multiple DIFFERENT outlets … more power to you .

Just don’t expect your dumba** “burden of proof” (otherwise known as disprove this manufactured negative ) to stand up anywhere outside of your own mind and the few equally gullible haters who WANT desperately to believe it anyway .

Recruits willing to work hard and long for their spots certainly still seem to know better . They are STILL lining up to play for the Crimson Tide . So I guess the “everyone in the USA outside of the Alabama fan base” doesn’t actually believe everything that you THINK you know after all ;-)

Crimson Crush

March 3rd, 2012
11:30 pm

Blackout asked the hypothetical

“Let’s say a prospect who is offered by Saban in the 10th grade. The prospect tries to commit to Saban but he is told Alabama is full at that position for 2013. Then Saban is caught recruiting that position 2 days later. Think we would get a few articles on that? ”

========================================================

We would get AJC stories until at LEAST 2014 off that (possibly 2018 … I can see the “Spurned Saban Recruit Finishes College” headline now :-) ) …

Teddy

March 4th, 2012
2:58 pm

@ Crimson Crush

That’s pretty much the reply I expected from you, ya homer jackhole! ESPN, USA Today, SI, and countless other media outlets across the country have reported the same set of facts on this situation. It’s not just the AJC. A quick Bing or Google search shows that. If you can’t at least acknowledge that fact, your credibility is even lower than I had imagined.

You’ve made it 100% clear with your reply that you’re the definition of a true homer and that my previous post was 100% accurate. You couldn’t provide even the slightest shred of a link or a cited source to backup your claim that everyone outside of the Alabama fan base was wrong on this topic. Not even a single link. LOL. That’s even with two full days to find one. LOL.

Crimson Crush

March 4th, 2012
11:38 pm

EVERY last media outlet you named ( and the 10,000 you didn’t ) simply wrote an article referencing the AJC article .with ZERO additional information or investigation . My browser has access to every last search engine that yours does . To make it “official” every last one of them either slapped a link right back to the AJC itself or wrote “the AJC is reporting” when rehashing the story for the generation of hits on their own sites …

You got the reply that “you expected” because THAT is the way it is . You are either deliberately being obtuse to further the overall lie you are now stuck with or you are one of the few dumba*** who actually thinks “Craig James Killed Five Hookers” because that was linked and relinked across the Internet as well …

Crimson Crush

March 5th, 2012
12:08 am

” This represents a type of false dichotomy in that it excludes a third option, which is that there is INSUFFICIENT INVESTIGATION and therefore INSUFFICIENT INFORMATION to prove the proposition satisfactorily to be either true or false. Nor does it allow the admission that the choices may in fact not be two (true or false), but may be as many as four, (1) true, (2) false, (3) unknown between true or false, and (4) being unknowable (among the first three).

” In debates, appeals to ignorance are sometimes used to (feebly try to ) shift the BURDEN OF PROOF.”

===================================================================

I added the feeble part . It seems apropos. ATL had you pegged right in his first response . Like an amateur backwoods lawyer you are a one trick pony … and even after it gets flogged to death … you keep beating it and yelling “Giddy UP !!!” .

No one spent “two days” trying to disprove the phantom negative you posed . And no one will be doing that next year either . Read the link below if you need any further explanations as to why …

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_ignorance

I won’t mind occasionally checking in and laughing at you though if I find you here next week still trying to snap your Two Step Teddy suspenders . Try to find or at least manufacture a point to make that hasn’t already been covered ad nauseum in two dozen different comment sections on the same subject :-)

Teddy

March 5th, 2012
1:28 am

@ Crimson Crush

I see you couldn’t find a single link to back up your comments. I don’t read every comment in every blog (most times I don’t even read more than a few comments because they’re almost always of no value) but I don’t remember seeing any of the stuff you claim was posted and you darn sure haven’t been able to supply the sources or links.

I guess I should’ve clarified before that I was talking more in the larger picture of Saban’s track record of grayshirting and oversigning. The Taylor article fell right in line with Saban’s track record which had been established by numerous media outlets across the country through numerous articles covering several different instances.

You seem to question Taylor’s comments, but let’s remember that Taylor spoke of Saban coming out of nowhere a couple weeks before NSD with the grayshirt idea and at that time he remained committed to Bama. It wasn’t until days after those initial comments that he told reporters that he was going to see what else was available to him. You seemed to suggest before that Taylor was lying because he was bitter or something, but why would he lie about it if he, at that time, planned on attending Bama? Your argument there makes no sense.

Before, in talking about Philon’s situation you claimed that just because an Arkansas coach said he’d heard rumors that Philon was going to grayshirt that somehow that meant that Philon should’ve known. Do you honestly think Philon would have put himself in the position he was in on NSD if he’d known about Saban’s grayshirt plans well in advance? As for that Arkansas coach hearing the rumor about Philon grayshirting, I’d imagine it was based on Saban’s track record of handling players in a similar situation to Philon (injured after committing to Bama). The Arkansas coach was simply making a very educated guess and of course, he was right.

Like I said before, all I’m asking for is any sort of link that supports your point. I’ve asked you at least twice before and you’ve failed to produce them. You had time to look up your cutesy wikipedia link there, but I guess you just didn’t have time to look up the links I requested, even though you claim they’re easy to find. ;-)

You (and many other Bama fans) seem quite content in your sheltered dream world of homerism on this subject. I hated to zap you with some reality because I had a good idea of how you’d respond. You’ve done nothing to surprise me in that regard. Although, I did truly hope you’d enlighten me with some of the “facts” you claim to have on the subject that evidently nobody outside the Bama fan base has. I was truly interested to learn about what, according to Bama fans, nobody else knows about the subject. Your inability to produce even a single link to support your case after two requests speaks volumes.

You and your ilk (homers in denial on this topic) have unintentionally provided me much laughter already and I’ll check in from time to time to see if you’re still here trying to sell your blind homer garbage to any other gullible folks. It should be a sign when nobody outside your fan base shares your view on the subject, but I suppose Bama fans recognizing that would require them to view the matter without crimson glasses. :-)

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