The Bodda Getta

You probably will not see this in AL newspapers - Saban gets slammed for methods!

On the front page of the Sunday Sports Section of the Nashville Tennessean, their main sportswriter, David Climer, wrote an excellent commentary exposing the updykes and Saban for their "process". It's really a shame that no sportswriter in the State of Alabama has the guts to write such an article for fear of retribution by the updykes. I guess when it comes to freedom of the press, Alabama in still in the 1600's.

Here's the article (of course the updykes attacked him like he was Hitler in the reader comments section)...

Alabama's recruiting math doesn't add up

Feb 24, 2013
Written by
David Climer
The Tennessean

Alabama continues to lap the field in college football. The Crimson Tide dominates in the regular season, in the postseason and in recruiting.

And when it comes to scholarship numbers, nobody touches Alabama.

Reports surfaced last week that the defending national champion is an indefensible 10 over the scholarship limit, based on current players and recent signees.

The numbers are courtesy of CBS Sports.com blogger Matt Hinton.He takes the number of players who were on scholarship in the 2012 season, subtracts graduating seniors and underclassmen who have declared for the NFL draft plus any others who have exited, and adds the number of signees in this recruiting class.

Anything over the NCAA maximum of 85 gets red-flagged. Fifteen programs from the six major conferences came in over 85. The SEC, long known for pushing the envelope, had five teams on that list, including Vanderbilt with 89.

Being four over the limit doesn’t seem like such a stretch for the Commodores. Natural attrition tends to take care of that.

But 10 over? That’s not just breaking the speed limit. It’s breaking the sound barrier.

Between now and the start of preseason practice, Alabama must find a way to get 10 scholarship players off its roster by whatever means necessary.

This is nothing new. In 2010, the Wall Street Journal published a story where three Alabama players said they were pressured to take medical hardships that did not count against the scholarship limit even though they were not severely injured.

According to NCAA rules, a medical hardship is allowed only if a player has an “incapacitating injury or illness” that prevented participation in the sport.
Alabama coach Nick Saban is notorious for seeking medical hardships, which keeps a player on scholarship but effectively ends his career because of injury, great or small.

It’s funny how many of those guys were not playing up to the competition at the time their careers came to premature ends.

It reminds me of the bring-out-your-dead scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Player with a hangnail: “I’m getting better.”

Saban: “No you’re not. You’ll be stone dead in a moment.”

This just in: Saban is ruthless. Honk if you’re surprised. It’s one of the reasons he is so successful. He runs Alabama football like a major business enterprise — which it is. He’s not afraid to make the tough call.

On first glance, clearing up scholarship room would seem to be a poison pill in recruiting. It’s the kind of thing competing programs can and will use against you. But it doesn’t seem to have impacted Saban one bit. He keeps bringing in the top recruiting class year after year.

Like former Tennessee coach Derek Dooley said, everybody else recruits but Alabama drafts.

The NCAA doesn’t really begin keeping score until preseason practice. When everybody reports for training camp, only 85 can be on scholarship.

The process of getting from 95 to 85 already is under way.

Three Alabama players were arrested recently in the robbery of a fellow student. A fourth was charged with fraudulent use of a credit card.

All four have been suspended from the team and are considered expendable. That’s a start.

Also, four other players who have never lettered are scheduled to be fifth-year seniors. I’m betting all four will decide to give up football for personal reasons.

With two quarterbacks in the latest recruiting class, don’t be surprised to see Phillip Ely and/or Alec Morris transfer elsewhere.

And if necessary, one or more members of this recruiting class could be asked to greyshirt — postponing their enrollment until January, when they will count on next year’s class.

That’s how you get down to 85. What’s the big deal?

Here’s the big deal: Saban got to 95 scholarships before those four players were arrested.

All four of the fifth-year seniors in question sat out a redshirt season without complaint.

As for the reserve quarterbacks, what if one of them wants to remain on the team, even if he is buried on the depth chart? And don’t forget those medical hardships.

Think of it as better football through fuzzy math.

David Climer’s columns appear on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact him at 615-259-8020 or dclimer@tennessean.com.