Aggie87 said:
KatyAggie2000 said:
And I'll add this class feels so much more complete than Jimbo's 4 or 5 years ago where it felt we were just chasing stars.
I'll give Elko this. He seems to be a great evaluator of talent for his system, including attitude, work ethic, etc. It's very impressive.
In real time, that class seemed pretty fantastic.
Only after everything fell apart was it apparent it was on-paper-only, and that some of the recruits weren't very committed to actually being football players.
OBJECTION; ERRONEOUS! This is revisionist history!!
To be fair, some of us saw some glaring "warnings"; for example, I saw a video on YouTube where one of our WR signees came across as a major DB in a pick-up b-ball game (I THINK his name was Chris Marshall, but whoever it was, he flamed out so quickly that I never gave the kid a 2nd thought). Also, we all remember Harold Perkins' antics in February; if THAT didn't have folks questioning Jimbo's abilities to assess a player's ethics & maturity, then they were definitely gulping-down the Kool Aid. In fact, I'll wager folks began to doubt how well the ratings would translate into production on the field by that Summer; at such time, we weren't focused solely upon Saban's comments. Instead, we were worrying about what we were hearing, & seeing, that led several of us to conclude that a number of those highly-rated kids were clearly the product of the recruiting gurus' circle-jerk, echo chamber.
I do NOT believe that's the case with this class, as Elko & Co were locked onto several of these kids long before the recruiting gurus' bandwagon applause & praise, as well as afterwards, when we gained a commitment from a prospect that was still off of the gurus' radar. That (presumably) shows Elko & Co formed their own opinions, based upon their own evaluations, instead of relying upon an evaluation by some 'nerd' or 'band geek' that never played a day of competitive sports in their life but is now a "recruiting guru."
