🏈 Nick Saban keeps signing them, but AJ McCarron's no fan of all those 5-stars (Kevin Scarbinsky)

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Can you have too much talent?

Can you sign too many five-star recruits?

Are you asking for trouble because all those high school hotshots won’t be able to play right away and inevitably some of them won’t like it?

Nick Saban doesn’t seem to think so.

Sounds like AJ McCarron has a different opinion.

Come Wednesday, according to all the major recruiting services, Alabama is going to sign the No. 1 recruiting class in college football. Again. The Crimson Tide has commitments from five of the top 25 prospects in the nation and 10 of the top 86 recruits in the Rivals 100, and they may add to those numbers.

Recruiting analysts already are debating whether this class could be the best that Saban’s signed at Alabama.

That’s high praise for young men who’ve never taken a college snap considering the actual accomplishments, as individuals and as the collective backbone of the program, of Alabama’s 2008 and 2009 signing classes.

Given all of its hype, this recruiting class would seem to be a pretty strong rebuttal to anyone who believes that closing the 2013 season with two losses signaled a decline in The Process.

Not in recruiting. The Process never stops recruiting. Once again in 2014, as has been the case for years, Alabama likely will take the field with more overall talent than every team it plays.

Funny thing about talent, though, as McCarron pointed out as he made the media rounds in New York during the run-up to Sunday’s Super Bowl. Talented players want to play, and when they don’t, they don’t always respond in a positive way.

“That's the kind of thing that ticks me off about recruiting and when these kids come in and they're five-stars and they expect to play right off the bat,” McCarron said in an interview with Jim Rome. “It's a little entitlement, and when they don't play off the bat, they get a little ticked off and they don't want to work."

That was an eye-opening observation from the only starting quarterback Alabama’s known for the last three years. It was a suggestion that, as good a job as Saban and his staff have done in recruiting the best high school players, they haven’t been quite as successful in de-recruiting them.

There’s a difference, and it’s not exclusive to Alabama. Coaches treat players one way when they recruit them, going to sometimes embarrassing lengths to show how much they want them, and those same coaches have to teach those same players how to be a part of something bigger than themselves when they arrive on campus.

McCarron offered a little more insight into Alabama’s struggle last season to get all of its high-profile recruits to buy into the system.

"We had a lot of young guys," McCarron said. "In the end, success was our killer. Too much success and a lot of young guys coming in who didn't know what it took to get back to that point to win. They thought we'd just show up and we'd win."

Words to ponder as Alabama rounds up another top recruiting class. We used to think talent would never be a problem at Alabama as long as Saban was in charge.

Listen to McCarron, and you look at talent in a different way.





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[TerryP]

I decided to bring this over from the news forum to give you guys something to compare. Yes, I realize Scarbinsky is being Scarbinsky.

I find these things interesting, so forgive me for pointing out what's obvious.

Notice, the way KS is framing this commentary is that AJ isn't a fan of the talent. He makes his case with these two paragraphs.

Funny thing about talent, though, as McCarron pointed out as he made the media rounds in New York during the run-up to Sunday’s Super Bowl. Talented players want to play, and when they don’t, they don’t always respond in a positive way.

“That's the kind of thing that ticks me off about recruiting and when these kids come in and they're five-stars and they expect to play right off the bat,” McCarron said in an interview with Jim Rome. “It's a little entitlement, and when they don't play off the bat, they get a little ticked off and they don't want to work."
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Is that the actual case? Or is Scarbinsky putting something out there that's entirely out of context?

Consider the following and answer this question. What's AJ saying "he's ticked off about?"

“I think that’s one of the things that is wrong with recruiting out of high school,” said McCarron. “You have guys who have never played the game of football rating these guys that they are a 5-star, because they’re sitting behind a computer screen watching their highlight film. Well, their highlight film is supposed to be good, the last time I checked. That’s the kind of thing that ticks me off about recruiting and when these kids come in and they’re 5-stars and they expect to play right off the bat. It’s a little entitlement and when they don’t play off the bat, they get a little ticked off and they don’t want to work.”
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[LauraWoman]

I guess being ticked off about the rating system doesn't make for as catchy a headline.

 

[CrimsonPirate]

Scarbinsky is a member of the media. LauraWoman is right. It's all about what catches . . . and holds . . . the reader's attention.

 

[planomateo]

I'm not a fan of writers who do this. There was another example of a sports writer doing this just recently, can't remember who it was. But it was one that you'd get spun up over. I know who it was, a writer talking about James Franklin's comment about the SEC. Trying to create spin with his article, but if you listened to the interview...he wasn't saying what the writer was saying.

Pathetic if you ask me.

 

[rick4bama]

I'm not a fan of writers who do this. There was another example of a sports writer doing this just recently, can't remember who it was. But it was one that you'd get spun up over. I know who it was, a writer talking about James Franklin's comment about the SEC. Trying to create spin with his article, but if you listened to the interview...he wasn't saying what the writer was saying.

Pathetic if you ask me.

Why I haven't read it.

 

[planomateo]

Why I haven't read it.

The article I was referring to > http://www.statecollege.com/news/lo...eak-gpa-records-for-football-program,1446284/

Snippet I was referring to. Its written in a way that the dig was on Vanderbilt, but it was really a dig at the SEC.

When asked about the difference between Vanderbilt, his former employer, and Penn State, Franklin said values. At Vanderbilt, which is in the SEC, Franklin says the top priority was always football."They don't make any excuses or try to justify, that's really their reason for existence," Franklin says.

At Penn State, Franklin says there's an emphasis on education and an athlete receiving a well-rounded experience. Additionally, with recruiting, he says his goal is to capture student athletes that are going to be "great fits here socially as well as academically."

 

[TerryP]

[MENTION=11338]CrimsonPirate[/MENTION], painting this as "a member of the media" is using a very broad brush. [MENTION=12433]planomateo[/MENTION] brings up a great case to point to because when that story started it was a member of the media, Mark Schlabach, that was the first to say, "that's being taken out of context."

You can find a lot say "it's done for clicks." In a sense, but a small one, that's true. It's done to create a story instead of reporting on a story. It can be labeled, accurately, as commentary—not reporting. The issue becomes a question; is the commentary framed as an opinion or framed as fact?

One thing I'll add here going back to what Pirate said and including a little of what [MENTION=15019]rick4bama[/MENTION] touched on. If you choose not to read commentaries and articles like these it does create a problem in future conversations. You'll run into fans, both rival and those sharing the same allegiance, that'll point to these storylines in conversations and use snippets to support their opinions. When one knows what's been written versus what's actually been said the dynamic of conversations changes dramatically.

I'm willing to bet we'll see some state opinions in the future that'll sound like "we shouldn't be focusing on recruiting all of these guys from out of state that are highly ranked and focus more on kids who grew up in-state and love to wear the Crimson jersey. Remember when AJ said Saban was recruiting too many prima donna's..."

 

[Swamptick]

Lemming media.

 

[Crimson&WhiteGecko]

I remember a time when The Enquirer was on par w/ Mad Magazine, now it is on par w/ Time. Lemming public too.