Bama lands eight in the NFL draft, and Saban’s process keeps moving along

Nick Saban has made a statement.

And no, I’m not talking about winning championships: Unlike some flash-in-the-pan schools, it’s become a given that the University of Alabama will be in the championship conversation year after year.

The statement Nick Saban is making loud and clear is this:

“Elite prospect…come to Alabama and with a little tutilege, you’re going to the NFL. Or, go elsewhere and wither away.”

You listening Bobby Massie? The big lineman from Ole Miss had an offer to play for Saban, but instead took the easy street to Oxford. So instead of the highly touted lineman sporting two natty rings and working to become a top pick, Massie spent his college years being a punching bag for the big boys and settling in somewhere in the middle of the 4th round.

Good choice, Bobby.

Nick Saban looks prospects in the eye, with complete integrity, and promises them that if they do what they’re supposed to do, not only can they go to the NFL in the first round…setting themselves for life…they can do so with their degree in-hand.

This year Nick Saban sent an Alabama school record eight players in the NFL draft. Now before you pass over that thought, think about that for a moment:

This is Alabama we’re talking about. Fourteen national championships, and complete dominance over the landscape of college football (sorry Auburn fans, though this will come as a shock to you, football existed before 1982). In the history of one of the most storied programs, if not THE most storied program, in all of college football, the most Alabama had ever sent to the draft at one time was seven (in 1987).

Remember too, it was just five drafts ago when Bama sent no one. None. Zilch. Nattah. It was the 2008 draft, the one following the 2007 season. Remember that year? It was the defining moment of football under Nick Saban at the Capstone. Many think that if the team hadn’t turned and bought in to what he was selling in 2008, Coach Nick Saban would be wearing a different logo on his shirt today.

Instead, they did buy in, and in the four years that have followed, Bama has planted eleven players in the first round. To put that in perspective, Auburn has only managed eight in the last thirteen years (going back to 2000), and that includes four in 2005.

Long story short, Nick Saban has turned Bama into a football machine…a football machine that’s second only to Stanford in the graduation rate of its football athletes.

Any wonder now why top talent like T.J. Yeldon gives Auburn the finger to come to ‘Bama? Any question why Landon Collins stepped over his mother’s LSU Tigers to step up to the call in T-Town?

Here’s the biggest selling point any recruit needs to think about when it comes to their choice of where to spend their college football eligibility:

Just don’t miss this…these aren’t normal days at the Capstone. What’s taking place before our eyes is the kind of thing my father used to tell me about. Stories of Bama lore in the 1960s and 70s have a new cousin. Bama football in the Saban years.

And for those who hate the Tide, I’ve got bad news for you: It ain’t changing ANY time soon.

Nick Saban is happy in Tuscaloosa, will end his career there, and his process is a 40 ton Mack Truck barrelling downhill with no intentions of touching the breaks.

Oh, and teams like Tennessee, Auburn, Georgia, LSU, Florida and the teams people talk about from other conferences are in that process’ path.

There’s a reason Bama sent more players to the NFL this year than any other SEC school. And there’s a reason Auburn matched UNA and Samford’s total number (1). It’s because Auburn is on their level, in a completely different stratosphere from the likes of Nick Saban. And no pseudo commitment to becoming “NFL-like” changes the fact that Auburn is nothing more than a division II school playing dress up,

And the University of Alabama, led by one Nick Saban, is once again the Crimson Tide.

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