Everyone talks about the depth of talent in Texas, Florida, California and Louisiana. But you can’t forget Alabama. Especially this year. Rivals.com recruiting analyst Jamie Newberg provided some interesting facts about recruiting the state this year:

“Alabama is producing great talent both in quality and quantity…Rivals.com has 33 five-star prospects, and three are from Alabama – Fluker, Kirkpatrick and Analusia’s Nico Johnson. Fluker and Kirkpatrick are also the No. 1 prospects at their respective positions; Johnson is the No. 2 outside linebacker prospect in the country and the No. 3 overall prospect in the state…”

It isn’t like this is an anomaly. Alabama produced three five-star players in 2008 too. One of those five-stars was Julio Jones. As a quick contrast, in 2008 Louisiana produced no five-star talent on the Rivals list. In 2009 Louisiana has three five-star players on the list including highly regarded Rueben Randle.

The most interesting aspect of the Rivals top players in Alabama is their likely destination. In 2008 Alabama landed all five top players in the state and seven of the top ten. Auburn landed zero of the top ten; Florida landed two of the state’s top ten players. Clemson snagged the other one. All three five-star players signed with the Tide including Jones, Burton Scott and Tyler Love.

How will 2009 unfold? Alabama holds verbal commitments from four of the top ten with four more undecided, but each includes the Tide in their final list. Auburn holds one verbal pledge and Tennessee the remaining pledge. The undecided players include Dre Kirkpatrick, Tana Patrick, Kendall Kelley and Brandon Moore. Alabama has a good chance to land some if not all those remaining top ten players. Kirkpatrick is the only five-star player not committed to the Tide at this time. Analysts like ESPN’s Tom Luginbill have said Kirkpatrick is likely headed to Tuscaloosa. That would mean another sweep of the state’s five-star talent in 2009.

11 thoughts on “Alabama becoming a recruiting hotbed”

  2. Gadsden City High is a new school that was formeed from three older schools in the Gadsden City limits. Emma Sansom High, Litchfield High, and Gadsden High. These three schools previously NEVER got the recognition that Gadsden City is now getting. And its wasnt because of the lack of talent there. These three schools consistantly produced some unbelievable talent over the last thirty years. Thay just never got recognized by the “recruiting services” because they didnt play on as big of a platform that Gadsden City now plays. Jarrell Harris, Dre Kirkpatrick, Kendall Kelley, and many others have been recognized for there outstanding talent. But Im here to tell you , that this area has ALWAYS produced some great players that were overlooked. Sometimes it was because at the older schools education was not to good at best, and a lot of great players werent eligable. One of the best running backs Ive ever seen was at litchfield High in 89. I think he ended up signing at Florida State but failed to qualify.

    You Bammers will love this , Remember Martin Houston of 92 Nat. Champ. fame ? He played at Cherokee Co. High. And I got to play against him. He was a linebacker and tailback. Played both ways. That guy was a flat out monster. I remember him breaking about 12 tackels on a 75 yard TD run. Then when on defense he blitzed and scoop slammed out tailback. Well, the dude from Litchfield was at least as good as him.

  3. Litchfield produced some amazing basketball teams too. I believe they were in 3A when I got to see some exciting games. The school had a great tradition. It was kind of sad to see the merger to a mega school.

  4. Gadsden City Basketball will probably produce a Champioship team real soon. If Im not mistaken, the coach from Litchfield is the coach for Gadsden City.

  5. Oh yea…….Coop , thanks for the informative post ther Einstien.

  7. He was an unbelievably powerful runner. No one in CFB could stop him on 3rd and short. And Coach Stallings gave it to him every time on third and short.

  8. Since this topic is on recruiting, anyone notice in the Bham News all the Aub bloggers ripping Eddie Gran a new one for trying to recruit Brandon Jacobs? Some wrote “over rated” and “no class”. My eyes must be playing tricks on me because no Aub would ever complain about one of their own assistants for coaching at another sec school, even if he was jobless.

  9. Nice try Bama. But no bites here. And you sure wont see columns dedicated to Grans personal life , or deflaming his character. Maybe some mad fans for trying to entice a recruit , but other than that , nothing.

    Insert crickets here……..

  10. Ballplay, was it the Bama fans that wrote the columns about Thompson’s personal life? No. But the Aubs on here were trying to rip us about the fact we were mad that he left. Just pointing out the fact you have the same type fans at the barn. If calling him overrated and classless is not an attempt to defame his character I don’t know what words you would use to do so. That sound you hear is call a hipo”cricket”.

  11. Go see the Auburn sites. You wont see any deflamation about Tommy Tubberville or any of the staff ( with the exception of some older stuff on Franklin)……..And yes, the bloggers on this very site are Bama fans. And they are ripping Thompsons life apart. And it isnt right. Leave the mans personal life out of it. Yall are just ill cause he went to Tennessee. Period. If Steele had gone to Tennessee or LSU we would be hearing the same nonsense about him. But thats just my opinion. And as far as Auburn having just as many nutty fans. In your dreams buddy. Yes , we have a few Charles from Reeltowns. but your Phylis from Mulga trumps him every time. Just the sheer number of Alabama fans makes it impossible for Auburn to compete in the nutjob category. Plus the per capita of nutjobs in your base compared to ours is undisputed. The only team in the NCAA that MIGHT be able to catch you is LSU. Again, just my opinion.

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