MORE ASK FARRELL: Can Georgia win a third straight recruiting title? | Which Rivals100 prospects are undervalued?
CLASS OF 2020 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State
CLASS OF 2021 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State
Alabama had such an incredible run.
From 2008 to 2017, the Crimson Tide finished with the top-rated recruiting class every year except in 2010, when they finished fifth and 2015, when they finished second.
Other than those two recruiting cycles, coach Nick Saban and his staff finished atop the team recruiting rankings. For a while there, it felt like a shock if Alabama didn’t have the No. 1 class.
Those recruiting rankings carried over on the field as well, as Alabama won national championships and pushed numerous elite players to the NFL. The Crimson Tide were the toast of college football and looked unstoppable.
The past three recruiting cycles, though, have been slightly off. There was a seventh-place finish in 2018 and then the Crimson Tide finished second last year. Again in 2020, Alabama is slotted in the second spot behind Clemson, and while it could still shoot to No. 1 it looks like Georgia might have the best shot of moving to No. 1 or Clemson holding on.
This was also the first college football season in which Alabama was not in the College Football Playoff, as SEC foe LSU defeated Clemson for the national title.
And now we look ahead to 2021. There are nine teams with six commits or more as Clemson, Ohio State and Florida - all in the top-four of the team rankings - have nine pledges each.
Alabama, sitting early at No. 13 in the team recruiting rankings, has three total commits, all four-star prospects.
FARRELL'S TAKE
No one is saying Alabama is falling off a cliff. But with some slippage after a dominant decade-long run in recruiting, we ask Rivals National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell if other national powerhouses are starting to overtake the Crimson Tide as the nation’s best team and best recruiting team, or will Alabama return to its past glory and get back to dominating on and off the field?
“I wouldn’t panic if I was an Alabama fan as long as Saban is in charge. The Crimson Tide are No 2 this year and you can bet they will be in the top three next season as well if not on top. Saban is an elite recruiter and Alabama is still the place to go in the SEC if you want to compete for a national title every year. Clemson is coming close to recruiting at the level of Alabama and teams like Ohio State and LSU among a few others are always up there, but no one is as consistent as Alabama and that isn’t going to change anytime soon.”
