Four-star lands major SEC offer
Eddie Vanderdoes talked with Alabama coach Nick Saban on Monday and by the end of the conversation the Placer, Calif., defensive end had a new offer, a big one from the Crimson Tide.
"It was great talking to him," Vanderdoes said. "I never thought that happen in a thousand years and the conversation went well. He said he evaluated my tape as well and he said he likes the way I play.
Advertisement
"He said it's hard to find big, athletic guys around. He said he really likes me and wanted to offer me a scholarship so that was pretty cool to hear."
Alabama is the newest offer for Vanderdoes, a 6-foot-4, 285-pound four-star defensive end who's ranked No. 21 in the early 2013 rankings by Rivals.com. In his junior season, Vanderdoes finished with 59 tackles and eight sacks.
The four-star said he's thrilled to get the Alabama offer and the Crimson Tide is definitely going to be heavily considered as his recruitment progresses.
"I'm still taken aback by it," Vanderdoes said. "I almost was not expecting it but I kind of felt it coming. I talked to coach (Doug Nussmeier) once and he said he really loved how I played and it sounded like they wanted to offer me.
"The defensive line coach also loves the way I play but he wanted to show the film to coach Saban and then he saw it and coach Saban wanted to talk to me so that was really neat.
"It's a huge offer. That's a big-time program. Definitely my interest with Alabama is high. How could it not be high? It's a great school, they're always competing for national championships, it's SEC football and so it's a really, really big offer."
Vanderdoes said he would talk to his family about visiting Tuscaloosa but nothing has been determined yet.
So far, the Northern California recruit has offers from Alabama, Arizona State, Boise State, Cal, Colorado, Michigan, Ole Miss, Nebraska, Nevada, Notre Dame, Oregon State, Penn State, San Jose State, UCLA, Washington and Washington State.