Take Two: Will lack of in-state 5-stars impact Crimson Tide?
Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and an expert from the Rivals.com network.
MORE TAKE TWO: Can Tennessee beat out Alabama for Reggie Grimes? | Can Maryland convince Chris Braswell to stay in-state?
THE STORYLINE
Only two times since 2011 has the state of Alabama not produced a five-star prospect. The 2020 class is one of those years, and in an increasingly competitive Southeast recruiting region, the Crimson Tide don’t have any homegrown five-stars yet to load up and help keep their recruiting class atop the national rankings.
Alabama has proven its ability under coach Nick Saban, and that it can go anywhere, for any prospect, at any time. In the 2020 class, the Crimson Tide went to Baltimore (Md.) St. Frances for five-star Chris Braswell.
Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy served up two five-stars last recruiting cycle in RB Trey Sanders and OL Evan Neal and Alabama went to Colonia, N.J., for five-star DT Antonio Alfano. In recent years, Alabama has gone to Texas, Kentucky, California, New York, the JUCO route and the nation’s capital for top-end talent.
The Southeast has also served the Crimson Tide well, even if the highest level of in-state recruiting has not been superb in recent years, as Alabama lost five-stars George Pickens and Clay Webb to Georgia and Justyn Ross to Clemson.
Alabama already has pledges from two of the top four players in the state, but there are no five-stars yet in the rankings. Can that change and will it even have any impact on the Crimson Tide's recruiting efforts if it doesn’t?
FIRST TAKE: CHAD SIMMONS, SOUTHEAST RECRUITING ANALYST
“I really don’t think it will affect Alabama’s class at all. It recruits nationally. It recruits the best players, period, whether it’s in-state or out-of-state or out-of-region. Plus, the Tide lost the last few guys like Ross to Clemson and Pickens and Webb to Georgia. Alabama is on the right track to finish again at or near the top and not having a five-star kid in state, at least not at this time, won’t hurt them at all.
“I would say the odds are against a five-star emerging in Alabama. You can’t ever rule it out. We will see how it plays out. I would say probably not right now, but we have almost a year until we finalize that class, so we’ll see what happens in the spring and into the fall.”
SECOND TAKE: MIKE FARRELL, NATIONAL RECRUITING DIRECTOR
“It doesn’t matter for Alabama. It’s a deep year in Alabama, there’s a lot of talent, but I don’t know if there is a five-star. That won’t hurt anyway. Alabama finished second this past recruiting cycle and it would have finished first if it got Henry To’oto’o and they lost the top two kids in Alabama this past year. Two years ago, the Tide finished sixth and lost the top kid in Alabama, who’s a five-star. I wouldn’t worry about it if I was Alabama. it is definitely going to go national and get the kids they want.”