... but when you are Alabama you do most of the time.
You have to really feel bad for Alabama head coach Nick Saban. With multiple national championships, multiple recruiting national championships and the highest-paying contract among college football coaches, Saban says you don’t always get what you want.
During a press conference Wednesday afternoon as Alabama’s latest masterpiece recruiting class was just settling in, Saban said “You don’t get everything you want all the time,” referring to potential recruits that ended up elsewhere. Despite missing on a recruit or two, Alabama still was on track to land the top-ranked recruiting class, which has become the norm for Saban in Tuscaloosa.
“You don’t know what kind of class you have until these guys develop,” Saban said. “It’s everybody’s “guesstimate” right now.”
Well, the good news for Saban is Alabama has been one of the best at developing talent, routinely helping its top incoming talent eventually reach its potential before sending it off to the National Football League. It is expected Alabama’s latest haul will turn out just fine in the next couple of years.
Saban’s statements will surely rub some people the wrong way, but there is some truth in what he said, even at Alabama. In recruiting, even programs like Alabama are going to have scholarship offers that are not accepted in favor of an opportunity at another program. With that being the case, of course Saban and Alabama will lose a couple of recruits they would love to have join the program. Fortunately for Alabama, Saban has built a strong enough force that Alabama can still manage to pull in top-tier talent to plug the holes anyway. And if Alabama happens to miss out on a spot one year, the next recruiting class will certainly fill the void.