Surprise! Nick Saban and his coaching staff have done it again on the recruiting trail.
In a press conference televised live on ESPNU Wednesday afternoon from his high school, Cameron Robinson, 247Sports.com‘s No. 1 player at any position in the Class of 2014, announced that he has verbally committed to play his collegiate football at Alabama. The West Monroe, La., offensive tackle opted for the Tide over the other member of his Top Two, LSU.
The verbal to the Tide comes a handful of days after Robinson’s good friend, four-star Monroe, La., wide receiver Cameron Sims, committed to UA,
(Writer’s note: it’s at this point in the program where we, as always, note that verbal commitments are non-binding and nothing is official until pen is put to National Letter of Intent paper)
Robinson plans to graduate high school in December and, at least for now, enroll at Alabama in January.
The 6-6, 320-pound Robinson had narrowed down his choices to Alabama and LSU in late May, eschewing planned visits to schools like Georgia and Texas A&M. As recently as late July, Robinson denied that he had a favorite among the two.
“Neither school has really separated themselves from each other,” Robinson said. “People are talking and don’t know what they’re talking about. Neither school has led for me. I don’t have a lead school other than those two. If I had to make a choice tomorrow I don’t know if I could because I actually don’t know where I want to go.”
In addition to being the top player in the country according to 247Sports.com, Rivals.com puts Robinson as the No. 3 player at any position while Scout.com ranks him No. 2. Suffice to say, he’s the consensus No. 1 offensive lineman in next year’s class.
The fact that the Tide landed a verbal from one of the top players in the country, though, is hardly a surprise, even as they went into LSU’s backyard to do so. Rivals ranks Alabama’s 2014 recruiting class -- 19 commitments, 13 of them four-star players -- as the No. 1 class in the country. Since 2008, Saban’s second year in Tuscaloosa, the Tide has claimed that recruiting service’s top class a whopping five times. The only time in that six-year stretch they weren’t the No. 1 class was 2010 when they were No. 5.
UA’s worst finish under Saban was the coach’s first year (No. 10, 2007). To put the recruiting success with Saban involved into perspective, the Tide finished No. 30 (2002), No. 49 (2003), No. 24 (2004), No. 18 (2005) and No. 11 (2006) in the five years prior to Saban’s arrival.
Roll Damn Tide indeed.