Winning it all, maybe not. Winning more games, I absolutely believe a number of other guys could do that here, right now. We’re stuck in purgatory, just need to get out.
There are people that would believe Saban was dirty, recruited with money, probably didn't care about his players, as people. I never felt that way. Setting a great example, influencing, motivating, teaching can be done by the same winning HC. Nick Saban quotes: 13 that’ll make you run through a wall for the Alabama coach
So tired of what we have that I would be okay with moving on to a different form of mediocrity and ride that for a couple of seasons.
I think you'll have a difficult time proving that a few guys showing off a couple of thousand dollars is because Saban was handing out money.
Lol ok. Been posted many times before. Al-betar and other examples as well but people believe cheating happens yet the most dominant roster in the last 15 years didn't cheat. And Lance Armstrong was clean too. The guy had in store signings with active players and just so happened to own a dress suit/sports memorabilia store. Also, Tua and family left Hawaii for Tuscaloosa because it's very easy to uproot and entire family from Hawaii to Alabama. Is what it is. Agree to disagree. Should Bama Worry About Memorabilia Shop with Merchandise from Active Players?
Paid players 100%. Didn't care about his players, disagree with that one. He got a ton of guys paid NFL money too.
Believe what you want. Most schools had to be offering something more, likely UF as well. It takes faith to believe georgia, auburn, uf, fsu, michigan, ohio state were not doing something extra and that only Alabama had a cheatin HC coordinating and directing payments. I see Saban became bama HC 2007. His first class was 2008 and was #1 on rivals, mostly because of the cumulative weight of 32 commits. I would have to believe he became HC and immediately went to work buying a number one class if that's how he was doing it. Seems kind of unlikely. Did he start negotiating and directing payments immediately or eventually? For me, it's difficult to see when exactly he went from above board recruiting to straight up buying his classes.
You have to differentiate between a HC setting up payments and some interested party making contact to exert influence. If you were to look back at class rankings, no team since 2008 was more consistently top 5. But you also have to look at the teams that stayed top 10, top 5. They did so with no inducements? UF had some top classes in the Saban era. We paid nothing extra? Nick Saban was paying his players but other teams consistently coming close to bama's classes weren't? We had a better class in 2010, and a better quality class in 2012(fewer players so lower overall rank). Did UF cheat to get good classes?
Julio was a member of that class and everyone and his Brother knows he got paid. Of course he went to work immediately buying the #1 class, just like Kirby did when he arrived at UGa.
Everybody cheats. Some get away with things others haven't. Pell took the wrath for doing what he learned from Bear Bryant. Kirby is doing what Saban did at Bama. The NCAA hasn't dropped the hammer on a major program since florida. Other schools had relatively minor sanctions given what their programs were doing since then. There is too much money today to penalize cash cows with TV bans and massive scholarship reductions. NIL changes everything and it will be interesting going forward how everything shakes out but the adage is you don't beat a field of cheaters without cheating. Yes, I believe urban attracted guys like Percy Harvin through unscrupulous methods however I don't believe Florida has been able to do it at the level Bama, Georgia etc have with impunity like they have. Some will argue that we gators are hypocrites and bitter because we don't get to cheat as well as other do and maybe they are right. I don't think I'm naive when I say florida either by choice or by force ran a "relatively clean" program in the 90s because we were one step away from the death penalty. That doesn't mean Fred Taylor didn't take money but I'd be hard pressed to believe we ever had the complete structural setup that Bama and Georgia have utilized complete with support from law enforcement, boosters, and government. Football is all Alabama has. They witnessed florida, lsu, auburn, Tennessee and other programs win titles while they were irrelevant on the national stage since 1992. They sold out completely and provided Saban with any and every resource to do so. Do we have examples of relocating families across the country? Hell, we offered Carl Moores girlfriend a sports scholarship to lure him from California and caught hell for it
I think I need to post this again We are UF! We do not partake in their levels of unscrupulous behavior. Now pass the Grey Poupon.