Big day for the Tide

It was a big finish for Alabama today as we had three huge recruits commit to top off the 2008 recruiting class putting Alabama atop the national recruiting list. Julio Jones, Jerrell Harris and Marcel Dareus.

Alabama landed three five stars this recruiting season: Julio Jones, Burton Scott and Tyler Love. The probable quarterback of the future, Star Jackson signed his LOI today as well.

The Tide is ranked top both in Rivals.com and Scouts.com recruiting class. It's been an amazing run and now we get to see what all Saban and staff can do with them.

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On another note, Auburn is pretty dissapointed in the way things went over the course of today and the recruiting season.

Some comments from al.com's Auburn blog:

Posted by arklight:
Let's not kid ourselves. CTT and staff need to look in the mirror and try to figure oput how we lose THREE of our long time commitments right before signing day. They might want to make a committment to better in state recruiting, maintaining a consistent coaching staff, and putting to rest issues of job security sooner rather than later. Let's be honest this is a 9-3 or 8-4 class...Nothing special, nothing terible. It's time CTT either steps up his game now that he doesn;t have Shula to kick around, or next year, just don't flirt with other schools...Take the job.

Posted by tigerzbaby:
I think we got a good, solid class. True, Bama's is highly ranked *IF* you care about stars. I do not look forward to hearing all the smack that we will no doubt have to listen to as a result, whether it's founded or not they love to dish it out.

Posted by AUDude1:
OK everyone - let's not get all freaked out. This story will be extremely old news in just a few weeks. Remember, it is a COMBINATION of recruiting clases over a 4-5 year period that constitutes the team.
We all knew that Davis and Fortson were lost causes anyway.
For now, we still have some pretty good backs for the next few years in Tate, Fannin, and Lester (1 more year for him).

Posted by Tottenham:
Just wondering:
1) Would it have been better to sign fewer players and hold those scholarships (under the 85 limit) for future classes? Would it have been better to stick with quality and limit the quantity?
2) How much pressure will there be to have a top signing class next year? This year, not so much, because of last year's great class. But I'm pretty sure that two in a row would have long lasting effects.
3) In evaluating the misses in this class (vis a vis the head to head matchups with Bama and the loss of previously committed players) why isn't the DB from Auburn High (whose name escapes me at the moment) who signed with Florida mentioned?
4) What need was Auburn not able to address?

Posted by shug1957:
We will have to work hard for everything we get from this day forward. We have no more Mike Shula to laugh about.

I know it hurts you to read the frustration that is coming from the Auburn community. I think they are starting to realize the excitement we had when Coach Saban was hired. He did a good job this past season, but now it's time to truly watch him and his staff work.

Any thoughts on today?