Photo: 247 Sports
Anytime Alabama lands a big time recruit, it is met with a yawn. We expect this sort of recruiting news to happen when discussing the Crimson Tide. Nick Saban has built what can be referred to as an empire, a dynasty at one of college football's historically great programs. Not to take anything away from the work done by Saban in recruiting, because he didn't just flip a switch to shine a light that let recruits know they could come to Alabama, but we have reached a point where Saban has perhaps the easiest recruiting job. Alabama can pick and choose which recruits they want, the way Duke can with basketball. That said, today Alabama did something they have not done in an extremely long time in recruiting circles.
Louisiana offensive tackle, Cameron Robinson, is one step closer to becoming Alabama's first No. 1 recruit (according to the 247 Sports Composite) to commit to the Tide in over a decade.
Robinson announced his decision to attend Alabama Wednesday, choosing the Tide over SEC West rival LSU, his favorite team as a child. In fact, Robinson admitted it was hard not to commit to the Tigers when it came time to make his decision.
"It was extremely hard," Robinson said according to 247 Sports. "Growing up, I was an LSU fan. I had to make the best decision. I had to start looking at it not from a fan standpoint, but from a prospect standpoint- what school I felt most comfortable at and what school would set me up to be the most successful."
Truth be told, LSU would have probably done a fine job preparing Robinson for a potential NFL future. Few programs can top LSU, but Alabama is one of them.
Robinson is the 20th member of Alabama's Class of 2014, with practically an entire season to play before really getting down to the nitty gritty of the recruiting process. Sure, Alabama has had their crop of top three recruits over the years (No. 2 Cyrus Kouandijo, 2011; No. 3 Julio Jones, 2008) but you can go back as far back as 2000 and not find too many top recruits heading to Tuscaloosa.
Offensive guard Andre Smith was the last No. 1 recruit to go to Alabama, doing so in 2006 according to the retroactive 247 Sports composite rankings, but Rivals ranked Florida receiver Percy Harvin as their top player in 2006. So you can see that this is a pretty big deal, even for Alabama. It's hard to believe, isn't it?
Kevin McGuire is the managing editor of Crystal Ball Run. Follow McGuire on Twitter,Facebook and Google+.
