Everything Nick Saban Said Following Early Signing Day
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — As is custom on Early Signing Day, Alabama coach Nick Saban is slated to speak to the media on Tuesday afternoon in a press conference. The press conference is slated to being at 4 p.m. CT.
So far, Tuesday has seen a total of 22 Alabama commits sign their National Letters of Intent, making it official that they will play football for the Crimson Tide in 2022. You can find a full list of Alabama's early 2022 signees by visiting BamaCentral's Early Signing Day Tracker, as the Crimson Tide is expected to add at least one or two more names to its roster by day's end.
Saban is expected to address his thoughts on this December's signing class as well as talk about individual players for the first time. Additionally, Saban will likely answer one or two questions concerning his team's ongoing preparations for its College Football Playoff Semifinal game vs No. 4 Cincinnati.
Transcript: Nick Saban on Early Signing Day
Opening Statement
Saban: “We’re very pleased to welcome this group of early signees. I think this is the fifth year we’ve had an early signing date, and it’s kind of become the signing date for a good number of players. But we were able to add 22 players to this class with the possibility of maybe another guy or two before it’s over. Seven of those players are from the state of Alabama.
“This day represents the culmination – at least for now – for a lot of people who do a great job of being a part of our team to help us attract character, quality people who want to get an education, who wanna be great football players to this university. People in the university community do a wonderful job of helping us in our recruiting efforts. Our administration, Dr. Bell, Greg Byrne and the athletic department, many people around the university community do a great job in terms of their time spent and the contributions that they’ve made, as well as the cumulation of all the efforts of the coaching staff, our recruiting staff, all the people in the football organization.
“And we try to identify the needs that we have each year and do the best job we can to identify the best players that fill those needs. And we think this class will certainly help us continue to build the kind of program that we wanna have in the future, which is very competitive, and that these guys will have a chance to be successful individually and collectively as a team.
“But as I say every year, I think that we’re talking about people that are young and still developing and to be able to encourage them to focus on their growth and development personally, academically and athletically is the hope that we have that they will grow into mighty successful people in the future. The focus has to be on development because we want guys to look at going to college as a destination where they’re going to get an education, develop a career off the field, prepare themselves for the day they can’t play football and also develop a career as a football player but not just a direction to go on and at the next level because I think there’s a lot of value in how people develop a chance to be successful in life by what they do in college.
“We were able to satisfy a lot of needs in this class. Speed on offense. We’re always excited to get a quality quarterback, and Ty Simpson is certainly someone that we recruited a long time, know a lot about, is made of the right stuff and certainly has a lot of talent and ability. We’ve got a lot of speed at the skill positions on offense – running back and wide receiver. We’ve got a couple really good offensive line prospects, some good tight end prospects. A lot of solid players on defense. A couple guys up front, a couple linebackers, a couple rushers, some people in the secondary. Overall, I think we’re never totally satisfied with who we’re able to attract, but we’re very, very pleased with the guys that we were able to attract in this class to this point.”
Q: Thoughts on Jeremiah Alexander?
Saban: “The guy's an outstanding football player. Makes a lot of plays. Very instinctive. Very explosive. Good pass rusher. Has got a lot of power as a player. And he's been a guy that's been productive now for three years in high school. And they won several state championships in a row. I think his leadership and his ability to make plays on defense has probably contributed to that in a significant way. I think the guy's an outstanding football player.”
Q: Thoughts on Ty Simpson and bowl prep?
Saban: “It's every player's opportunity if they're mid-year, if they graduate and want to come in and try to contribute in bowl practice, and he's indicated he may be interested in doing that. Obviously it will help his development and it'll help us by having another hand at that position, which is always important, whether it's scout team or taking reps with the first and second team in terms of his development.
“Ty is really a ... They won the state championship. He won the player of the year in Tennessee. The guy's got a really good arm. He's very accurate. He's smart. He's kind of one of those guys that loves football, is always asking football questions, wants to learn as much as he can. I think sometimes those guys get referred to as football junkies, but that's a good thing and certainly a good thing at the quarterback position. I think he's bright. He's smart, he's a good decision maker. He's very instinctive as a player. He can make plays with his feet.
“I just think in every way he was the guy we targeted in this class as being the guy we wanted and we felt very fortunate that we were able to get him."
Q: Experience with NIL in this recruiting cycle?
Saban: “Look, the dynamics of recruiting have changed. We're not supposed to use name, image and likeness as something that influences a player to choose a school. It's something that he should earn after he enrolls in the school. I'm not going to make any comments about who did what or what happened out there in recruiting. But all's I know is we want to have the best program that we can in name, image and likeness when they get here as players so they can create and develop value for themselves so that they get opportunities to have additional income when it comes to name, image and likeness.
“I was very pleased with how our players did this year and hopefully we'll continue to expand on that in the future.”
Q: Thoughts on the new group of wide receivers?
Saban: “I think that's one of the groups I was referring to (in terms of speed). We've had some really good receivers here. I think four first-round draft picks and the potential of the guys that we have this year having opportunities at the next level. We want to continue to be able to track guys like that — or difference makers — people that can actually put points on the board and make explosive plays have been something that’s really been a significant part of our offensive production. Obviously you need to have a good quarterback to do that. Bryce did a great job of allowing those guys to be able to feature their talents and I feel good about this group of guys. But again, it all comes back to how do they develop? How do they stay focused on what they need to do to be complete players at their position so they can play fast and play with confidence, but I think physical ability-wise, this is a very good group.”
Q: What do you think about your defensive line class and how big of addition was Khurtiss Perry?
“You know, Khurtiss is really a good player. He's got great initial quickness. He's a good pass rusher. The guy is very, very productive. He's very instinctive. He runs well. So you know, we're excited, you know, to get him and we wanted to get some guys like that that are athletic and Jaheem is a big guy that’s hard to block. And I think we still need to get some guys like that for certain situations. And Isaiah Hastings has a lot of upside and abilities. Only played one year of American football this year, but we were really impressed with his ability and his upside and when he can become.”
Q: Early signing period good for athletes? Good for the sport?
Saban: “Basically what I do is try to adapt to whatever the circumstance and whatever the situation that we have, but you know, we made a decision to move up the recruiting calendar significantly several years ago. Guys visiting in the summertime and I think all that sort of married up to having an early signing date. We just adapt to that and done the best that we can to. But we also said that, and many people said, that when we had an early signing date that it would become the signing date, and I think a lot of players now gear their whole recruiting process to make an early decision. Can't really say that that's a good thing or a bad thing. We just adapted to it and try to do the best we can having earlier visits, having more visits during the season. And then spend more time in January on the few prospects that are left and you know, junior recruiting for the next class.”
Q: Coach Deion Sanders signed No. 1 guy? Thoughts?
Saban: “I have a lot of respect for Deion Sanders. I think he’s a good coach. He's a good guy. He was a great player. He’s got a great personality and I enjoy doing commercials with him, you know, but it's not for me to comment on who makes what decisions to go where based on what circumstances and so, you know, he got a great player and I think that's good for his program and I'm not really going to make any comments about what happened. I don't really know the background or you know, the details of you know, what happened there but you know, everybody has a right to make those choices and decisions. That's why it's America and everybody has freedom of choice. So I'm happy for him that he got a great player.”
Q: Thoughts on Earl Little Jr.?
Saban: “Earl, I think, is an outstanding player. He’s got really good feet. He can run. He’s an instinctive player. He plays with toughness. He was on the top of our board all year long as one of the outstanding corners in the country. We’re excited to have him, we’re excited to get him. I think he’s going to have a great opportunity here with us based on the players that we have coming back. He’s a very mature young man. I think that he’s smart, and I think those kind of guys sort of can develop a little more quickly. His dad was a great player. His dad’s a coach. I think sometimes that adds to a guys’ overall knowledge and ability to understand concepts and develop confidence in how they need to play. We’re excited about Earl Little.”
Q: Thoughts on Emmanuel Henderson?
Saban: “Well Emmanuel is a great athlete. He played a lot of positions in high school. I’ve asked him on numerous occasions, ‘What do you want to play?’ And he just says, ‘I’ll play whatever you need me to play. Whatever I can do to help the team.’ I think the guy has special athletic ability. Probably could be a receiver, probably could be a running back. Where he fits the best, we’ll probably be able to figure out better once he gets here and once we start working with him and can actually evaluate his skill set first hand. We think he’s an outstanding young man and an outstanding young player who’s got great potential. But again, everybody has got to be focused on, what do I have to do to develop as a player? What kind of mindset do I have to focus on the process of what I need to do to do it? And how much self discipline I have to get it done. And Emmanuel seems like the right kind of guy to do those things.”
Q: Did you see a boost in recruiting efforts to to players being able to attend games and make in-person visits?
Saban: “I always think it’s helpful when players develop relationships with other players that are going to be in their class or be on their team, whether it’s players that are already here or players that are committed to coming here. I do think that we had a good core group of guys that, when they committed early, they stayed in touch with each other and developed a bit of a bond, which probably was helpful in keeping the class together.”
Q: Injury status of Josh Jobe and Jalyn Armour-Davis?
Saban: “I really don’t have an update on those guys. We’re starting practice tomorrow obviously. I don’t know what Jalyn Armour-Davis’ status will be, how much he will be able to do in practice, where he will be physically. I know he wants to try to play in the game. Josh Jobe has played with a turf toe all year long. It got to the point where it was very difficult for him to be able to practice and be able to play. So he is very doubtful for the game.”
