Around The Tooth
By Matt Blake
The 3rd week of the 2013 Collegiate Football season has finally arrived. This is the week when the sports world descends on the aptly named town of College Station. In case you haven’t heard, this Saturday the reigning Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel will play host to the 2-time defending National Champion, Alabama Crimson Tide, in a highly anticipated rematch, but let’s be careful not to call it a revenge game for the defending champs… thanks Amari Cooper.
As we wait for kickoff on Saturday, let’s take a quick look around the Tooth…
After a relatively disappointing opening game from the Tide offense, the team went into the bye week with some kinks to work out, especially on and around the offensive line. Seemingly on cue, the Tide landed its biggest recruit to date (Andre Smith aside, LOL) in the consensus #1 Offensive Lineman recruit, Cameron Robinson. Cam is not only the #1 rated OL prospect, he is the #1 overall player according to some services. Cam is extremely polished and appears to be further along than current franchise LT, Cyrus Kouandjio (CyKo), back when CyKo was a HS Senior. With CyKo likely headed to the NFL after this season, many expect Cam to start from day 1.
Cyrus Kouandjio (courtesy twitter.com/ck_allday71)
Robinson, along with QB Commit David Cornwell, and top Target CB Marlon Humphrey are all blue chip prospects at positions of need (we mentioned CyKo moving on, but QB AJ McCarron’s eligibility will be exhausted after the season as will the eligibility of starting corners Deion Belue and John Fulton). The Alabama staff has 2 of the 3 locked down with the one that would normally appear to be the biggest lock still undecided in Humphrey. Humphrey would definitely be a major cog in this class, but there is a lot of buzz right now around another couple of defensive backs… Safeties to be more specific.
ATH Ronnie Clark, S Laurence “Hootie” Jones, and Ole Miss commit S CJ Hampton can all be traced back to Cameron Robinson in some form. As such, Cam’s commitment has really turned up the heat on each guy. However, Hootie is thought to be an LSU lean, and CJ is an Ole Miss commit, so of the 3 Ronnie out of Calera, AL is currently the most likely to end up in Bama’s class as of today. However, don’t be surprised if one of the other guys joins him at the Capstone. Big Cam definitely hit the ground running and it seems he may have been working on a few of these guys (including that St. Augustine HS RB in the purple shirt in the pic below) before he went public with his announcement.
Robinson, Fournette, and Jones (courtesy twitter.com/crobinson_68)
The early announcement by Robinson will also allow the staff to be extremely picky down the stretch in terms of Offensive Linemen. The biggest name still out there is OL Damien Mama out of California. The struggles at USC have brought a cascade of negative attention over one Lane Kiffin. The USC fanbase has turned its back on Kiffin, and the question today is how much longer does he hold onto his job. Mama has long been thought to be a USC lean, but the uncertainty at USC may actually help the Tide as the season goes on. Mama is close friends with TE target Tyler Luatua and Tide Commit Viane Talamaivao. All three are expected to visit Tuscaloosa for the LSU game on 11/9. Mama has a spot in this class if he wants it, and if he commits, then he would likely be the final piece for this year’s OL class.
Talamaivao & Mama (courtesy primetimepolynesian.com)
This is just a little nectar to hold you folks over until Saturday. As always, Roll Tide and remember to keep checking The Houndztooth for all things Alabama…