Alabama Signing Day Recap: Another Year, Another No. 1 Class

When we entered National Signing Day, most were predicting a smooth and solid day from the Alabama Crimson Tide. After all, the Tide had landed 24 commits in their class before the day began.

All the the recruits that originally had verbally committed to the Tide did sign their letters of intent Wednesday. There were two other recruits to officially commit on National Signing Day, and one of them was O.J. Smith, a 6-foot-2, 330-pound defensive tackle from Louisiana who was ranked at three stars by Rivals.com.

The other player that committed to the Tide? Well, his choice in school sent shockwaves in the state of Alabama and even the nation.

Before the day began, most signs pointed towards outside linebacker Rashaan Evans committing to Auburn. His parents were alums at Auburn, he grew up and lives in Auburn and he even went to Auburn High School. Even before making his announcement on camera, we got to know Evans a bit more as Auburn posted a nice profile of him on their site, making it look like he had committed to Auburn already.

That’s when it happened. Around 10:15 CT, Evans pulled out a hat with a script A on the front, indicating that his talents would be going to Tuscaloosa to play for Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide. That commitment locked up the top-ranked recruiting class in America. It may also be the best class that Nick Saban has recruited since he arrived in Tuscaloosa.

Evans did what many other recruits fail to do: work out everything from the beginning to end of the recruiting process and make the decision the morning of. In his post-signing interview with ESPNU, he noted that a big influence in his decision today was Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster, who also decommitted from Auburn while he was at Auburn High School and chose to play for the Crimson Tide instead.

“Me and Reuben, we played together in high school and we’ve had a great relationship. … He’s influenced me a lot,” Evans said to ESPNU.

So, after the dust was settled and all the letters of intent finally got faxed, Alabama officially landed the top-recruiting class in the nation once again. In fact, Alabama has been No. 1 in recruiting six out of the last seven years. But this class sticks out. It could be Saban’s best class yet in terms of potential on-field impact. A lot of holes needed to be filled, and the recruits they got for those positions will be some of the best of the best.

So, just one question remains: How is Nick Saban still the most powerful man in terms of recruiting when the season ended on such a low note, with losses to Auburn and Oklahoma?

Anybody that follows Saban knows that recruiting is a 24/7/365 process for him, and he invests a lot of time watching highlight films from prospects. This is what he lives for. That is why he’s still the best coach in college football.

Dynasty over? Hardly. Nick Saban is fully committed to coach at Alabama and that means each year will be simply a reloading of recruits and that can only mean that Alabama will continue to compete for national championships for years to come. Alabama fans have a got a lot of things to be excited about.

In fact, they have at least 27 of them.

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