Nick Saban Places His Trust in Tosh Lupoi to Fill Recruiting Hole

With the departure of former Alabama assistant Bo Davis, Tide assistant Tosh Lupoi has been filling in the holes left vacant, especially in Texas.

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At Alabama, we are accustomed to reeling in one of the country’s best recruiting classes year after year, and this past signing day proved no different with Alabama inking the number one class in the country. If I were to ask who the major player in Alabama’s recruiting scheme is, the answers would probably focus on Nick Saban himself, or perhaps the combo of Mario Cristobal and Lane Kiffin.

That question might have been answered this week when Nick Saban designated one of his coaches to head to Texas to take over recruiting the territory that was left vacant by Bo Davis resigning.

Bo Davis’ resignation opened the door for some more work by Tosh Lupoi. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports /

The coach that answered that call was not one of the aforementioned names, but instead it was outside linebacker coach Tosh Lupoi who picked up and headed to the Lone Star state. This was a surprise move by Saban, who usually sends Lupoi out west with Lane Kiffin to recruit the areas they know so well.

As a recruiting addict, it made perfect sense to me because Lupoi has been Alabama’s best recruiter since he stepped on campus as a “defensive intern” in 2014. Saban was not bringing in a former linebacker coach and recruiter of the year to just be a defensive analyst for The tide, but he was bringing in a secret weapon for recruiting.

As a defensive analyst, Lupoi was only allowed to recruit players on-campus meaning that he could not leave the confines of Tuscaloosa to watch/talk to players. However, that is all Alabama needed him to do, because once players came on their visits, all it took was talking to Coach Lupoi once and they were ready to sign. Coach Lupoi played a major factor in getting some players in that 2015 class such as Blake Barnett and Keaton Anderson, who said that once they met him, it was hard to not want to be around him every day and that he was the epitome of a “player’s coach”.

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After the departure of Lance Thompson, Lupoi was promoted to outside linebackers coach where he immediately gained a reputation as a fiery drill instructor (even pushing players aside and doing the drills himself). His passion is one of the things that fed the number one defense in the country, both in practice and on the field. However, probably the best thing that came from promoting Lupoi to an “on the field” assistant was that he was now allowed to travel the country and recruit players off-campus.

Saban immediately gave him the west region, which is where Lupoi had been coaching at the University of Washington, and had established connections. Lupoi became a recruiting machine for the Tide on the west coast, and Saban even started taking him along on in-home visits to other recruits around the nation.

Lupoi has become such a hot name on the recruiting trail that Saban asked him to add the state of Texas to his list this week that had come open due to Bo Davis resigning. Alabama was in play for many recruits out of the Lone Star, however the largest priority was on five-star defensive tackle Marvin Wilson from Bellaire, Texas. No doubt everyone saw the tweet Wilson put out after the story about Bo Davis broke, with Wilson stating that if Bo Davis was gone then so was Bama in his recruitment.

Presumably Coach Saban saw this as well, and immediately took action by calling Tosh Lupoi back from California and putting him on a plane (with new DC Jeremy Pruitt) to Texas and his first stop was to be Episcopal High School in Bellaire to meet with Marvin Wilson. Not much about the meeting between the two has leaked out, however something must have gone over fairly well because on Tuesday (May 3rd), Wilson tweeted out “Bama back in my recruitment”, which can only mean that like so many others, Wilson took a liking to Coach Lupoi.

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We will have to wait a while to see if this move pans out for Alabama, also presuming that Wilson will see who Alabama hires as a defensive tackle coach. Alabama was in Wilson’s good graces before Davis resigned and I feel good knowing that Nick Saban’s secret recruiting weapon has now placed Texas in his sights. Expect a lot of new recruits from Texas to be Bama bound with Lupoi hovering around there.

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