Alabama Football: Crimson Tide leads the way in 2019 elite signees

It takes more than elite players to win football games but the 2019 Alabama football signing class has more than any other program.

The fanbase of Alabama football and fans of other top programs love to measure future success by recruiting. The conventional presumption is the signing classes with the most 5-Star players will have the most future success.

Counter to that widely held presumption is the reality every program is populated with 5-Star busts. The history of college football player development also shows championship players come from the full spectrum of recruits. Walk-ons, who are sometimes 0-Star players, sometimes become All-Americans. NFL rosters are filled with players who were 3-Star recruits.

So when we Alabama football fans boast about our elite signees, we should remember how many great Tide players did not begin with elite reps. The link above pays tribute to 30 of them.

Still, building each new roster is better served by having more talent than less. For the purpose of this discussion, we identify the Top 100 players in the 2019 class as elite. The actual number is arbitrary. The No. 101 player and even the No. 150 player is not far below the No. 100 player in talent. A cutoff at 100 players does provide a distinction of a select level of talent.

In defining the Top 100, our preference is to use the 247Sports Composite. It averages the results from all the top rating entities.

In the Composite’s Top 100, 34 players are 5-Stars. All the others are 4-Stars. Alabama football leads college football with 10 signees and two commitments in the Top 100.

• Antonio Alfano – 5-Star; No. 5 – Enrolled
• Trey Sanders – 5-star; No. 6 – Signed
• Evan Neal – 5-Star; No. 7 – Enrolled
• Pierce Quick – 4-Star; No. 40 – Enrolled
• Jordan Battle – 4-Star; No. 43 – Signed
• Justin Eboigbe – 4-Star; No. 62 – Enrolled
• Kris Bogle – 4-Star; No. 71- Verbal Commit
• Amari Kight – 4-Star; No. 76 – Enrolled
• Byron Young – 4-Star; No. 77 – Verbal Commit
• Shane Lee – 4-Star; No. 78 – Enrolled
• Demarcco Hellams- 4-Star; No. 88 – Signed
• Jeffery Carter – 4-Star; No. 91 – Enrolled

How do the other top programs compare? Following the Crimson Tide in the current  Team Rankings at No. 2 is Georgia. The Bulldogs have eight players in the Top 100. No. 3 in team rankings is TAMU and the Aggies have seven. No. 4 Oklahoma has four in the Top 100. Texas at No. 5 has only four. Michigan has three, LSU, five, Oregon, five, Clemson has three and Penn State has five to finish up the list of the top 10 recruiting classes.

What about other SEC schools and Top 100 players? Florida, Tennessee, Auburn and South Carolina have two each. The only other SEC school with a Top 100 player is Mississippi State with one.

Signing Day on Feb. 6 will alter the calculations above. There will be additions and deletions for top teams. The Alabama Crimson Tide will achieve two milestones – the No. 1 ranked class and the most Top 100 players.