Alabama Football: Compared to past Cookouts, attendance down in T-Town

Alabama football recruiting has been on a June roll but the first Champions Cookout of the summer has smaller numbers than past Cookouts.

Hold on Crimson Tide fans, we are not sounding a call for alarm. Alabama football recruiting is progressing wonderfully and we fully expect the Crimson Tide to finish with No. 1, 2020 signing class.

Numbers for the first Champions Cookout of the summer are not much down overall. There are proportionately more recruits already verbally committed to the Alabama football than there are 2020 prospects. The main reason for that is Nick Saban is so far ahead in the 2020 cycle.

Another point to remember is like last summer, there will be two Champions Cookouts this year, one this weekend and another in July. In between is the NCAA Dead Period when there will be no campus contact.

With the 2020 class sitting at 20 verbal commits, little room is left to add new commits. If the final number becomes 26, as most insiders expect, it appears the Alabama football staff needs room for more than six more top targets. The numbers always work out and we have no inside information on how they will work out this cycle.

What we do believe is the Crimson Tide is in a strong position for at least a dozen top targets and almost all of them are Top 100 recruits. Pulling in eight of them is not unrealistic so Nick Saban’s staff has to make some tough choices.

It is widely believed Nick Saban still preaches “you shop, we shop” to verbal commits. It is also known he quietly gives some commits the leeway to take other visits. So, it is not as simple as checking what Tide commits are visiting other schools and conclude a de-commit may be forthcoming.

Still we fans want to know who is still checking out other schools. Recently, Jayson Jones visited Georgia Tech and apparently intends to take other, future visits. He is expected in Tuscaloosa this weekend. It has been rumored, two commits will be elsewhere this weekend – Javon Baker at LSU and Thaiu Jones-Bell at Clemson.

We don’t know but a guess is Nick Saban is never okay with a verbal commit skipping a major Alabama football event to visit a top opponent.

It will be particularly interesting to see if new commits are accepted this weekend. Kendall Blackshire, linebacker, from the 2021 class would be no surprise. Three 2020 guys believed to be very high on the Crimson Tide will also be in Tuscaloosa. All three are 4-Star recruits, but none are in the dozen we mentioned (but did not list) above. They are Joel Williams, Kristian Storey and Jordan Banks.

Two are rumored to be Crimson Tide takes right now. If so, we can only conclude, mutual de-commits are on the horizon. Otherwise, there is just not enough room.

Stay connected with Bama Hammer. The commit list linked above will be updated with each new announcement.