Bama leading the way for in-state recruiting

By Robert Rousseau  |   Wednesday, July 23, 2008  |  Comments( 1 )

Alabama Crimson Tide
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To recap, RealFootball365.com recently finished running down a list of the state of Alabama’s top 20 prospects who were still available. Not surprisingly, every one of them had the two biggest college football teams in the state -- the Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers -- within their sights.

But just as quickly as we wrote it, things changed. Now, two big-time prospects are off the board, at least in the verbal (commitment) sense of the word.

Both of those players chose the Alabama Crimson Tide on Tuesday.

Cornerback Gerald West, a 5-foot-11, 160-pound cornerback who accrued 36 tackles and three interceptions last season in high school, has decided to learn from one of the best defensive backs coaches in the nation, Nick Saban, in Tuscaloosa. West is fast (4.4 speed) and has the kind of coverage skills that teams hope to work with. He's a three-star performer, but West has a chance to surpass that status when all is said and done.

Defensive end William Ming, a 6-4, 265-pounder from Athens, also decided on the Tide. Perhaps Ming’s best assets are his intelligence (3.93 grade-point average) and size. The four-star defender also runs the 40-yard dash in 4.8 seconds, bench presses 300 pounds, squats 450, and has been productive at the high school level (152 tackles and 13 sacks over the past two seasons).

Ming’s considered the fifth-best run-stuffing DE in the nation and the ninth-best strongside end. Let’s face it, you can never have too many run-stuffing D-linemen.

In the end, as has been the case for some time now, Alabama is starting to pull away from the Tigers when it comes to in-state recruits. Of course, that does nothing to take away from the stellar recruiting job that Auburn’s coaches are doing outside of the state so far this offseason.

Still, the Tide sure did pick up two terrific in-state players this past week; that cannot be discounted.
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About Robert Rousseau

Robert Rousseau is a sports writer that has been published in a variety of print and online venues. He’s been writing for RealFootball365.com for almost three years now. When Rousseau isn’t writing about college football he tends to be penning mixed martial arts pieces for MMAFighting.com or ...
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