Roster Management

[roswellcanes]

I'd like to see our staff get this aggressive with roster mgmt during the next couple of years. Once the cupboard is fully stocked, Golden may be able to enforce his culture more swiftly without leaving the roster short of the 85 scholly limit. Of course there is always the risk of getting too aggressive and hurting the recruiting pipeline by pushing players out too early. Because I have a distaste for Saban, I leans towards his methods being borderline shady.

http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/2013/alabama-oversigning-issues/

 

[cane33]

Saban has earned the right to be so aggressive with pushing players out by winning. Most other coaches would receive endless ridicule for that. Can't expect Golden to go down that route. Not this early at least.

Also, doing that makes it easier for other schools to negatively recruit against you. You're essentially breaking promises and lying to the parents of the players you recruited. And it can be used against you. So the benefit of pushing players out may not be worth it because of what it can do to your reputation.

 

[JHallCanes]

I'd like to see our staff get this aggressive with roster mgmt during the next couple of years. Once the cupboard is fully stocked, Golden may be able to enforce his culture more swiftly without leaving the roster short of the 85 scholly limit. Of course there is always the risk of getting too aggressive and hurting the recruiting pipeline by pushing players out too early. Because I have a distaste for Saban, I leans towards his methods being borderline shady.

http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/2013/alabama-oversigning-issues/

There was a post a while back that showed Alabama's football roster around 100 players. We will never be that team.

It's just another reason why this NCAA bull**** is so absurd. Not being able to move on and properly address the roster is something that can take years to fix because you aren't able to recruit players you really want, and sometimes have to fall back on roster fillers.

 

[Ari Gold]

You also have to factor in that Bama has the NCAA wrapped around its ****, as well as residing smack dab in the middle of the S$C...

Never underestimate that.

 

[RiDLer80]

I'm not really a fan of pushing players out. All that means to me is the staff missed on some part of their evaluations. Whether it be on the field evaluations or off the field, a player on scholarship should have some value.

 

[umhurricano]

I'm not really a fan of pushing players out. All that means to me is the staff missed on some part of their evaluations. Whether it be on the field evaluations or off the field, a player on scholarship should have some value.

It's opportunity cost. Especially as we get better and can recruit better players it would make sense to push some people out that may have value but aren't as talented. Everyone misses on evaluations, but Saban is maximizing his success rate by effectively looking at more players.

That being said, I think Golden has made the commitment to do things the right way and it will pay equal dividends (eventually) in terms of loyalty from HS programs. IMO this commitment to integrity is why he hasn't offered some particular SF guys because he doesn't want to play games. At least what I have seen he doesn't extend non-committable offers. Of course the whole deal with the TE this year that went to FSU is evidence to the contrary, but who really knows what happened there.

 

[SpikeUM]

So you think Golden hasnt managed the roster well? Dont really get this post.

 

[umhurricano]

I think he has for the most part. It's a completely different situation than Saban, though. Once we have 30 4 and 5 stars pounding down our door each year it will be a different story, but even in this class we took on a few projects (who I think will work out great), but I don't think Golden has been in a situation yet where he is pushing attrition as actively as Saban. This next recruiting cycle may be the first time he is turning away really talented guys that definitely would have gotten an offer in the 2010-2011 cycle (which was an anomaly) and the 2011-2012 cycle. Not saying he doesn't employ roster management, I just don't think he is or will be shady about it like Saban.

The article the OP linked to makes it sound as if Saban is just a good guy looking out for natural attrition. No way that is the case. What happened if those 4 kids didn't get arrested? He would have to trim somewhere else and he would definitely find away. I think Golden continues to be conservative with his offers and does more up front eval so attrition is the exception rather than the rule. There are always a few kids that need to be kicked off, but absent strong evidence to the contrary (e.g., actually finding out what EJ did and having it be really bad) I think Golden has been fairly even handed in his dismissals.

Hope that makes sense and wish I could think of better examples of Golden's behavior, but I am really just going off my impression of him so far and my biased impression of Saban (although I think he runs a **** of a program). It would be nice to see someone win doing things the right way, though.

 

[Republicane]

I'm not really a fan of pushing players out. All that means to me is the staff missed on some part of their evaluations. Whether it be on the field evaluations or off the field, a player on scholarship should have some value.

Nor am I. Actually it's complete bull****. At the very least if a kid is punished for transferring and required to stay (somewhere) for three years before he can go pro, the scholarship should be at least for that long.

Who should be the one getting the benefit of the doubt?

The teen age kids, many of whom will be one of, if not the first, people in their family to attend college, contractually obligated to make minimum 3 or 4 year decision based on a handful of football camps, weekends partying, and worship from the other students? Maybe they looked good because they were bigger than everyone else. Maybe the competition was soft. Maybe they've had a problem with a recurring injury that the college knew about but offered them anyway. Is any of that their fault? Should they have somehow known that they weren't good enough to play high-level D1 football?

Or should the head and assistant coaches? The multimillionaire head coaches who have years of experience, assistant coaches making hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars also with years of experience and all the resources available to them to identify and recruit what they believe is the best talent in the country. Shouldn't they have been the ones to spot the reasons why they wouldn't be able to cut it at this level?

Coaches can cut a kid loose at any time for any reason, because ya know, why should they be responsible for the bill of goods they sold based on the evaluations they made? They've only had years to perfect their craft. But if a kid realizes he messed up and wants to go somewhere else? Sit a year and here is a list of 20 schools your coach won't let you go to.

The punishment for making the wrong decision is on the person who has every reason in the world to make it, and who it affects the most, as opposed to the person who should know better and who it affects the least. It's bizarre.

 

[Republicane]

What happened if those 4 kids didn't get arrested? He would have to trim somewhere else and he would definitely find away.

A better question would be, what would have happened if those 4 kids who got arrested were All-Americans? You think they're getting cut loose? Nah. It'd be the kids at the end of the roster who work hard and haven't been arrested who would have been shoved out the door.