It was a successful national signing day for the Alabama Crimson Tide to say the least. 

It started with five-star running back Camar Wheaton officially signing his letter of intent to play with the Crimson Tide, and ended with the commitment of four-star safety Terrion Arnold. Together, these signatures solidified another No. 1 recruiting class for Alabama Football. According to 247Sports, it's the highest rated class in history. 

Nick Saban joined with the media via zoom Wednesday afternoon to discuss his thoughts on Alabama’s national signing day results and the 2021 class as a whole. Here are some of the Highlights: 

- Nick Saban's Opening statement regarding recruiting success in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic: 

“All the way around, everyone did everything they can do in a situation that took adapting, and we adapted well and that is reflected in what kind of class we had.”

-When asked how the recruiting staff utilized technology to get around the recruiting restrictions during the pandemic: 

“I think using zoom to do home visits was something that is very beneficial to myself and the assistant coaches in terms of developing relationships with the families. We also included the families in virtual practice, virtual medical meetings, virtual strength and conditioning, academic, academic appointments, so this was our only means to be able to adapt.” 

-Coach Saban asked about depth at quarterback and what skillset he saw from incoming Quarterback recruit Jalen Milroe:

We had Jalen in camp way back when, we really like his skillset, he is very athletic, he's very accurate as a passer, he’s got a strong arm, he’s got a good disposition about himself as a leader, and a great personality that I think people can follow.

We are excited to have him here, he is one of the top guys in the country in our opinion and we’re really happy to get him here. Obviously there is a lot of competition with Bryce and the quarterbacks we have coming back but we want to develop them all because we need to develop not only a starter at that position but develop depth at that position.

 

When asked about the Bill O'Brien hire and his appeal as a coach: 

“If you look at Bill O’Brien’s track record he was a really successful college coach, he was a really good coordinator at New England...and he did a really good job in Houston.

 

You're talking about a guy who has a really good track record...he’s someone that I’ve always had a tremendous amount of respect for. We felt very fortunate that the timing of the situation allowed us to hire somebody like that, so I’m excited about it and I think its a great addition to our staff here.”

 

when asked how multi-sport athletes like Ga’Quincy Mckinstry and Terrion Arnold  will split time with different sports: 

“I’ve told players they can play other sports, we want them to do what they do in football when they are freshman so they learn the ropes...we don’t have issues with guys playing other sports. Coach Oats and I have a good understanding of how we try to do it.

It’s a little more difficult to play basketball (and football) because the seasons run together a little bit more, but if guys can contribute to our basketball program here I’m all for it, and we are gonna do everything we can here to help them develop as football players and when they don’t have football responsibilities they can certainly go play basketball.”

Alabama’s 2021 class is rated as the No. 1 class according to Rivals, 247Sports and ESPN. 27 total recruits represent eleven different states. Nine of the 27 recruits have been given a five-star rating by at least one of the major recruiting services.

 

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Highest Rated Recruits of the Saban Era

 

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