RELATED: Alabama flips linebacker from FSU
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Nick Saban is a recruiting mastermind and like every other school out there, tries to flip players from other programs all the time. He's spent plenty of time to convince players to come to Alabama rather than go elsewhere. He knows all the tricks of the trade and he has to know that eventually his age was going to be used against him in recruiting.
Saban is 65 and has reeled in a top-2 recruiting class the last six years so age doesn't seem to be slowing him down. However, there are other coaches out there who are using his age to convince recruits that he might be retiring soon. He has dispelled those rumors on a number of occasions, but he is still apparently very upset that people are trying this.
"I'm not looking to get out. I'm really not, even though I know that's going to start being talked about more now," said Saban. "What I have noticed is that it's the first time people are starting to say to recruits, 'He won't be there the whole time you're there,' because of my age. Does that really impact your ability to stay good? I don't know. But if it did, it would make you say, 'Well, what's up with this?' My philosophy is that I'm going to be here for as long as I feel like I can be effective, impact the players, help them be more successful in life and continue to have a successful program."
Saban is acting like he didn't say something similar about Spurrier when he was at South Carolina and like he didn't say other people's tenures were close to an end. Come on, Saban. You can't have it both ways. Hopefully someone can knock Saban out of the top two in the recruiting rankings using these tactics because the irony would just be too sweet.
