At first it was cheating their ass off. I don't even think they have to any more. Every media outlet is an Alabama splooge-fest. I think the program is on fucking cruise control right now because they are in on every single recruit whether they want them or not.
Good analysis.
I remember when Saban first got to Tuscaloosa. First thing he did was run off the hangers on, and all the good old boys who hung around the program. Really pissed off a friend of mine who'd worked for Stallings and was used to having the run of the athletic complex. Saban told him to his face to get out and never come back unless he had a specific purpose there. He wanted Saban fired after his first season. Would eat the little debbie crumbs out of his turds now. Then he got control of the booster network. Before it was a wild west show and as inept and corrupt as the war between Tony Soprano and Phil Leotardo. He took charge of that, cut off a bunch of the small fry bag men and put the whole thing in the hands of a select few. Was able to do it because Mal Moore was old and weak by that point. He also threw a rope around the high school coaches. Hired a bunch of them and gave every single one the hope that one day they, too, could become part of the Bama staff.
His second year, I ran into an Auburn coach who was in Fairhope doing some recruiting. He told me that after Saban arrived, the landscape changed. Where they'd once been able to talk to recruits and give the Auburn pitch, now every single time a kid got high on the radar somebody would appear as a go-between. A freshly discovered "uncle." A high school coach. A principal. A "family friend." Every message was filtered through those intermediaries and there was little chance to have an honest conversation. Each one of those people also asked for some form of quid pro quo before granting an audience with the player. He said that Saban had found ways to skirt the rules by giving jobs and benefits to girlfriends, the kid's friends and other people around them without directly handing stuff to the players. He also said Auburn wasn't going to do that stuff and if it meant a few years in the wilderness? Well, that's what it was going to be. Wasn't worth it and just not our way.
The next thing was the steroid program. Does anybody seriously believe that braying moron Cochran has some miracle weightlifting program that is light years above everybody else? Does nobody pick up on the fact that the "monsters" in Turdscaloosa typically become meerkats in the NFL? Ingram off the juice was awful. Richardson off the juice was terrible. Henry off the juice is a sluggish caveman with little durability. Many of the players coming out of there are suddenly injury magnets in the NFL.
But they get there.
At this point they know what they get playing for Saban. Used up, on TV all the time, fawned over by the media and a shot at the NFL that will fizzle out when the juice remnants wear off. They hope by that time they've made enough to live. Like Richardson. Worthless, but has money now.
Finally there's the connection with the NCAA. Saban knows where the dirt on Emmert is buried. No way will they touch him because if they did, he'd bring the whole house down.
We are in a non-competitive situation. No coach, no scheme, no plan can overcome it. Just like in the 70s, we have to wait this cheating garbage out, keep ourselves as relevant as possible and hope that there's somebody else like Pat Dye out there to crush them when Saban eventually starts to falter and the cracks begin to appear.
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