Nick Saban addresses growing changes on 'Limited Edition Signing Day'

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — This wasn’t your father’s National Signing Day. Previously an undeclared holiday, the first Wednesday in February has now been overshadowed by Early Signing Day in December as the majority of teams enter the day with most of their business accounted for.

“Once known as Signing Day, now sort of a limited edition signing day,” quipped Alabama head coach Nick Saban fresh off of putting the finishing touches on the nation’s No. 3 class.

On its surface, Wednesday appeared to be a slow day for the Crimson Tide. After securing 22 signatures in December, the Crimson Tide capped its 2020 class at 25, bringing in three additional signees on the day. However, Saban scoffed at the notion of the day being any less busy than usual. Different, maybe. But hectic all the same.

“We could only sign three guys, so that’s what we expected, based on math,” he said after jokingly asking a reporter if he knew how to add. “But it was a very busy day because the (recruiting) calendar is moved up. So I spend my whole day today, and we spend our whole day today really on next year’s recruiting, does that make sense?

“I think I talked to 22 guys today, and I talked to 14 guys yesterday. So it was very busy. In fact, by the end of the day today, I was stuttering on the phone and having a tough time speaking clearly, so that’s how busy it was. It wasn’t busy in terms of how many guys we signed, but we had a lot to do.”

On a day where Saban was asked about his future social media presence, the current college football landscape can be best be summed up by a figure more familiar to the 68-year-old head coach. As Bob Dylan once wrote, “The Times They Are a-Changin.”

This year marks the third recruiting class since the early signing period was established in 2017. Over that span, 62 of Alabama’s 73 signees (85 percent) have signed early. As Saban pointed out Wednesday that has made recruiting a year-round affair.

“It has changed significantly,” Saban said. ‘I like recruiting myself, but it is a time commitment. I mean when we have official visits, we have people that come, the parents come to our house on Saturday night. We have everybody come to our house for breakfast on Sunday morning. And the weekends that we have that are now three or four times greater than they used to be, because the time’s not condensed when guys used to visit, because everything was geared toward the first Wednesday in February.

“So it has changed significantly. I’m not complaining about it, but it is much more time-consuming. I think that it does impact a little bit the time that you spend with your players on your team because that used to be just when we can be on the road.”

The new version of National Signing Day wasn’t the only recent change Saban addressed during his 20-minute news conference Wednesday.

This time of year used to be one where a head coach could look toward the coming season with a solid idea of how his team would shape up. However, not even Saban claims to know exactly how Alabama’s 85-man scholarship roster will fill out by the time the Crimson Tide takes on Southern California on Sept. 5.

“The only thing that is certain now is the uncertainty because of the way we have established how people can leave your organization,” Saban said, nodding to the NCAA Transfer Portal. “There are more multiples of how people come to your organization. So roster management is much more difficult and there are some uncertainties in what the roster is going to look like. Used to be when I stood up here this time of year I knew exactly who was going to be on our team and how it was going to go, and I’m not sure that’s always the case now.”

Alabama has already seen two scholarship players depart via transfer this offseason in running back Jerome Ford (Cincinnati) and offensive lineman Scott Lashley (Mississippi State). Defensive back Nigel Knott is currently listed in the portal as he looks to pursue playing time elsewhere. The Crimson Tide will likely also benefit from the portal as it received a commitment from North Carolina graduate transfer tight end Carl Tucker who will join the team in the summer.

Saban’s comments Wednesday indicate further fluidity as Alabama works to trim down its roster to the NCAA limit of 85. Navigating that issue will lead to even more hours logged in the summer.

Fortunately for Alabama, hard work has never been an issue for Saban. That’s at least one thing that doesn’t look to be changing any time soon.

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