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Gene Stallings explains how recruiting is different for Nick Saban than Bear Bryant
By Adam Spencer
Published:
Legendary coach Gene Stallings has seen a lot over the years. The 1992 national champion worked with Bear Bryant at Alabama and has watched closely as Nick Saban has led the Crimson Tide on another run of dominance.
However, Saban and Bryant created their dynasties in two drastically different college football landscapes, especially when it comes to recruiting.
On “The Paul Finebaum Show” on Tuesday, Stallings — who just had a heart attack last week — appeared via phone. One of the things he discussed was how much different the recruiting landscape is for Nick Saban than it was for fellow Alabama legend Bear Bryant:
“When I was coaching for Coach Bryant, we had one guy, Hayden Riley, who handled our recruiting,” Stallings said. “He was the baseball coach and something else. And all of the coaches had certain areas that we recruited in.
“Like I recruited North Alabama. Somebody recruited South Alabama. Now, Alabama probably has nine or 10 people that don’t do anything but recruit. We recruited primarily the state of Alabama. Coach Bryant wanted people who grew up hating Auburn — wanting to beat Auburn. We recruit people now that don’t even know where Auburn is. So, I think they do a better job of getting good players better than Coach Bryant did. We took sort of what we had. What they do now is they bring them from California and Las Vegas. Just all over the country. Not many players really from the state of Alabama.”
Stallings makes a good point, and it’s fair to wonder if Bryant would have had the patience to deal with the recruiting process these days.
However, he was the best coach of his era, much like Saban is now, so maybe that’s all that matters at the end of the day.
Watch the full segment with Stallings here.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
