Alabama’s addition of Derrick Ansley to its coaching staff truly is a case of the rich getting richer.
The Tallassee, Ala., native returns to his home state and to the program where he served on the staff in 2010. The Tide pulled Ansley from Kentucky, where he developed an outstanding reputation both on the recruiting trail and on the field.
A look at Ansley’s track record on the recruiting trail features several highlights. He’s done outstanding work in the state of Georgia during his career and the Peach State is an important battleground for the Tide (and quite honestly for nearly every program in the Southeastern Conference).
While at Tennessee, Ansley made an outstanding evaluation and closed the deal as the primary recruiter with cornerback Cameron Sutton (2013 class) out of Jonesboro (Ga.) High. Sutton was recruited by several programs, but wasn’t as heavily-pursued as he perhaps should have been. Ansley recognized this and during a period where the Vols were struggling under former head coach Derek Dooley and had a coaching transition to Butch Jones, landing an impact player that stuck through the changes and became an All-SEC performer.
After heading to Kentucky, Ansley again made his presence felt on the recruiting trail, landing defensive back Kendall Randolph out of Tallahassee, Fla., and then in this class, he returned to Jonesboro High and landed another sleeper defensive back in Jordan Griffin for the Wildcats. The 6-foot-1, 170-pounder certainly is a player to keep an eye on from this UK class moving forward.
Now that he is at Alabama, which has signed six straight top-ranked recruiting classes, and is coaching the secondary, where the Tide annually has loads of talent, his stock should continue to rise. We will see even more impressive moments from him both on the recruiting trail and on the field.
This was a great move by Tide head coach Nick Saban that made all the sense in the world. Of course, Saban really doesn’t make any questionable assistant coaching hires and that’s yet another reason why you’ve seen all of these top-ranked recruiting classes and four national championships since 2009 in Tuscaloosa.
Recruiting writer for Saturday Down South
