I'm glad I'm not Saban and have to figure out how to make this thing work. But he's got an interesting situation in front of him. Today we have 25 commitments (for the purpose of this thread lets assume 24....meaning Vincent counts against last year). As of just a few minutes ago looking at some recruiting sites we are still in on (and the other schools): Quinton Culbertson - 1 of 4 schools (MSU, Miss, S. Miss) - one site says as of tonite he had not committed to MSU. Carnell Stewart - 1 of 3 (Ok St. and USC)) Ryan Watson - 1 of 2 (USC) Kirston Pittman - 1 of 2 (Miami) JaMarcus Russell - 1 of 2 (FSU) Dwayne Bowe - 1 of 2 (Miami) Edwards - 1 of 2 (N. Carolina) - never heard of him...he's committed to NC but really likes LSU and is wavering. Assume they all decided to come to LSU how would Saban do it? Rumor has it Broussard probably won't qualify and the 2 kickers are coming on non-football scholly's. So that takes that 24 down to 21 and assume that if Russell comes then Lane doesn't then that takes it down to 20. 5 spots for 7 guys. Nice mess to have!!
My guess is that we get JaMarcus Russell, Dewayne Bowe and one of the ESJ kids. That's just a shot in the dark, though.
I don't know about the kickers taking academic scholarships. Both have the credentials to get full athletic scholarships elsewhere. There have been years that LSU was content with walk-ons for kickers, but Nick has gone for quality players this year. Academic scholarships usually don't pay for room and board like athletic scholarships. It's a big step down in dollars. I think we have room for: 1. Russell 2. Stewart, Watson, or Pittman 3. Culberson or Bowe I think Nick can take three extra committments. He has two players that may not qualify academically and a third who is publicly wavering. If he takes more then he must think he'll be down to 25 in August.
Mike Scarborough said he asked the Maryland kicker if he was coming on football scholarship and the kids response was "Let's just say i'm coming to LSU". The J Curtis kid i heard he is TOPS eligible. But you make a good point with what will a academic scholly pay for. On your picking of what players to take I agree except that i would take Bowe before Culberson.....we've got Landry and Johnson so although Culberson is rated higher i think we have filled that void sufficiently.
Saw elsewhere that Watson committed to USC and Edwards is now saying he is firm on N. Carolina. So that cuts the list to 5. We might be able to handle all of those if we can get the pledge.
