New Commitment Secured

by CaptStu on Oct 5, 2008 5:42 PM CDT Comment 14 comments

From al.com:

Alabama coach Nick Saban secured his team's 16th commitment when defensive tackle Darrington Sentimore said today he would sign with Alabama. Sentimore is a 6-foot-3, 265-pound native of Destrehan, La. He is rated as a four-star prospect by Rivals.com and Scout.com, but his name is five-star quality.

After UA hosted about 135 prospects this weekend, it was Sentimore who committed. A member of the Rivals250, he is ESPN.com's 18th-ranked defensive tackle in the country and Scout.com's 20th best. As a junior, he had 122 tackles with 16 sacks.

Sentimore chose Alabama over Arkansas, Miami, and Oklahoma. He said he's no longer holding out on an offer from LSU.

"(Alabama) has everything I need in a program," he told Rivals.com. "I got tired of waiting on LSU. If LSU did offer me later down the road, I wouldn't take it. This is a solid commitment to Alabama."

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The monster continues to grow...

has anyone thought about the perfect storm that is Auburn’s bewildered implosion and Alabama peaking right now? This is going to have serious ramifications for years to come in recruiting. Not that Saban needed the help, but it doesn’t hurt ;)

by Nose Guard on Oct 5, 2008 5:51 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

word

by LSU Jonno on Oct 6, 2008 9:51 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

My LSU roommate

says the tigers are staying away from him because of academic issues.

by BamerinBR on Oct 5, 2008 6:42 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

This is hearsay...

…but I hear say that he runs a 4.6 40 and will likely play DE, not DT. For what it’s worth.

by NiceLittleSaturday on Oct 5, 2008 8:20 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

He's definitely not a 3-4 DT

He’s probably perfect for a 3-4 defensive end. A little light for a 4-3 defensive tackle.

A lot of LSU fans adore Sentimore. He’s definitely a tremendous athlete, with linebacker speed in a defensive end’s body. His problem is academics, and his recruitment has gone an awful lot like Rolando Melancon’s a few years ago. Both were very highly regarded in-state defensive tackles, but both were fighting for offers from LSU along with other very highly regarded defensive tackles as well as a couple of out-of-state guys. For Sentimore, like Melancon, the problem was academics. Miles did not want to take the risk that Melancon was going to be an academic casualty and he took Drake Nevis, Will Blackwell, and Kentravis Aubrey instead, and landed big fish Joseph Barksdale from Michigan. Nevis played as a true freshman when we had injury problems, and runs with the 3rd team now as a sophomore, behind 2 seniors and 2 juniors. Blackwell and Barksdale moved to O-line, where Barksdale is starting at right tackle and Blackwell is second string behind Herman Johnson. Aubrey is stuck deep on the depth chart behind a lot of veterans.

Melancon signed with Tennessee, but never played for them. He ended up at La Tech and I hear he’s doing well there. Miles got some heat for not going after Melancon, but now in the middle of those guys’ second years, 3 of the 4 players he picked over Melancon appear to have very bright futures at LSU, and the other could still emerge as a solid player when the veterans clear out ahead of him.

All of this is to say, I would like to sign every good player Louisiana produces, but Miles has a pretty solid track record of making the right decisions on things like this.

Richard Pittman

by Richard Pittman on Oct 5, 2008 8:53 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Dick...

RBR's KING of HIP-HOP...

by SpockJenkins on Oct 6, 2008 7:14 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not saying your wrong...

…but, this is what you hear from most fan bases when a player from their state goes to a different school. The first thing that everyone latches on to is academics, for an opposing fan base. It always makes me wonder how people know about a kid’s grades. These things are supposed to be confidential, yet every fan from a message board always throws these things out.

Again, you may be right, Sentimore might not qualify. You also point out that Miles does a good job of recruiting players that become academically eligilble, so does Saban.

Again, I am not saying that you are wrong, but is a peeve of mine when rival fans claim to have knowledge of someone else’s academic standing.

BTW, it should be pointed out that LSU has a commitment from one of the best DT in the country, and is in the running for a few more. I am not take shots at LSU, their loss is our gain, and this will all sort itself out coming next September.

by Kenny483 on Oct 6, 2008 7:41 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

point proven

Hell, no! A tie is like kissing your sister!

by comer4tide on Oct 6, 2008 8:47 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

First off...

their loss is our gain

That statement should read, “this is our gain”. There is no loss.

Next,

Miles does a good job of recruiting players that become academically eligilble, so does Saban.

I think all you have to do is look at LSU’s recruiting from 200-2004 and then from 2005-2008 to show that Miles is much better at recruiting a higher % of players that actually see the field than Saban. I’m not saying Saban is bad at it, but Miles is clearly better.

by LSU Jonno on Oct 6, 2008 9:55 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

you two have ENTIRELY too much time on your hands...

RBR's KING of HIP-HOP...

by SpockJenkins on Oct 6, 2008 10:07 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Really?

I am not sure what you took out of anything I wrote as a negative about LSU. Miles has done just as good of job recruiting as Saban did, and possibly better.

I really do not care to go back and add up, and compare the number of academically eligible players that Saban and Miles have had. From what I remember Saban did a good job at LSU, and he has done a really good job at Alabama. For example in that huge class we had last year, only 3 were academically ineligible, one of which seems to be ready to qualify and enroll in January (Kerry Murphy).

Again, my point was about fans casually throwing around the idea that a player will not be academically eligible. It is my contention that you, Richard, and myself all have about the same knowledge of Sentimore’s academic standing, which is to say none. It is just a weak argument that is thrown around too often. As I said before, LSU has seemingly nothing to worry about in regards to recruiting this year, and parsing words over gain or loss is irrelevant.

This is something that is common to all fan bases by the way, ours included. Every Auburn fan that I spoke with last year was sure that Julio and BJ Scott were not going to be academically eligible. Of course, LSU fans said the same thing about Deandre Brown at Southern Miss.

by Kenny483 on Oct 6, 2008 10:13 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sentimore's been pretty open about it

He’s talked pretty openly about his academic situation in the past. He’s said that he was WAY behind when he started high school. I think he said (and I don’t know if this is right or not, but he’s said it) that he was a year behind when he started high school and has been fighting to catch up ever since. He said he had to work hard just to be declared academically a senior this year. He’s also said he’s on track to catch up everything.

I’ll say this. Having read a ton of interviews with him, he does not strike me as a dumb kid. He seems reasonably bright, and I believe his comments that his problem was just that he did not take it seriously when he was younger. He has talked pretty openly about this.

He’s said before that the coaches were waiting to look at his transcripts to see his progression. I don’t know if they’ve done that yet. There was also some question about where he would fit on this team. He may not be quite big enough to be a DT for us, and may not have the quickness to be a DE. I think he’s probably a perfect fit in a 3-4 system as a DE, which needs to be a bit bigger than a DE in a 4-3. That said, Tyson Jackson is a little big and slow to be a DE in a 4-3 as well, and he’s had a fair bit of success there.

You are correct though that I don’t know anything about the particulars of Sentimore’s academic situation. I could not even guess at what classes he’s taking or what grades he needs in those classes, or at what classes he needs in the future.

I tend to think that the coaches just didn’t love Sentimore as a prospect. I think they like him, but not enough to take a risk. We have a need at defensive line this year, and I think that if he was definitely going to make it they would have offered him. With him only being a “maybe” to qualify, they are looking elsewhere. We lose a lot of depth on the defensive line this year (potentially as many as 6 of our top 10), and we need the people we sign to be ready to play.

Richard Pittman

by Richard Pittman on Oct 6, 2008 1:12 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Richard...

I appreciate the much more in depth response. I have not read any of that, regarding his academic standing, but I am inclined to take your word. I was definitely surprised to wake up and see his commitment this morning.

I will say that Alabama is also not going to be taking much chances on prospects either. This should be a relatively small class around (20-23), and I would have to think the coaches would be optimistic about his chances to qualify. I guess we will find out who is right. Again, my original criticism was more about the standard homer rival fan base response (X player will not qualify, that is why Y team did not offer him, see below).

by Kenny483 on Oct 6, 2008 2:19 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs