As I've written in the past few weeks, Alabama is likely down to the final four or five spots in the 2011 recruiting class, and it looks like one of those spots will go to Dee Hart, who apparently plans to commit to 'Bama during the Army All-American Game next Saturday. Per Shane Youngblood of Rivals:
Looks like four-star RB Dee Hart will be making an Alabama commitment official soon
The recruiting guru for the Michigan site MGoBlog, Tom VanHaaren, has also thrown in the towel here:
Confirmed that Dee Hart is committed to Alabama.
I've always felt that we could have gotten Hart had we wanted him, but I've never had the sense that he had a firm, commitable to sign with 'Bama, hence his commitment to Michigan while Alabama was busy pursuing some other backs like Isiah Crowell. Obviously that has changed now, and the bonus is with Hart in the mix that guarantees that his high school teammate Ha'sean Clinton-Dix doesn't listen to the overtures from Florida and Will Muschamp.
The concern, of course, is that by taking Hart the UA coaching staff may be throwing in the towel on Crowell, but I wouldn't read too much into that. Hart looks to be a very good player in his own right, and I would submit that our taking of Hart has more to do with the fact that Crowell looks to be an uncertainty who could legitimately go either way between Alabama and UGA, and with Mark Ingram leaving early this season and Trent Richardson undoubtedly leaving early next season, we don't want to get caught in a bind and not get a quality tailback in this class if we are spurned by Crowell on National Signing Day. This probably eliminates any possibility of 'Bama taking Jeremy Hill or Buck Allen, but I imagine that Crowell is still in play -- especially after Georgia's meltdown in Memphis -- that we recruit him hard to the very end, and that we will take him in the class if he is willing to sign with 'Bama.