Saban established tone for recruiting in SEC

One thing all 14 SEC football coaches attending media days last week in Atlanta had in common, besides being millionaires, is that all of them are acutely aware that anything they say during their almost four hours of being with the media can help or hurt recruiting.

Recruiting almost has become a separate sport, especially for football and basketball.

The coaches may have days where they are not allowed to contact recruits, but Alabama’s Nick Saban has set the standard that recruiting is 365 days a year.

He would make calls in his sleep if he could find a way.

Because of Saban, no coach in the SEC actually takes a day off from recruiting. On those “off” days, the coaches are discussing recruits and how to get them interested.

The story goes that the day Saban was hired for $4 million per year (he’s now at more than $10 million), he asked then-Alabama athletic director Mal Moore: “Do you think you’ve hired the best coach in the country?”

It had taken Moore more than a month to get Saban to agree to leave the Miami Dolphins, something he might not have done if the Dolphins’ medical staff had cleared the signing of quarterback Drew Brees, who has since had a great career with the New Orleans Saints.

Obviously, Moore felt he had hired the best football coach in the world, but Saban said: “Well, you didn’t. I’m nothing without my players. “But you did just hire a helluva recruiter.”

Saban has followed up on that with so many No. 1 recruiting classes that he should be hated from coast to coast, because that’s his recruiting territory.

When other coaches are coaching their three stars up, Saban is coaching his fourand five-star recruits up to the NFL Draft.

Legend has it Saban began recruiting at age 10, when he would visit the elementary schools and evaluate players for his dad. He has a natural eye for talent, which paid off at LSU with Jacob Hester and at Alabama with Dont’a Hightower, both lightly recruited players.

So coaches in the SEC who were not as devoted to recruiting, who couldn’t judge talent like Saban, and who couldn’t convince parents their children needed to come play for them were fired.

Now, every coach in the SEC works at recruiting relentlessly, including University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Coach Chad Morris. He uses everything at his disposal to get players, including contacts, friends and social media.

Morris immediately understood the need to recruit Texas. Arkansas rarely has had a good team that didn’t include players from the Lone Star State.

Besides, Morris is from Texas. He cut his teeth on tough Texas kids who play because of a burning love for the game.

He knew Texas football when he became the head football coach at SMU. His first two recruiting classes were exclusively Texas high-schoolers.

Yet, Morris also wants to stop the bleeding in Arkansas. There are starters from Arkansas at Ohio State, Illinois, California and Auburn, and that’s just to name a few.

If Morris had been the head coach there is no way Chris Bequette’s son Luc, a starter at Cal, would have gotten away, because Bequettes play for the Hogs — grandfather, father, uncle and cousin. It was a family tradition until Luc.

Morris doesn’t appear to have metric standards that dictate you have to be 6-3 to play here or 6-4 to play there. He evaluates talent and heart, and he is always looking for speed, something the Razorbacks don’t have in abundance.

Morris has a clear vision for the Razorbacks, and it starts with recruiting.