The University of Alabama Football and Crimson Tide Sports Source
April 19, 2024
January 31, 2014
The Big Fish that got away
The Matt Elam thing really shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise. Yeah, Kentucky “beat” Alabama for his signature. It was a big deal in Lexington and they probably didn't lose too much sleep over in Tuscaloosa.
There are a couple of things going on here and Alabama fans just shouldn’t get their knickers in a knot over this. For his final official visit Elam was treated to a UK home basketball game where the crowd chanted “We want Elam!” That had to be very cool for a kid from Kentucky. The kicker was he got his picture made with UK basketball coach John Calipari. I know he was not being recruited to play basketball, but every kid in Kentucky grows up wanting to play basketball for the Cats. That whole Rupp and Calipari thing was a big deal for him. Nick Saban and Alabama are cool, but for Kentucky kids UK basketball is something else.
The new staff at Kentucky has done a good job of keeping the good players in state. Charlie Strong leaving for Texas helped and bad-boy Bobby did hurt either. The point here is, it really seemed unlikely that the kid was coming to Alabama. I’m sure he thought about it and he might have even tilted the Tide’s way once, but the whole instate thing and the allure of the new staff, helping build the program, yadda, yadda, yadda was what caused the Tide to lose out on him.
Don’t fret y’all and for heaven’s sake don’t beat up some seventeen year old kid for wanting to play for the home team that’s just silly. Keep in mind you were seventeen once and you did silly things too. Remember that hair cut? You know you do. Think about that when you want to beat up a seventeen year old.
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