Saban finds loophole

BY TROY JOHNSON and DAVID CHING --

Staff Writer

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When the NCAA banned Division I-A coaches from making on-campus visits to high schools during its spring evaluation period, Nick Saban didn't waste his breath challenging the rule.

The Alabama head football coach found a perfectly legal way to get around it.

While the NCAA enacted its legislation -- unofficially termed the "Saban Rule" -- to prevent meetings between college coaches and potential recruits on high school campuses, it doesn't prohibit either party from making use of technology during the evaluation period that runs from April 15 to the end of May.

Saban installed a webcam in Alabama's football office, enabling him to have face-to-face meetings with high school players and coaches from afar. The NCAA treats webcam usage as it does phone calls, allowing for prospects to call coaches as many times as they want or to log onto a Web site for a video chat.

Saban, who played in Monday's SEC Celebrity Golf Classic at the Country Club of Columbus, said his first applications of web technology came during his tenure as the Miami Dolphins head coach.

"It came from our medical staff in Miami," Saban said. "We're kind of in an age where most of these guys don't read books. They watch videos. I feel like any time you're sitting there in a video conference talking to a coach or player, it's almost like you're there. It's much better than a phone call."

Such a forum allows Saban and other college head coaches to gain a better sense of a prospect's personality.

"I guess it's the pro ball guy in me," Saban said. "You watch a guy on film, you'd go to the (NFL) combine and watch him work out, then you go work a player out. It's kind of a crosscheck. The fact that all these guys are playing (spring football) in most of the states that we recruit, I used to see the best five or six players at every position.

"It was a great crosscheck. That was a great evaluation tool for all of us."

Pollack talks Dogs

Three-time All-American David Pollack's football career ended only recently, but he's already talking like a fan.

Asked to assess his former team's chances in the upcoming season, the Georgia great's enthusiasm was tempered by a very realistic concern.

"Obviously I love Georgia football and I'm gonna be cheering for them, but that schedule's brutal. That thing's ridiculous," Pollack said with a laugh.

The Bulldogs finished the 2007 season with a flourish, winning their last seven games on the way to a No. 2 national ranking. Most of that team will return in 2008, but the Bulldogs might play the most difficult schedule in the nation, with early season visits to South Carolina and Arizona State preceding consecutive home dates with Alabama and Tennessee. A road trip to LSU starts a four-game stretch away from Athens that includes games against Florida, Kentucky and Auburn. And then rival Georgia Tech will visit to conclude the regular season.

It's enough to make even the most enthusiastic Georgia supporters -- and Pollack counts himself among them -- shake his head in dismay.

 

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