Alabama's Recruiter for 5* OT Leatherwood Rumored to Be Leaving

Submitted by Caesar on

Mario Cristobal is currently OL coach for 'Bama, and his recruiting prowess is pretty well established. He was a former head coach at FIU.

Leatherwood likely needs little introduction. He is a 5* OT who had Michigan on his radar before settling on 'Bama a while ago. Maybe this moves the needle?

Source: https://twitter.com/FootballScoop/status/816664455765524480

Leatherwood's 247 Profile: http://247sports.com/Player/Alex-Leatherwood-80818

 

MGoBoard
Alabama
2017 football recruiting
Alex Leatherwood. Mario Cristobal

ish

January 4th, 2017 at 12:10 PM ^

probably doesn't move the needle.  a few weeks ago Sam Webb did a Q&A and referenced an article in which Leatherwood said he was solid to bama and nothing was going to change his mind.

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Indonacious

January 4th, 2017 at 12:12 PM ^

I don't think this will make any difference. Look at our recruits with jedd leaving...it didn't cause that much instability. The fact is everything else is pretty stable (saban and sark are there), so recruits will probably stick with it, especially so late in the game.

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corundum

January 4th, 2017 at 12:12 PM ^

An interesting note: Pittman at UGA would most likely be Alabama's top replacement candidate. We might be able to get back into it with Leatherwood and Wilson, although I'm not sure how close Wilson is with Pittman at Georgia.

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ColeIsCorky

January 4th, 2017 at 1:39 PM ^

Actually, that depends on who you listen to. Isaiah himself has said that his relationship with their OL coach was the biggest reason he chose Georgia over Michigan. Whether or not it was really about potential job offerings to coaches/family/whatever is all speculation, but his direct response when asked by reporters why he chose Georgia was in fact his relationship with Pittman.

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Night_King

January 4th, 2017 at 12:13 PM ^

If Cristobal leaves Bama, it is HUGE news for recruiting in general. He is one of their most active and well-liked recruiters. Saban will try to hold on to him for sure, but I hope he leaves. 

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Mr. Yost

January 4th, 2017 at 12:14 PM ^

Willie Taggart helping his BFF from afar!

Losing Cristobal would be a nice start...losing Tosh Lupoi to Cal (to be their DC) would be even BETTER.

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jmgoblue83

January 4th, 2017 at 12:19 PM ^

Lupoi to Cal would definitely give Michigan a leg up in the Najee Harris recruitment. Unfortunately, it could wind up like the Mike Webber recruitment with OSU and Lupoi leaves after Harris has already made his decision. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I still am hopeful he already purchased a plane ticket to Detroit.

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Mr. Yost

January 4th, 2017 at 12:24 PM ^

Najee will be enrolled and in class on Monday, so it won't matter.

 

...besides, no one would fire a coach or mutually agree to seperate with a coach right before a natonal championship game. That's completely unheard of.

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Mr Miggle

January 4th, 2017 at 1:03 PM ^

when a kid's recruiter leaves unless he was slated to be his position coach too. Those recruiters are good at getting those relationships started. At the end of the day the recruits want to be comfortable with the people actually coaching them. Along the same vein, I don't think losing Tony Tuioti hurts us with current recruits, but it may down the line.

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Retnep

January 4th, 2017 at 12:22 PM ^

Cristobal is probably the best recruiter in the Nation and I'm probably underselling him. His recruiting is legendary. Cristobal was Rutgers when Greg Schiano was having success there. It isn't a stretch to say that Schiano's success was directly tied to Cristoball's recruiting. When Cristobal left to go to FIU, Rutgers went back to being Rutgers. Cristoball got TY Hilton to go go to FIU over a lot of other big programs. At 'Bama, Cristoball has been top 3 national recruiter every year he's been there. Losing him would be a huge loss for Bama and a huge get for Oregon.

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gobluedore

January 4th, 2017 at 1:12 PM ^

He said multiple times before he reaffirmed his commitment that if Cristobal left it would be a game changer. It might be to late now but who know's, he's also an EE.



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