OT: Alabama offers massive, soon to be 8th grader
did this kid redshirt a few years? That's not even fair to have him ona field against other 8th grade kids.
5th year 8th grader
This happens often in the South, sometimes for sports and sometimes for academics. The thinking (which I disagree with) is sometimes couched as "girls mature faster than boys, so you should hold your sons back a year". So you end up with a lot of the class being a year older than you'd guess.
That stated, the Bama (and Ole Miss and Mississippi State) offeree kid is a beast for a rising ninth-grader too. I hope he keeps his head on straight with all this attention, because he looks like a BCS player already.
The Malcolm Gladwell book "Outliers: The Story of Success" started a huge redshirting crazy among people who read. They had a story about how the majority of NHL players are born in the later half of the year of their grade. The theory goes that if you're bigger and more coordinated you'll get more attention, coaching and playing time. That extra time makes you better. The problem is that my 8 year old daughter who is young for her grade and short for her age is competing against kids a full year and a half to two years older than she is. She's smart and tenacious, so she's still at the top, but it's weird that her classmates are a full foot taller than she is.
That said, Southerners need an extra year of school. It's just too bad they don't teach science in those schools....
There is some truth to that NHL thing. If you look at the vast majority of North American born players in the NHL, Most of them are born in the months of January, February, and March.
The reason for this is hypothesized that due to the cuttoff date for age classification for youth hockey (which I think is December 31st) kids born in the first three months of the year are going to be a bit stronger and more developed than kids born later in the year due to them having a few extra months of growth. As a result they make the best youth and travel teams and as a result get the best coaching and training.
Moral of the story, if you want your son to become a pro hockey player, make sure he is born in January, February, March.
One local school that won states in baseball and went deep in basketball had a roster of mostly 19/20 yo seniors. A few went to ACC for baseball and promptly disappeared when the faced off against kids their own age.
They hold them back in 5th right before the eligibility clock starts.
Just what I want... my 13 year old daughter going to school with 20 year old boys.
What if, deep down, he just wants to be a florist?
Too young man.
John Beilein would not approve and I don't either.
I think that Maizen's take would be that Harbaugh needs to "get in on these guys earlier" to meet Maizen's football recruiting expectations. Ideally, we'd have a member of our recruiting staff with these kids no later than the moment of conception.
Aren't you 13 in 8th grade?
If he is about to be 16 he must've already gotten a medical AND a Sparty 6th year.
Yes, most kids are 13 when entering the 8th grade. Our son (now entering 11th grade) is "young for his grade," so he turned 13 in October of 8th grade. Even kids who were held back or "redshirted" for a year would likely still be 13 or will have just turned 14 when starting 8th grade.
My twin sisters were held back before entering first grade (had moved to a new country with a new language before kindergarten, so took an extra year to learn the language). They turned 15 in 8th grade. So unless this kid was held back two or three times, I'm going to say he's not older than 14, on the verge of 15.
he is no Kiyaunta Goodwin. http://www.maxpreps.com/news/40iCg2BI20KlPLHmElZV4Q/6-foot-6,-350-pound-eighth-grader-gets-football-offer-from-kentucky.htm
no idea if I did the link right
He's still got some growing to do.
Saban really needs to start standing on milk crates for these photos.
(...and Trump is 6 years older rocking the strawberry blonde hair color - Saban is far from alone in this one. It is what it is. "Whatever floats your boat.")
I think Saban's hair looks perfectly natural.
Sincerely,
Mitch Albom
My dad is 78 years old and doesnt have a gray hair on his head. All natural too. His beard otoh has a bit. Im almost 53 and have yet to see a gray hair.
Is your dad completely bald?
That this isn't some 21 jump street situation? That looks like a full grown man with an ex wife, a kid, and a mortgage to worry about.
Not Safe From Canada shirt? Too much paranoia about attacks from the north.
His Ole Miss visit was crazy. Rumors are circulating that Freeze let him hold hands with a "cheerleader" and that a booster gave him a Fidget Spinner.
then, maybe.
So, are we to understand that last year this kid was playing against real 12-13 year olds? That doesn't seem at all safe, and if he is "redshirting" a year or more (which seems at least possible), it seems pretty unfair. Hard to see how he gets better squashing 140-150 pound kids day after day.
Yet again, I examine my life and realize that I must have had far too much candy-ass milk since it has taken me all of 40 years to achieve and for now maintain 5'9". I mean, I knew kids in eighth grade that were pretty substantially sized, if you will, for their age, but I can't think of anyone who was the size of many current defensive ends in the pros, let alone college.
Kid's gonna be like 30 when he graduates highschool. That's no fucking 12 year old.
Reminds me of Greg Oden, who was probably 40 in college.
40 year old face, 50 year old knees.
How hard is it to lie about your age in any kind of official way? I would presume you would need to forge a birth certificate. I'm not sure about college football, but pretty damn sure the NFL wants to know exactly how old a player really is.
Double-Double