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Nick Saban Talks Satellite Camps, Comments On Their Value
Nick Saban is not a fan of satellite camps. While other coaches are all aboard, Saban's comments paint a more traditional picture.
April 7, 2016
Nick Saban is not a fan of satellite camps. While other coaches are all aboard, Saban’s comments paint a more traditional picture.
College football is an unending game of oneupmanship, schematic fads and competitive advantage. Currently, the sport’s hot trend is satellite camps.
The events, which are hosted by college programs, provide coaches an opportunity to enter fertile recruiting grounds and expand their spheres of influence.
Despite having a recruit pilfered by the opportunistic Harbaugh, Alabama head coach Nick Saban doesn’t see the big deal about the camps.
“I’m really not even thinking that it has that much value,” Saban said.
Saban is coming off his fourth national title in seven years, regularly lands the top recruits in the country, and has five-star players from across the nation salivating to come play for the Crimson Tide. With that kind of success, it’s hardly surprising that Saban doesn’t want to break the wheel.
In complete contrast to satellites, he was adamant about the benefits of having a player come to the school’s campus.
“The way it is right now if a player is interested and comes to your camp, he gets to see your campus, he gets to meet players, gets to work with your coaches a little bit more because he’s in your camp at your place,” Saban said. “I think there’s a lot of value.”
While Saban favors conventional recruiting, his sentiment isn’t universal across the SEC. Georgia’s new head coach Kirby Smart, who served as the Tide’s defensive coordinator for the last seven years, plans on taking full advantage if the SEC lifts its ban on the camps.
“If it happens, we’ll be ready to go,” Smart said.
Smart’s former boss finds the idea absurd.
“How many teams play Division I football?” Saban said. “Are they all going to have a satellite camp in every metropolitan area? That means they’ll have 113 camps in Atlanta, 113 in Tampa, Orlando, Miami, Dallas, Houston. I mean, it sounds like a pretty ridiculous circumstance for me for something that nobody can really determine (if) it has any value anyway.”
