Larry Brown Sports

Most high school football players in America dream of one day playing for Nick Saban and Alabama, and there are several reasons for that. First and foremost, the Crimson Tide have won three national championships since 2009. Alabama is a perennial powerhouse that contends for a national title on an annual basis. Not only that, but what other school has a waterfall in its locker room?

On Sunday, high school quarterback David Cornwell — who committed to Alabama last week — tweeted something about a water fall being built in his future team’s locker room.

That's right. A waterfall. RT @DavidCornwell5: That waterfall in Bama's locker room is about to be legit! C'mon who has a waterfall. No one!

— Cecil Hurt (@CecilHurt) June 17, 2013

Jeff Purinton, Alabama’s associate athletics director of football communications, told LarryBrownSports.com on Monday that the waterfall is indeed under construction, although he noted that the term “waterfall” can give off the impression that it’s more elaborate than it actually is.

“I think sometimes when people hear that they think of some 100-foot deal or Niagra Falls or something like that,” Purinton said. “There are some hot and cold tubs going in our new renovation area here and then a few feet above, while you’re sitting in the tubs, the water will fall kind of over the edge. It’s not finished yet but by the time August camp rolls around we’ll have a new team meeting room and some other space that’s being redone.”

The waterfalls are part of the $9 million upgrades to the locker room, which also includes new graphics, lockers, meeting rooms and a theater-style meeting room.

While it may not be a big deal to some, the new structure obviously made an impression on Cornwell, otherwise he wouldn’t have tweeted about it. A waterfall has nothing to do with football, but it adds another element of awesomeness to Alabama’s football program. Like Kentucky’s unbelievable new basketball housing facility, I’m sure it will play a tiny roll in helping to lure new recruits.

H/T Reddit

High school wide receiver recruit Derek Kief announced his commitment to Alabama in a very unique way over the weekend. Kief, who is a four-star recruit that is ranked 32nd at his position by Scout.com, had been keeping fans in the loop by regularly updating his personal website to inform them of which schools he was considering.

Kief had narrowed his decision down to Alabama, Notre Dame, Kentucky, Ohio State and Northwestern before posting the clever video you see above on YouTube on Sunday. The La Salle High school star incorporated his whole family into the clip before unveiling his baby sister Zoey, who was dressed in Crimson Tide colors with an Alabama “A” on the front of her outfit. After that, his entire family was dressed in Alabama gear and enthusiastically making the “Roll Tide” hand signal.

That’s a lot of hype for a high school recruit, but it’s nothing we aren’t used to seeing. Whether it be a football player getting a tattoo and later changing his mind or basketball player shaving a logo into the back of his head, announcing one’s commitment has become a production in itself. Let’s hope Kief lives up to the hype that he is creating for himself.

H/T Dr. Saturday

Eventually, doctors in the maternity ward are going to be asking college coaches like Nick Saban and Les Miles to give mothers a little space when their sons are coming out of the womb. Yes, that’s an exaggeration. But how young is too young for an athlete to be recruited to play a sport in college? For many coaches, the answer to that question is younger than 13 years old.

On Saturday, the defending national champion Crimson Tide extended a scholarship offer to an eight-grader from Baton Rouge named Dylan Moses. If you feel as though Saban should not be offering children who are that young a scholarship, you have an even bigger bone to pick with Miles. Moses received an offer from LSU last summer.

“For Dylan, excitement spilled over,” the boy’s father, Edward Moses Jr., said according to ESPN.com. “When he heard those words from Coach [Nick] Saban, ‘We’re offering you,’ you could see him light up. It was shocking because we were going in thinking we were just going to get a tour of what Alabama has to offer.

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As you probably know, Charles Barkley went to Auburn. Like most other Tigers, he is not very fond of Alabama. Barkley is also one of the most outspoken television analysts in sports, which is why it comes as no surprise that he wore a bandage and put fake blood on his head on the set of TNT’s “Inside the NBA” Thursday night to poke fun at the recent Alabama player arrests.

“Ernie, you’re not gonna believe this,” Barkley said to co-host Ernie Johnson. “Being the Auburn guy that I am, I wanted to be first class. I went down to the University of Alabama to congratulate the Crimson Tide on winning a BCS Championship and I got mugged. I got mugged in Tuscaloosa, Ernie, and my credit cards are missing.”

Barkley was then told to “leave the kids alone” by his colleagues.

“Oh it’s my fault they buggin’ people?” he replied.

While the charade was simply Chuck being Chuck, the incident hardly seems like a laughing matter. As the student who was reportedly “badly beaten” by four Bama players told The Crimson White, the mugging was allegedly violent and excessive. Nevertheless, we don’t expect Charles to be able to resist.

Hey, it’s probably not the worst thing he’s said since becoming an analyst.

Reuben Foster has officially signed his letter of intent with Alabama. Most of you have probably heard of the five-star linebacker recruit from Auburn (Ala.) High School. Foster is the dude who committed to Alabama last July before switching his commitment to Auburn and getting this tattoo to prove it. It turns out that getting the ink was a bit of a rash decision, as Foster later decommitted from Auburn and went back to — you guessed it — Alabama.

On Wednesday morning, Foster made it clear that he is excited to play for Nick Saban next season by dressing up like the three-time SEC Coach of The Year.

Foster has signed with Alabama. And his attire makes it pretty clear that he’ll fax it, too. twitter.com/oanewspreps/st…

— OA News Preps (@oanewspreps) February 6, 2013

Saban typically comes across as a pretty serious guy, so Foster must already be pretty comfortable with him to go down that road. Five-star recruits can probably get away with a little more than the average high school player.

Helmet smack to Dr. Saturday

What does a wildly successful college football coach like Nick Saban, who has won three national championships and has a chance for a fourth, use to motivate his football team? The inspiring words of one of the best athletes of all time — Michael Jordan, of course.

Saban has Bama playing in the BCS National Championship Game for the second year in a row. In order to keep his team focused for the title game, he shared a quote from Jordan, who was not satisfied with winning just one championship.

“We show our team a video of Michael Jordan talking about making the game-winning shot,” Saban said, via ESPN. “It doesn’t matter how many game-winning shots he’s made in the past. The only one that matters is the one he’s about to take.

“That’s the whole deal. Can you focus on the next shot? You’re so zeroed in on the next shot that you don’t have time to think about the other ones. You really don’t.”

Jordan of course finished with six NBA championships and is considered to be the best player of all time. Saban is up there among the best college coaches of all time.

Saban is often asked how he remains motivated despite having so much success. His answer is simple — he tries to forgot about what’s happened in the past and always thinks about the future, just like the MJ quote. As Saban says, it’s human nature to be satisfied, but he won’t allow that for himself. In other words, he’s a machine just like we all figured. We’ll see on Monday how well he managed to get his team focused for this title game. I’m expecting him to take home his fourth championship, and what would be his third in the last four seasons.

Jimmy Clausen is already prepared to watch his alma mater Notre Dame take on Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game next month. He has his shirt picked out and everything.

On Monday, Clausen tweeted a photo of the classy shirt you see above, which described the big game as a battle between the “Catholics” and the “Cousins.” If you don’t understand the reference, you’re probably not old enough to be reading even our family-friendly blog. Apparently the shirt offended enough people, because Clausen later pulled the tweet and sent the following apology:

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