Hey all,
As I'm sure many of you have come to know, former five-star DT Antonio Alfano, who signed with Alabama's Class of 2019 and was one of three five-stars in the class which ranked No. 2 in the nation.
He was the No. 1 DT in the nation and No. 5 overall player in the 2019 class.
He never actually played in a game with Alabama and in mid-October, entered his name into the transfer portal after "disappearing" — he was not attending classes or practices at Alabama.
In early September, Alfano's parents (who operate a joint twitter account from what I can see) tweeted out that the reason for Antonio's aforementioned "disappearance" was that he was dealing with a grandmother's illness, a family member to whom he was very close with.
Nick Saban of course took more of a hardnose stand, stating publicly that "the guy basically quit" while not mentioning whatsoever potential family-related issues that may have contributed to his stepping back from the program.
What I can't answer is how much legitimacy the grandma story has — I'm certainly not in the business of questioning people's dedication to family or a story of elderly illness — yet a potential move out to Colorado does seem to be, well, strange.
Where Saban's position and that of Antonio/his parents intersect if at all is beyond me.
But what I do know is that he was in Mel Tucker's office Sunday and from what I am hearing, the meeting went extremely well, so well as to inspire a significant amount of confidence that sooner rather than later Colorado is going to land him.
Furthermore, I've heard that someone on Alabama's coaching staff — not sure if it was a coach, G.A., trainer — but someone specifically recommended Mel Tucker to Alfano as a coach you want to play for. It was thus Tucker's SEC roots and reputation that ultimately got Alfano into the state and into the building.
Getting back to the uncertainty regarding the circumstances of Alfano's exit from Alabama, one source of mine used the phrase "basket case" to describe Alfano.
I really get the sense that however talented he is, which make no mistake, this dude is insanely talented and would be a HUGE addition for Colorado, that he is a march-to-my-own-drumbeat kind of guy and whomever on Bama's coaching staff referred Alfano to Tucker must have thought that HCMT could straighten him out, perhaps with a bit of a lighter touch / less abrasive manner than is Saban's M.O.
From what I understand he'd be eligible for 2020 and would be the first five-star DL the Buffs have ever landed. Maybe as a closing statement, from what I'm hearing, the meeting between he and Tucker went well and Alfano should be considered a good bet to announce a pledge to CU in the foreseeable future.
Given how Colorado's season has been going, yeah, a four-star like Brenden Rice committing certainly inspires some confidence in Tucker's vision but boy oh boy, what kind of reverberations does that send across the recruiting front...
Overall, this should be viewed as a very positive-trending development. Very positive.
As I'm sure many of you have come to know, former five-star DT Antonio Alfano, who signed with Alabama's Class of 2019 and was one of three five-stars in the class which ranked No. 2 in the nation.
He was the No. 1 DT in the nation and No. 5 overall player in the 2019 class.
He never actually played in a game with Alabama and in mid-October, entered his name into the transfer portal after "disappearing" — he was not attending classes or practices at Alabama.
In early September, Alfano's parents (who operate a joint twitter account from what I can see) tweeted out that the reason for Antonio's aforementioned "disappearance" was that he was dealing with a grandmother's illness, a family member to whom he was very close with.
Nick Saban of course took more of a hardnose stand, stating publicly that "the guy basically quit" while not mentioning whatsoever potential family-related issues that may have contributed to his stepping back from the program.
What I can't answer is how much legitimacy the grandma story has — I'm certainly not in the business of questioning people's dedication to family or a story of elderly illness — yet a potential move out to Colorado does seem to be, well, strange.
Where Saban's position and that of Antonio/his parents intersect if at all is beyond me.
But what I do know is that he was in Mel Tucker's office Sunday and from what I am hearing, the meeting went extremely well, so well as to inspire a significant amount of confidence that sooner rather than later Colorado is going to land him.
Furthermore, I've heard that someone on Alabama's coaching staff — not sure if it was a coach, G.A., trainer — but someone specifically recommended Mel Tucker to Alfano as a coach you want to play for. It was thus Tucker's SEC roots and reputation that ultimately got Alfano into the state and into the building.
Getting back to the uncertainty regarding the circumstances of Alfano's exit from Alabama, one source of mine used the phrase "basket case" to describe Alfano.
I really get the sense that however talented he is, which make no mistake, this dude is insanely talented and would be a HUGE addition for Colorado, that he is a march-to-my-own-drumbeat kind of guy and whomever on Bama's coaching staff referred Alfano to Tucker must have thought that HCMT could straighten him out, perhaps with a bit of a lighter touch / less abrasive manner than is Saban's M.O.
From what I understand he'd be eligible for 2020 and would be the first five-star DL the Buffs have ever landed. Maybe as a closing statement, from what I'm hearing, the meeting between he and Tucker went well and Alfano should be considered a good bet to announce a pledge to CU in the foreseeable future.
Given how Colorado's season has been going, yeah, a four-star like Brenden Rice committing certainly inspires some confidence in Tucker's vision but boy oh boy, what kind of reverberations does that send across the recruiting front...
Overall, this should be viewed as a very positive-trending development. Very positive.
