Bama snags Louisiana home grown

Tide steals WR from LSU
10:50
AM ETAlabama Crimson Tide Top Email
LSU's dominance of the state's 2011 prospects "took its first major hit," according to Mike Strom of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, on Wednesday when ESPNU 150 Watch List WR Bradley Sylve committed to SEC rival Alabama.

Sylve's stepfather and former coach, Cyril Crutchfield, told Strom that Sylve "liked Alabama from the start. They were the first school to offer him back in September. He felt comfortable with Nick Saban. He liked the facilities there and the environment of the whole school. He liked the set up of the academic facilities, the weight room and the academic center all the way to the dorms and the cafeteria."

Sylve is the fourth WR commit -- three of whom are Watch Listers -- for Alabama in this recruiting cycle, following three in 2010 (with at least one ATH recruit who could end up at the position). And don't forget that four-star ATH Keenan Allen, who decommitted for Cal, was also slated to play WR.

Could this be the truest sign that Nick Saban wants to further open up his offense? Potentially eight WRs over a two-year period is a significant number for a team that doesn't run the spread. Some of them may find their way to DB (we saw Saban experiment with two WRs at S this spring), but if not, Greg McElroy and then either A.J. McCarron or Phillip Sims could be doing a lot of slingin' in coming seasons.