There are any number of ways to judge the performance of Courtney Morgan, the Alabama football general manager responsible for the all-important roles of recruiting coordination, transfer portal oversight, and overall roster management.
Talent level is one. Efficiency of NIL spending is another. And Trae'shawn Brown is a third.
Or at least, his circumstance is.
Last December, Alabama was set to make running back Javari Barnett part of its 2026 signing class. But Barnett, who had vacillated between UA and Illinois in the recruiting process, dropped UA and chose the Illini at the eleventh hour. Barnett also had offers from the likes of Penn State, Miami, Tennessee and Texas A&M, but when a player like that bails on a commitment too close to signing day, the vacancy can't always be filled by a player in similarly high demand.
The spot has to be backfilled by identifying an unknown like Brown. And whether than unknown can play at an SEC level is what makes GM's like Morgan good, or not as good, at what they do.
#alabama
Talent level is one. Efficiency of NIL spending is another. And Trae'shawn Brown is a third.
Or at least, his circumstance is.
Last December, Alabama was set to make running back Javari Barnett part of its 2026 signing class. But Barnett, who had vacillated between UA and Illinois in the recruiting process, dropped UA and chose the Illini at the eleventh hour. Barnett also had offers from the likes of Penn State, Miami, Tennessee and Texas A&M, but when a player like that bails on a commitment too close to signing day, the vacancy can't always be filled by a player in similarly high demand.
The spot has to be backfilled by identifying an unknown like Brown. And whether than unknown can play at an SEC level is what makes GM's like Morgan good, or not as good, at what they do.
#alabama
2 months ago
