Alabama head coach Nick Saban joined the 247Sports Signing Day Show on Wednesday to discuss the Crimson Tide’s 2020 recruiting class. Below is everything Saban said during his interview with Josh Pate and Barton Simmons on National Signing Day 2020.

On Alabama’s defensive haul…

“I think that was one of the big goals that we had this year. We were a little bit thin last year on defense up front. When we got a few players hurt, we had to play some really young guys. We wanted to try to address that in recruiting this year by getting a really strong front group and linebacker corps group. I think that was one of the strengths of this class.”

On 5-star defensive tackle Timothy Smith and hitting on early evaluations…

“I think really identifying the criteria for what you’re looking for -- football’s a developmental game, so it’s harder to evaluate guys when they’re younger. But we felt very fortunate this year that we were able to identify some guys that were really good players at a young age and they actually continue to improve and get better, which is the key to the drill because this early signing thing probably is a disadvantage to a late bloomer, which is unfortunate, I think.

“A guy that develops later and has a great senior year and we’ve already signed 22 guys, you don’t have much room to add guys in the end. But Tim really played great. I think he got in great shape this year. He lost a little weight, his mobility improved and I think that really helped him a lot as a player.”

On 5-star quarterback Bryce Young…

“We don’t really want to place any great expectations on any of our recruits. Bryce is a talented young man. He’s got great competitive character. He’s a great person. He’s a good leader. He’s played in a very successful program. We want him to focus on development and what he has to do to improve and become a great player here for us. We’re certainly excited about having him. We think he’s a very talented guy.

“I think when it comes to offense -- I always say football is a great team game except for one position, the quarterback. If you have a quarterback, I think, and you put some good players around him, that’s really going to help you be an explosive offense. Hopefully, Bryce is going to develop into that and maybe some of the other players around him this year ate going to help him do that in the future, as well.”

Alabama running back signee Jase McClellan

On 4-star running back Jase McClellan…

“Jase is really smooth, really explosive, really good hands. Just an all-around, very, very talented player. Some of these guys, they’re great with the ball in their hands, but they don’t do other things. He does it all, and he’s a really great receiver, so we were excited about him. We think he has great character, as well.

“That was a big thing for us this year was making sure the guys that we got were character, quality people that were really sort of committed developing personally, academically and athletically and were going to be the kind of guys that would come and be great teammates and fit into our culture here. That’s one of the things that I really like about this group, as well.”

On if there are any guys that flown under the radar...

“No. What we try to get our guys to focus on here, in all honesty -- and I know you guys create a lot of expectations for these young guys by evaluating them, and it’s great for them to get that kind of positive reinforcement. But when they get to us, we want them not to be focused on outcomes and expectations but more on, ‘What do I have to do to get the outcome?’ So, the guys that can stay focused on what they need to do to improve, get better.

“I tell the guys when they come here -- ‘Look to your right, look to your left. This may be the first time you’ve ever been in a situation or a room where the guy to your right and left is as good or better than you.’ So, some of the other competitive character-type things become really, really important for guys’ development, and we’ve been very fortunate here to do a great job of developing. We’ve gotten a lot of good players and done a really good job of developing, and that’s what has helped our success. We’re hopeful that this class will do the same.”

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