Alabama Offers a Football Scholarship to an 8th Grader

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: Hail Saban.

This is how you perpetuate a dynasty. By recruiting 6-8, 370 lb offensive lineman from the Class of 2022. The high school class of 2022.

Kiyaunta Goodwin is an 8th grader, set to graduate from Holy Cross of Lexington, KY in 2022. Which will put him in the Alabama Class of 2026. And I say this knowing damned well he was first offered a full ride by Florida State:

But who are we shitting? FSU is a fine program, but they can’t compete for this kid when Saban can promise him three National Championship games before he declares for the 2025 draft and is a mortal lock to be a Top 5 pick. And just to put in perspective how much The Dark Lord is thinking seven years worth of moves ahead, Goodwin was born the year Saban led LSU to the national title before ditching them for the Dolphins job.

But that’s how the greats do it. They build for now. They build for next year and the year after. And they build for eight years down the road because the teams of the mid-2020s aren’t going to recruit themselves. And offering scholarships to high school juniors is for the loser of the Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl, not dynasties. By now Saban is no doubt lining up visits with Pop Warner kids, some kindergarten parents and scheduling meetings with really athletic women to freeze their embryos for the class of 2040. Because that’s how winning is done. Dammit, Saban is a genius.