CHRISTOPHER WALSH: Expectations are a part of being Bama

Imagine for a moment that you’re the head coach of the University of Alabama football program. Considering the amount of second-guessing that goes on by fans over nearly every little detail, that shouldn’t be too difficult.

Then imagine there’s a player in the state who’s considered by many to be the top prospect in the nation. It doesn’t necessarily matter if he is or not, the perception is the important thing for this discussion. This, too, shouldn’t be too difficult considering this past week, with wide receiver Julio Jones of Foley High School signing his scholarship to play for the Crimson Tide.

Now imagine that Jones had decided to go somewhere else.

Coach Nick Saban would still have finished with a top-notch recruiting class, and still have signed the vast majority of premium in-state prospects.

But the Crimson Tide wouldn’t have been ranked first by any recruiting service, no one would have written, “If you aren’t scared of Bama yet, you better be,” like The Sporting News did, and fans would be grousing about the one who got away.

Perception is funny that way, and doesn’t always mirror reality. Either way, on face value, it made Saban’s recruitment of Jones arguably the most important thing he’s done since arriving at the Capstone, although he didn’t quite see it that way.

“I don’t think it adds pressure,” Saban said.

“We have confidence that we can get great players to come to school here, so we don’t feel pressure about that, and we feel they have a great opportunity to succeed here. In Julio’s case, we certainly felt that. We tried to do the best job we could to develop relationships with him and his family so they all felt comfortable and understood what his opportunities would be here.”

Then there’s the flip side, about how once you land that top recruit so much can change.

“I believe in the law of attraction, and I talk about this all the time,” Saban continued. “If you know what you want to accomplish and you’re positive, and the energy you go about doing it with, and you have gratitude for all that you have, don’t focus on all the negative stuff you have over here that you really can’t control, then that’s the best way for you to be successful.”

In many ways, Jones was a textbook example of how to land a recruit, assuming Saban wrote the textbook. Same goes for other new additions like Burton Scott, Star Jackson and Tyler Love. Get one, build on it, and keep going. Then, like the coach said, share the “gratitude.”

“The fans should know that their positive energy, the atmosphere they created by having 92,000 show up at a spring game — I still hear about that — their positive attitude contributed tremendously,” Saban said.

“In a lot of ways, this is your recruiting class for all the support you’ve given us and we certainly do appreciate it.”

Right there we all saw what kind of salesman Saban can be. Yep, he’s smooth, and he understands better than anyone that there are two sides to expectations, which at times can be an important ally.

However, they also come with being the highest-paid coach in college football, being the top recruit coming out of high school, and being Alabama. That’s just reality.

Today the perception is that the Crimson Tide is a much different program from a week ago, even though most of the new recruits are months away from arriving on campus. By then, things could be vastly different (for example, imagine redshirt freshman wide receiver Marquis Maze splitting time in the backfield), even though fans are already wondering how long it will be before they get into a game. Patience, please.

“Julio Jones is an outstanding player, but don’t create expectations for the guy that he can never live up to,” Saban said.

But those around the program say they’ve never seen this coaching staff collectively as happy as they were Wednesday night. Potentially, even they know this may be only the beginning.

Christopher Walsh’s column appears Saturdays. Reach him at christopher.walsh@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0196.