Alabama football coach Nick Saban is denying allegations his team violated NCAA rules in recruiting former Louisville receiver Tyler Harrell.
“We don’t tamper with anybody,” Saban said at an event this week, via ESPN.
In an interview with 247 Sports last week, Louisville coach Scott Satterfield suggested the Crimson Tide recruited Harrell before he entered the transfer portal in April, but that he couldn’t necessarily prove that tampering took place.
“I think it’s not only him, it’s happened before here,” Satterfield said. “Last year we had a few guys that jumped into the portal and the next day they’re announcing where they’re going. You can look at that and know that something went on before they were in the portal.”
The 247 piece addresses the alleged practice of poaching players as an epidemic in the college football world. In the case of Harrell, who caught 18 passes for 532 yards and six touchdowns last season, the receiver entered the portal on April 12 and committed to Alabama just 10 days later.
While Saban wouldn’t say one way or the other this week if it’s an actual issue, he admitted he can understand why some coaches feel that way.
“… when you have a guy leave your program and go someplace else the day after the game, I don’t have any evidence that anything happened and I’m not making any accusations, but it makes you wonder, I guess,” he said. “But hopefully we have enough honesty and integrity out there amongst us professionally in our sport that people are going to abide by the rules.”
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