To this day, Coker’s mother speaks candidly about how upset she was with Alabama’s recruitment. Spires said Alabama assistant coach Jeremy Pruitt recruited Coker behind the family’s back after he committed to Florida State, causing her to give an “ass chewing” to Pruitt.
“I called Jeremy and said, ‘Quit sneaking in the back door. Do you understand the word ‘commitment’?” Spires recalled. “Jeremy got a little uppity with me but it didn’t last very long. From a mother’s standpoint, he was wrong. I still think he was wrong. I called him on it. He kept calling me back and I said, ‘What are you a sucker for punishment because I’m not going to cut you any slack? I don’t like what you did.’ Football is such a big business. It’s really not fun. These are kids and sometimes they get distorted by people who really just want a commitment and you never know why.”
Spires said she had a few sessions with Saban — “Come to Jesus meetings,” as she described them — to discuss how Pruitt recruited Coker.
“I meant business because it got to be really traumatic,” Spires said. “Jake started wondering, ‘Did I make the right decision? What if, what if, what if?’ Jake made the decision to commit to Florida State and was totally comfortable with that. I put in my two bits with Jeremy, and by God, he goes to Florida State (to become defensive coordinator). I’m like, damn. So now he’s back at Alabama. It’s really kind of funny.”
That’s one word for it.
Get The Picture 
And my guess is that Saban heard her out, made her feel like he was concerned, then went and patted Pruitt on the back and said “Good job”.
And I don’t mean that as a slam against Saban or Pruitt. There’s something to be said for a “Don’t take ‘no’ for an answer” mentality.
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I imagine you’re right. After all, they’re recruiting the player, not the mom. It’s nice to have both on board, but we see stories every year about the kid that went against his mother’s wishes.
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I think she is right about the continual tampering. If a recruit commits, and puts out a “do not disturb” sign, it should be a violation for any further contact. I am fine with a note that says”if you change your mind, call us”, but other than providing contact information that should be it.
In her mind she had taught her son how to evaluate and make decisions, and that “commitment” means just that. Many of these young men want to get past the hassle stage, others want to feed their own ego and play a game. Why not require adults to learn the difference?
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Makes you wonder if the kid put out the “do not disturb” sign or if momma did. Because if the kid put out the “do not disturb” sign, he wouldn’t be questioning his decision. Momma sounds like a real piece of work here. At the end of the day, the worst think that Pruitt is doing there is offering her kid a free college education and a chance to play at one of the nation’s best football programs. Is that such a horrible thing? If Pruitt truly thought that he was wasting his time with the kid I imagine he would have stopped. I don’t love the guy, but that’s how you recruit college football. Do we think that the players we’ve gotten at the last minute over the years just woke up and called us out of the blue? Of course not. We do the same thing. Everyone does. Momma should have asked her kid if HE knew what commitment was.
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Doesnt matter who does it, I
uga included, I think it should be penalized, and stopped.
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I think that the phrase “and by God” needs a place in the Lexicon somehow pertaining to Alabama.
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Maybe I’m biased because I work in a client facing, revenue production focused area but that story makes me smile at Pruitt’s hustle and work ethic.
Obviously you don’t wanna go too far but at the end of the day we all have deals to close and goals to meet.
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His hustle and work ethic pried Derrick Henry away from UGA.
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Henry would’ve been an outstanding linebacker at UGA…
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Considering UGA recruited him as a RB, I doubt it…
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Then it sounds like our coaching staff got out worked and out hustled. Shocker.
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It is a 2 sided coin, on one you want to think he is the kind of cheater, that would mess around on his wife….
On the other he is a good salesman that will fight to close the deal.
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If the guy’s producing results, i really could care less what he does in his personal life so long as what he’s doingiisn’t something that would really haunt me if it were plastered on the front page of the wall street journal. (Illegal, unethical, etc.)
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As someone who has been an outside sales rep for 15+ years, I wholeheartedly agree with you. I never take “No” at face value; it always means “Not right now” to me.
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Used car sales? 🙂
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So unattractive to see someone enjoying giving others a “piece of their mind” – mommy’s on her high horse. Her son transfered from FSU to Bama, violating his “commitment” to FSU. And apparently CJP was correct in his original suggestion that Coker go to Bama. So pipe down.
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Exactly. This reminds me of the kid’s mom who wanted her son to go to Alabama and the son picked LSU (or was it the other way around?) and became a minor recruiting media star for a few months. It’s not about you, mom, it’s about your kid.
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She didnt like Pruitt, which seems to be pretty common. I hope she continues to bad mouth him forever.
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Recruiting in general is kind of a creepy business. You have adults careers depend on the whims of teenagers. Yes we all are guilty of contributing to this as we follow recruiting daily and flip out every time a pronouncement is made. Unfortunately that is the way it is, and as long as he is not offering anything illegal (think Louisville basketball and the hooker parties) then that is just the way it is. If he is working for you and gets a kid to flip he is the greatest, but if it is the reverse then he is slime.
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ISH?
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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. “It was hard, it was difficult,” said Spires. “No one will ever understand how tough it has been and what we’ve been through.” Somewhere in the distance, a coyote howled but that was scrubbed from the video
http://wkrg.com/2015/12/07/alabamas-jake-coker-fueled-by-his-competitive-family/
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The link sent me to CBS home page so I couldn’t look and read, but, maybe Cokers mom is of the MILF variety and Pruitt was just flirting with her..
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