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.