Recruiting: Alabama picks up QB from Georgia

It seems that if you’re a four and five-star recruit, you are either heading to Tuscaloosa, Ann Arbor, or Los Angeles these days.

Parker McLeod, the highly sought-after quarterback from Walton High School in Georgia, decided that he wanted to go to Tuscaloosa to play his football in 2013 – and so committed to Nick Saban and his Crimson company on Friday.

“Alabama was my dream school all along,” McLeod told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I got a firm offer from them on Wednesday and I committed on the spot. They wanted me to wait a little bit, or until Friday, until I went public with it.”

Saban had earlier whiffed on quarterbacks Anthony Jennings and Johnathan McCrary, who went to Vanderbilt.

McLeod may well end up being a back-up for his career in a Crimson Tide shirt. After all, Saban picked up one of the top quarterbacks in the country in Cooper Bateman from Utah last month, beating Auburn, Florida and LSU to that commitment.

But McLeod isn’t bothered. He said: “I know there’s going to be competition wherever I go,” McLeod told the paper. “[Bateman] was not much a factor on my choice. The Alabama coaches told me that they would give us both an equal shot to compete. I’m just looking forward to competing and trying to get my spot.”

The AJC also noted that the Walton team-mate Tyren Jones, who ranked No.1 in the State of Georgia at tailback, had also committed to the Tide.

BOTTOM LINE: Great news for Alabama and McLeod, but let’s not be too surprised if McLeod doesn’t want to play second or third-string quarterback for his college career on a team that prides itself in running the ball, and either de-commits from ‘Bama before February, or transfers during his career. Harsh, we know.