When Nick Saban arrived at Alabama in 2007, the Crimson Tide was not known for churning out high-level receivers.

Over 23 years before Saban's arrival, Alabama produced a grand total of seven NFL draft picks at receiver and none of them were in the first round.

Join Tigerillustrated.com subscribers on The West Zone message board!

Over the last 11 drafts, nine Alabama receivers have been drafted. And an almost astounding seven of them have gone in the first round.

While this is one of numerous ways the Crimson Tide has solidified itself as the standard in college football, the battle for the #WRU title promises to rage on, and it promises to include Clemson.

When the powers that be at Clemson made the decision to go with Dabo Swinney in 2008, there was no way of knowing that it would pay off to have a coach whose specialty was receivers.

Swinney had coached some really good ones when he was working under Tommy Bowden, including Derrick Hamilton, Kevin Youngblood and Jacoby Ford.