The University of Alabama didn’t recruit Gabe Giardina. It was the other way around.
Giardina grew up in State College, Pa., where his father worked in the Penn State athletic department as director of marketing and promotions for 17 years, but he knew he wanted to try to play somewhere else in college.
He picked Alabama, and reached out to the coaching staff of then-head coach Mike DuBose.
“I just wanted to make my own path a little bit,” he said. “I felt like God wanted me to go somewhere that wasn’t home.
“I was recruiting the school more than they were recruiting me.