Great post, and I agree that this weekend could be very positive for us whether the game goes very well or whether it gets real ugly.
However, I disagree about the part in bold. Everybody already knows that Saban and Alabama are good right now; recruits don't need to be there in person to know that. If we get blown out, Dooley isn't going to go to the recruits and say, "Did you see how good Alabama was? Saban was my mentor and that's what I'm modeling my system on, so come here and we'll look like that."
I think the glass-half-full perspective if we get blown out is that recruits see tons of opportunities for early playing time