re: Class of 2018 Recruiting MEGATHREAD: So Long Old Friend Edition

Coach of Louisiana’s No. 1 overall prospect and No. 1 QB says Alabama not welcome at his school

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If Alabama is going to once again lure away some of the top prospects from the state of Louisiana, the high school coach at Parkway isn’t going to make it easy for them. According to David Feaster, the head coach of Parkway five-star receiver Terrace Marshall, the state’s top prospect, and four-star quarterback Justin Rogers, the Alabama coaching staff is not welcome on his campus.

Why is Feaster taking this stance? It all stems from the recruitment of one of his former players, former LSU quarterback Brandon Harris. Feaster broke down his issues with Alabama on 104.5 ESPN Baton Rouge show Off The Bench.

Back in 2013 when Harris was coming up in the recruiting ranks, he was a four-star recruit with an extensive offer sheet. The teams recruiting him as their No. 1 choice included Ohio State, Texas A&M, Baylor, and Auburn – this was before LSU began to recruit Harris. According to Feaster, Alabama also “offered” Harris but never really committed to offering him a scholarship.

Alabama offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier (now Florida’s offensive coordinator) and receivers coach Billy Napier (now Arizona State’s offensive coordinator) “offered” Harris a scholarship. When Feaster asked if this was a scholarship offer, the Alabama coaches replied, “an offer from us is an offer to come to camp.”

After head coach Nick Saban reviewed the quarterback’s film, the coach called Harris to offer him a scholarship.

“Brandon, you have a scholarship at the University of Alabama,” this according to Feaster.

Harris soon went camping at Alabama but the coaching staff didn’t warm to him during his Tuscaloosa visit. When Harris returned home, he found out via the Internet that Alabama had accepted a commitment from quarterback prospect David Cornwell. Harris’ Alabama offer was no longer valid.

Feaster is now concerned a similar thing could happen to his 2018 prospects Marshall or Rogers.

“All I’m saying is this, if you offer Justin Rogers today and he doesn’t commit, I understand that offer may not be good a year from now, but if you offer him, you’re making a committable offer,” Feaster said on the air. “If you make a committable offer, at some point, that offer… there needs to be a window where my guys can say I’ll take that offer and we’ll be done.”

While Feaster says he won’t block his players from going to Alabama, he admits he won’t help the Tide recruit any of his players in the future.

“My guys know they can go to Alabama… and I will pull for them, I just won’t help Alabama recruit my guys,” Feaster said.

Feaster went on to talk about Arkansas accepting commitments from two of his players in the past but dropping them before National Signing Day. While Feaster was understandably upset, when Razorback head coach Bret Bielema and an assistant personally apologized to Feaster, he forgave them and re-opened his school’s doors to the Arkansas program.

We may soon find out how bad Alabama wants either Marshall or Rogers (Marshall is the only one with an Alabama offer at this time), as it will likely take some apologizing from Saban to make it happen.

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Coach Feaster doesn't seem to grasp reasonable common sense recruiting, especially from the college's persepective. Bama did something quite normal in recruiting, especially for quarterbacks. They offered him a scholarship, but accepting his commitment was contingent on him coming to camp for evaluation and performing well there vs other QB prospects. It may also have been contingent on how he did his senior season. What Bielema did, dropping a committed player close to NSD is more understandable to get mad about. However, if a player's senior season and/or all-star game performance isn't so good, it's understandable for a school to cool on a committed player and tell him to pursue other options. Of course the sooner that's done the better. Best to shoot straight with kids about where they stand. From what I can tell, it seems Bama does that pretty well. I expect that Bama can clear up his apparent misunderstanding and fix relations with the coach. Appears to me like Orgeron/LSU has been in Coach Feaster's ear lately doing some negative recruiting.

Miami's about to get a commit or two this weekend for junior day. Have pretty much all the top Florida guys coming down. Expect a WR and DB to commit soon.
Pope, Hall, Blades all on commit watch.

Big Miami-Bama battle is for Jobe.

I think Pope sees the class of WRs we brought in this year and said no thanks.

Hey Captain Crown, thoughts and prayers to Key. He seems like a good guy and he is a heck of a player. I sure hope he gets things straightened out. I would post this on tigerrant, but I don't feel like being accused of stuff

Only Jeudy is equal or better than him.
And Miami had the best Freshman WR in the nation last year and is going to get 4 top WRs in HIS class. If you're scared of competition you don't go to either school.

Also watch out for Miami with Xavier Williams too. Going after him hard.

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Only Jeudy is equal or better than him. 

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No offense, but this statement is asinine. Pope is a good player, but will not be a 5-star player by any service.

Alabama signed 3 last year.

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And Miami had the best Freshman WR in the nation last year and is going to get 4 top WRs in HIS class.

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Perhaps. We have ours on campus. Miami doesn't.

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Also watch out for Miami with Xavier Williams too. Going after him hard.

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Alabama will be fine either way.

According to Rodney Orr (or Redfish... don't remember which mentioned this a couple weeks ago) Bama's staff believes Locksley will be just as good recruiting South FL as Cristobal was. Locksley was a top 2 or 3 national recruiter at NOBODY programs. Now he's at Bama. We can expect some good stuff from him on the recruiting trail.

The question is...


If a Miami WR scored a TD at a home game, and the game wasn't on TV and there weren't 50 people in the stands to see it, did it really happen?