re: 2020 FB Recruiting & Roster

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Another big reason why McCutchin chose Bama is because of his primary recruiter Jeff Banks.

“Coach Banks is a cool dude,” he said. “He just recruits different. He’s always going to show you love. He’s never going to lie to you. If he tells you he’s gonna come see you, he’s gonna come see you. There’s a lot of coaches that will tell you they’re going to do something and then they don’t do it and I don’t really respect that too much.”

He wasn’t his area recruiter, but McCutchin is also a big fan of defensive backs coach Karl Scott.

“Coach Scott is the GOAT,” he said. “That guy coaches really different from other coaches. I just appreciate how he keeps things real with us.”

LBJ High School is less than 10 miles away from the University of Texas. The Longhorns offered McCutchin, but not until after Alabama did.

“I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t really hard,” McCutchin said of choosing Alabama over Texas, among others. “They like to show interest in you after you blow up and I feel like if I’m in your city you should automatically just want me just because I’m in your back yard, like no hesitation. But with them, they got a really slow recruiting process and I kind of respect it, but I just don’t think it’s for me.”

Asked who came in second place, McCutchin says either Oklahoma or Oklahoma State. But, for the four-star cornerback, it’s the Southeastern Conference that’s calling his name.

“It’s different,” he said of SEC football. “The SEC is really different from any conference I visited. It just feels like home. I can’t really imagine myself being anywhere else.”

McCutchin plans to take on a leadership role in the 2021 class now that he’s first on board.

“I’m just going to approach it like I approach everything else — with a confident attitude,” he said. “I’m going to try to lead my class and do things like that.”

At just over 6-foot-1, 175 pounds, McCutchin is rated the No. 7 cornerback and the No. 121 overall player, per 247Sports.

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Alabama added 2021 four-star cornerback  LINK ]Latrell McCutchin on Monday night. And according to his head coach at Austin (Texas) LBJ, the Tide is getting a special player in the Top247 DB.

“Well I just think Latrell, he’s gifted athletically, but also he’s smart,” Jaguars head coach Jahmal Fenner told BamaOnLine. “I think with his athleticism and then also him being a student of the game, he’s always trying to learn more, so he’s constantly growing. That’s what I’ve seen with him over time is his body is developing and he loves football. Now he’s learning football and he’s developing physically and that’s allowing him to grow as a player and to be really one of the top players in the state and in the nation. He really has that ability.”

Fenner saw the potential early on in the 6-foot-1, 175-pound McCutchin.

“I knew he was special when he came out of middle school,” Fenner said. “And he’s been special even when he was playing in little league; he was always kind of ahead of kids his age. When he came over to us and we started working drills and stuff like that, I really saw that he had the potential to be a great DB. Then just naturally being an athlete, playing receiver and returning kicks and all of those things, he’s just an athlete. I really cleaned up his technique, tried to just coach him technically-wise, and he just continued to grow. I saw him develop fast. That’s when he kind of sky-rocketed where he started having a lot of success. His technique was putting him in the right position to make plays. But he’s always had the play-making ability with that athleticism.”

Jeff Banks recruits Central Texas. When the second year Tide assistant made his way to LBJ High School, he was greeted by a familiar face. Banks coached special teams at UTEP when Fenner was a senior. The now LBJ head coach holds the Miners career punt return yardage record.

“Seeing (Banks) at Bama and having the success that he’s had, I admire him for one, I’m a coach and that’s what you want to do,” Fenner said. “You want to develop; you want to grow as a coach. So seeing him being at that stage, I just have a lot of respect for him because he’s paid his dues and he’s working hard. So when he came out to LBJ and he’s recruiting one of my guys, it’s exciting because I know him, I played for him, but also my guy has an opportunity to play at an elite level and I know he’s going to be taken care of because I know that coach personally.”

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