re: 2020 FB Recruiting & Roster

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Five-star CB LINK ]Ga'Quincy McKinstry out of Pinson (AL) Pinson Valley returned to Tuscaloosa on Saturday for Junior Day and spent time not only with the football team, but also the basketball team.

“Yesterday was a pretty good day at Alabama,” Que Jenkins, Ga’Quincy’s father, told BamaOnLine. “Sitting down and talking with Coach Oats, hung out with the basketball team, sat in on film with them, seeing preparation for the game. I think that was a good thing for him to see all that.”

McKinstry has the opportunity to play both football and basketball — something important to him in his recruitment — at Alabama after Saturday’s visit.

“Coach Oats said he has an opportunity to play both,” Jenkins said. “Coach Oats is willing to work hand in hand with Coach Saban so they can make it work. Coach Oats was very, very, very interested in Kool-Aid playing basketball.”

McKinstry and his family have been to Tuscaloosa plenty of times throughout the recruiting process. “Alabama is a great place,” Jenkins said. “Good people. You can’t second guess that body of work by the players that have been down there. The success they’ve had over the years on and off the field. Getting players ready for the next level for football and life itself. I think Alabama is a good place. It’s solely up to Kool-Aid. Wherever he chooses, it’ll be a great situation. Yesterday was good. Alabama overall — the facilities, the people, the players, the coaches, I think it’s a pretty good place.”

McKinstry’s father appreciates how Nick Saban has handled the recruiting process, and guidance he’s given his son. “I think Saban’s a great guy,” Jenkins said. “It’s obvious he’s a great coach. He’s said some good things to Kool-Aid that he can take for a lifetime even if he doesn’t pick Alabama. He’s said some good quotes that Kool-Aid can take from here all the way up to adulthood. And I appreciate that.”

Being a five-star recruit comes with plenty of pressure. McKinstry’s father says he’s taking it all in stride. “I’m enjoying the way he’s handling himself as a 17-year-old kid,” Jenkins said. “The hype, everything’s that’s come with his name, people pulling him this way, pulling him that way, he’s handling it well.”

As for a decision timeline? “Kool-Aid is the driver of this situation,” Jenkins said. “Wherever he wants to take officials, that’s where we’ll go. It’s always been like that. It’s not me, it’s not his mom, it’s solely up to Kool-Aid. I’m enjoying watching Kool-Aid, a 17-year-old kid, handle this kind of pressure the way he’s handled it. He’s open-minded.”

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Alabama welcomed five-star cornerback LINK ]Ga'Quincy McKinstry back to campus for what the Pinson (Ala.) Pinson Valley product estimates is his eighth to tenth visit to Tuscaloosa thus far in his recruitment.

Despite it being a Junior Day for football, it was the basketball team McKinstry said he spent more time around on Saturday. “It was a good one,” McKinstry told BamaOnLine. “I liked getting to spend time with the basketball team and coaches.”

The interaction included UA head coach Nate Oats offering McKinstry a chance to play on the hardwood. “It was good,” McKinstry said of earning a hoops offer. “It’s something I really want to do in college. That was a plus.”

The conversation with Nick Saban was largely centered around the chance to play both sports at the next level as well. “He was saying he was basically ok with me playing both sports and playing both ways,” McKinstry said. “But I have to do the right things in classroom first to make sure I can handle those things.”

Cornerbacks coach Karl Scott is leading the charge recruiting McKinstry. “We’re close,” he said. “Mostly we just talk about football and life stuff. He’s a good person.” Alabama sees McKinstry contributing in more than one way on the football field. “They feel they can use me as both a corner and the nickel position,” he said.

The opportunity with the Crimson Tide isn’t one that McKinstry is taking lightly. “Winning,” he said of what he likes about the chance of playing at UA. “I’m a part of a winning program at the high school I go to now. So Alabama, all they do is win, so that’s something that really stands out to me. I like being around winners.”

As for any potential leaders ahead of a decision that will likely be made later this year … “I have no list right now,” McKinstry said.

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@iamchrishilton1 · 4h
The people I do it for #RollTide

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