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

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Welcome to SEC Country’s daily Roll Tide-ings, a rundown of everything happening in Alabama Crimson Tide recruiting with Chris Kirschner. Today, we discuss the latest with Georgia commit Rashad Cheney and 4-star offensive tackle Max Wray.

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Tide now the favorites to land former Georgia commit?

Max Wray looked like he was going to be the Alex Leatherwood of Georgia’s 2018 class. What does that exactly mean? Wray was going to be one of the Bulldogs’ best unofficial recruiters all the way up until he was on campus wearing the red and black.

That’s not happening anymore. He de-committed from Georgia on Friday following a trip to Tuscaloosa.

The reason for the de-commitment, according to our Georgia recruiting reporter Jeff Sentell, is because of Wray’s desire to play offensive tackle. That became less of a possibility at Georgia because the Bulldogs signed four tackles in the Class of 2017 (one will likely move to guard.)

Getting more tackles is a priority to the Tide. Enter Alabama.

SEC Country was told over the weekend that Saban himself has prioritized the 6-foot-6, 287-pound prospect as of late. Wray’s brother, Jake, a 2020 prospect, will likely be one of the top players in the nation when those rankings come out. He’s also a priority to Alabama, too.

Wray also visited Clemson this weekend. That school will likely go head to head for Wray’s next commitment. Not only is he good friends with Clemson 5-star quarterback commit Trevor Lawrence, but both prospect’s families are friends, too.

From what SEC Country has been able to gather, though, Alabama is squarely at the top for Wray’s services.

The Franklin, Tenn., native is the No. 4 offensive tackle prospect in the 2018 recruiting class and the No. 55 overall prospect.

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Priot to his Palm Beach Lakes visit, Saban stopped by Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory School in Hollywood, and then St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale.

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It’s easy to find out when teams offer recruits scholarships nowadays because most publicize them through their Twitter accounts. Kereon Joyner kept an Alabama offer quiet for a few months.

Joyner, a 4-star dual-threat quarterback from Fort Dorchester High School (North Charleston, S.C.), was offered by the Crimson Tide back in September or October — he can’t remember exactly when — as an athlete and free safety. The problem with that offer was Joyner already had several offers to play quarterback in college, and that’s the position he wants to advance his career in.

Joyner visited Tuscaloosa going into his sophomore season and played safety in a freestyle 7-on-7 tournament at one of Alabama’s camps that summer. The Tide staff became interested in Joyner back then after he made several interceptions during the tournament.

“They didn’t really mention my quarterback skills when they offered me a few months ago,” Joyner told SEC Country. “They were just talking about how good of an athlete I am. Then I guess after they saw my film from this past season, Coach Saban really wanted to offer me as a quarterback.”

The 6-foot-2, 200-pound prospect hasn’t gotten a chance to speak with Saban himself. Outside linebackers coach Tosh Lupoi was the one who offered Joyner. Lupoi told Joyner that the staff liked the way he progressed over this past season. Joyner threw for 3,642 yards with 44 touchdowns and rushed for 1,089 yards and scored 12 touchdowns. He was named South Carolina’s Gatorade Player of the Year.

Despite those gaudy stats, he couldn’t remember the last time he spoke to an Alabama staff member before getting offered on March 8.

“The crazy thing about this offer is that I hadn’t been talking to them,” Joyner said. “Just that one day — randomly — I got on the phone with them and got that offer. I’m just blessed to have this opportunity.”

Now that Alabama has offered him as a quarterback, Joyner said it is one of the schools he’s strongly focusing on. In addition to Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Oregon and N.C. State are in the running to land his services when he commits on June 18.

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Alabama’s chances with Joyner

The Crimson Tide have a lot of ground to make up when it comes to Joyner because South Carolina, the prohibitive favorite, offered him a scholarship when he was in the eighth grade.

“I know that place in-and-out,” Joyner said. “It’s only like an hour away from my home.”

Joyner has only visited Tuscaloosa that one time when he played safety. He likely will have to return to Tuscaloosa to throw for the coaches in early June and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll likely will travel to Charleston when the evaluation period begins in mid-April to see him throw.

?Joyner will compete at the Charlotte Opening regional camp in May. He’s hoping to earn an invite to the Elite 11 competition in June. Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa won that competition last year. (Hale McGranahan/SEC Country)

The nation’s No. 8 dual-threat quarterback knows that time is ticking until his commitment — and if Alabama is going to be a possible choice for him — he needs to start building a relationship with Daboll.

“I want to sit down with the new offensive coordinator and ask him what he thinks of me and see what he thinks my strengths and weaknesses are and what I need to work on,” Joyner said. “I really want to build a relationship with him in the next few months. Three months isn’t that long.”

South Carolina’s No. 3 prospect said he’s planning on visiting both Alabama and Auburn this spring. He’ll visit Georgia in the coming weeks and is trying to make it to Oregon before he makes his final decision.

There’s no denying his familiarity with South Carolina, but he says the lack of visits to Alabama doesn’t hurt its chances with him because he knows what he’d get there if he chooses that school.

“Everyone knows Alabama is one of the best programs,” Joyner said. “There’s really not much I want to know about them that I don’t already know. Everybody wants to get that exposure and get to the league. That’s the ultimate goal. You can get that at Alabama.

“Alabama is one of the best programs, if not the best. They are definitely at the top of my list because they have great coaches. Coach Saban develops athletes all over the field. He’s a great coach.”

Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Oregon all started freshmen quarterbacks last season. Sometimes, that matters to quarterbacks because the path to play early isn’t clear. The Tide signed two quarterbacks in 2017 and want to add one more in 2018.

So, does Joyner care about what a school’s depth chart looks like?

“Yes, but at the same time it doesn’t,” Joyner started to explain. “I can always redshirt my freshman year. If they are good enough as they are now, then they would probably leave after three years. So, I could redshirt my freshman year and be fine.

“My expectation is to go wherever and win that job. If they have a great year, then so be it. That’s their job to do that. But I’m going anywhere to win that job.”

Another reason why Alabama’s main competition looks like it will be South Carolina is because of who he mentioned he’d like to play with in college: Gamecocks defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw and 5-star defensive end Xavier Thomas. Kinlaw considered Alabama last season before the Tide cooled off on him and Thomas says he’s 99 percent sure he’ll either end up at Clemson or South Carolina. That other 1 percent is for Alabama.

“If I do commit to Alabama, we’ll see how it goes,” Joyner said of Thomas. “I may have to convince him to come because I definitely don’t want to play against him. He’s really good.”

Joyner is one of three uncommitted quarterbacks the Tide have offered — the other two are 4-star QB prospects Tanner McKee and Dorian Thompson-Robinson. As it stands now, it’s unlikely either sign with Alabama.

South Carolina seems like the favorite right now for Joyner, and he knows why many think that.

“I’m an in-state guy. I can’t say what I exactly want to say on Twitter, but that’s what everyone thinks,” Joyner said. “If I do go out of state, then some people may be sad. I would love to get out of state — I’m not saying that I am — but I would love to get out and explore.”

The interesting part of him saying that is Joyner said his mother has said she’d like to move closer to her son if he did choose somewhere other than South Carolina. We’ll see if the family will have to leave the Palmetto State come June 18.

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Alabama interested in Faalele

Daniel Faalele (pronounced Fa-uh-lay-lay) hasn’t played one down of football before, but that hasn’t stopped Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Michigan, Florida State and others from offering him a scholarship.

Why would major college football programs be interested in Faalele when he hasn’t played in a game before? Well, he’s 6-foot-8 and 400 pounds — and as coaches always say — you can’t teach size. You would think with him being 400 pounds that he would look sloppy, but he doesn’t. Faalele is really well put together for being enormous.

The IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) offensive tackle moved to the United States from Australia after being presented with an opportunity to play football. A University of Hawaii assistant coach offered him a scholarship in 2015 after seeing Faalele in his gym back in Australia. After that, the thought of moving here to get an education and play football became a reality.

Daniel Faalele was measured with a 23-inch vertical leap at the Nike Opening regional in Orlando last month. He threw the power ball 45 feet and ran the 40 in 5.62 seconds. His shuttle drill came in at 5.14 seconds. That was better than at least 14 offensive or defensive linemen at the camp.

“The opportunities here in America and the facilities at IMG was why I moved,” Faalele told SEC Country. “I was interested in football and started to research schools in the U.S., and I came across IMG. I then emailed coach (Kevin) Wright.”

IMG Academy is known to be a machine when it comes to producing college football players. Every player on its roster has college interest. For the most part, those players have been playing football for their entire lives. Faalele, who was named an Under Armour All-American on Tuesday, just started practicing for the first time nine months ago.

When he got offered by Alabama in January, all he knew was that the Crimson Tide won a lot of football games. He wants to make a trip to Tuscaloosa to fully understand what Alabama is all about.

“I want to visit there to get a feel for what it’s like there,” Faalele said. “I do like their winning culture. Outside of that, I really don’t know much about them. I just know that they win a lot.”

His lack of knowledge about one of the top football programs in the country isn’t as crazy when you understand that nine months ago Faalele didn’t understand why teams kick off to start the game. He didn’t know how to block opposing players. He didn’t know anything about football.

That’s why when he transferred from Australia to America last year he didn’t play in any of the team’s games. He had a lot to learn.

Since he’s started to play, the transition, he says, is getting easier.

“The adjustment to playing has been smooth for me,” Faalele said. “I’ve just been trusting my coaches, and it’s been working out for me so far.”

SEC Country had a chance to see Faalele compete at the Orlando Opening regional competition in February and it was clear that he still is very raw. He relies on his massive size right now instead of technique, and that’s totally fine when you consider all of the factors at play here.

That’s why colleges are giving him a chance. He’s a ball of clay waiting to be molded. There are no poor habits when it comes to Faalele’s technique right now. The scary thing is once he gets a full season under his belt, Faalele has a chance to be a monster on the field.

He also has the attitude of an offensive lineman already and has picked up the correct vernacular.

“I love getting pancakes,” Faalele said. “That’s the best part.”

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