re: Class of 2019 Recruiting MEGATHREAD: That's a Wrap Edition

MISSOURI

2. Jameson Williams

NORTH CAROLINA

1. Quavaris Crouch

This kid has got to have the quietest recruitment of any 5-star I've ever seen.

TEXAS

8. DeMarvin Leal

WEST VIRGINIA

1. Darnell Wright

Blue-chip recruits, road roommates and IMG backfield mates: The unusual route Trey Sanders and Noah Cain are following to stardom

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BRADENTON, Fla. — It’s a picturesque, 81-degree day off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico at Bradenton Beach. On a Friday morning in the middle of May, the IMG Academy football team usually is 8 miles east back on campus logging a spring practice.

But on this day, IMG players get a chance to enjoy the postcard-worthy weather on the white sand beaches (players actually hoisted IMG coach Kevin Wright in the locker room when he told them that practice was replaced with a beach day). Away from the typical flood of college coaches and reporters, dozens of IMG players share a couple hours of goofing around in the Florida sun.

Two of those players are IMG running backs Trey Sanders and Noah Cain. Near the end of the morning, both make their way over to a picnic bench in shaded area to chat with a visiting reporter. Even on beach day, Cain and Sanders can’t escape the hoopla.

They don’t mind. They’re well-versed in sharing the spotlight together on and off the field. In fact, they prefer it.

“People tend to think we’re just fronting for the camera, but we actually hang out all the time,” Cain tells SDS. “We’re always just kickin’ it. It’s not even about football. It’s just about us making a way out for ourselves and our family to get to the highest level and play the game we love.”

At the time, Cain and Sanders were ranked as the top 2019 running back recruits in America, according to the 247sports composite (Cain since fell to No. 4 and Sanders is still No. 1). No two running backs from the same state have ever finished 1-2 in the 247sports rankings era, much less two from the same backfield.

Despite their shared workload, virtually every college in America is after Cain and Sanders. They know that. They also know that there’s an obvious question surrounding their situation.

Why are two of the nation’s top running back recruits so willing to split carries and share the spotlight?

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Believe it or not, Cain and Sanders didn’t come to Bradenton for the easy access to the beach, nor did they leave home to get next-level attention.

Sanders came to IMG from Port St. Joe, Fla., a Panhandle community that has its own beaches off the Gulf of Mexico. He also had a reputation as one of the country’s top recruits after rushing for more than 1,000 rushing yards and earning Florida all-state honors as a freshman.

Oh, and he already committed to Alabama by the time he left Port St. Joe in the summer before his sophomore year.

At the time, Sanders’ focus was to get more work at IMG. He said that he never got more than 8 carries in a game at Port. St. Joe. For the first 2 months of his sophomore season at IMG, Sanders never got more than 8 carries in a game, either. That was because of an ankle injury and a move to safety.

But when Sanders was finally healthy in late October against Long Beach Poly, he went off playing his natural position. He needed only 17 carries to rack up 197 yards.

“That’s when I thought (Trey) had a chance to be special,” IMG coach Kevin Wright told SDS.

As special as Sanders was late in the season — he finished his sophomore year averaging 9.6 yards per carry — he soon got plenty of company in the IMG backfield. Blue-chip California running back and future Oklahoma signee T.J. Pledger announced his plans to transfer to IMG. A few months later, Cain went public with his decision to leave Texas for Bradenton.

There were plenty of skeptics about Cain’s decision to join an already-loaded backfield.

“People were like, ‘Why would you go out there with Trey and T.J. Pledger?’” Cain said. “It really wasn’t about stats for me. It was about me getting better. I knew what my projection could be. I had to keep my body healthy. That’s the biggest thing to get ready for college. I saw an opportunity for me to really understand the college atmosphere and environment because I’d rather compete now and deal with adversity now than do it in college.

“College, that’s money time to get to the draft.”

Spend 5 minutes with Cain and it’s not hard to see how serious he is about the long-term approach.

Wright loves to tell the story about when IMG hosted a 7-on-7 camp a few summers ago and Cain walked into his office with his dad. At the time, Cain had just finished his freshman season at Denton Guyer High School (Texas). That didn’t stop Cain from handing Wright a printed copy of his résumé. To Wright’s amazement, it wasn’t loaded with many football accomplishments. Instead, Cain wanted to make his case for why he belonged at IMG because of his work in the classroom and in the community.

“When you get 14- or 15-year-olds bringing in résumés,” Wright said, “they’re already at a stage where most people don’t get to until college level.”

The big-picture mindset allows Cain to be patient in a crowded backfield. It’s also what opened the door for him and Sanders to become each other’s biggest fans instead of biggest rivals.

It didn’t hurt that they also got the perfect coach to preach that message.

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It’s no longer a question of whether Cain and Sanders will put their egos aside and trust the multi-running back process at IMG. They bought into that a long time ago.

There are, however, a few questions that remain.

The big one — and the one that fans across the country probably want to know — is where they’ll play their college ball. They certainly have options.

Sanders was committed to Alabama for nearly 2 years, but he dropped his commitment this past New Year’s Day. He took unofficial visits to the likes of Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Miami and more will probably come for the 5-star tailback. Cain unofficially visited a wealth of schools, including Auburn, Clemson, Florida, LSU, Michigan, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State.

In other words, there’s a lot left to be decided in their respective nation-wide recruitments. Who knows? Maybe Cain and Sanders will join the same college backfield and go on to become top-5 picks in the NFL draft together.

“They say history always repeats itself,” Williams said. “Somebody’s gotta do it.”

The other unknown is whether Cain and Sanders will finish their careers as the first running back duo to be ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the 247sports composite.

For a couple of guys who came to IMG not worried about numbers, does being considered the greatest duo of high school running back prospects ever really matter?

“We actually never looked at it that way,” Cain said, “but since people have been telling us about that, we definitely see the opportunity to make history to be the best backs in the country at the same school and run the table.”

“I mean, it’d be special to be ranked 1-2,” Sanders said. “But the big thing for me is being ranked No. 1 going into the draft. That’s a big difference. Being ranked No. 1 in high school, that’s like a lot of hype. But going No. 1 in the draft, that’s when you start making money. I feel like if we go 1-2 in the draft, that’d be the best thing for us.”

Sanders admitted that if and when Cain go their separate ways, he’ll miss having that connection they formed. It’s one neither take for granted.

They could have gone a different route in their high school careers. It would have been easy to rack up monster numbers piling on hundreds and hundreds of carries against inferior competition.

Instead, they’ll enter college having gone through a high school experience that forced them to be disciplined, efficient and ultimately, unselfish. They won’t have the wear and tear on their bodies that other high school running backs will have. Cain and Sanders have plenty of time to rack up the miles.

And if history is any indication, they won’t have any issues getting to the next level and showing an extra burst.

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If I may, I'd like to go back to that article I posted regarding Kayvon Thibodeaux's visit to FAMU.

I think my posting of the WTF gif was misconstrued as I was questioning his visit down there. That wasn't the case. I was saying "WTF" to this statement in the article:

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Tallahassee’s Southside, where FAMU is essentially located, is basically where a majority of the people who look like the players live in Tallahassee.

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The "majority" of the people who live there look like the players? So he's saying the residents are black? Wouldn't that be the case in most Southern cities? Why point it out in this instance? Is that supposed to be a good thing for Florida State?

Josh Newberg just CB'd Trey Sanders to Alabama.

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The "majority" of the people who live there look like the players? So he's saying the residents are black? Wouldn't that be the case in most Southern cities? Why point it out in this instance? Is that supposed to be a good thing for Florida State? ?

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I'm probably going to stick my foot in this but I'm going to take a swing at answering this. Yes southern cities will have a larger population of African Americans than other cities in other parts of the country. However most southern college towns will not have a large African American population. That population will generally be older and blue collar and seperated from the University. FAMU can be seen as a huge social support club for African American students at FSU that is basically on campus, they share an engineering school among other resources. So you have 10,000 students of color (plus the FSU students) and more black faculty and staff right there and the surrounding community which is larger and younger (more black young professionals and young black families) than most college towns. No other school really offers that. Alabama has around 4000 students of color last I checked. It is just a totally different and unique community compared to other college towns for students who are looking for that kind of support/experience.