re: Devonta Smith committing monday

Sam Pettito put in dat work. Y'all had best hold on to him cause Devonta will end up wherever Sam does.

Still wondering about this with Keenan Allen.

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What's the draw with these guys? They aren't on the field coaches. Are they family friends or something? What's the connection?

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Pettito is originally from Tangipahoa parish which is where Smith and Shyheim Carter are from. Pretty sure he coached at Amite. Anyway he's well connected down there and has long standing relationships with these kids. He's also very close with Vincent Sanders, who's basically these kids handler/"mentor". With Austin Thomas I think it's just he's from Jacoby's area and knows Jacoby's coaches and the people he's close with. Austin is from Tennessee.

Sports Illustrated called this 10 years ago when they predicted that college football recruiting would become more and more like college basketball recruiting. For the last two decades CBB recruiting has been dominated by AAU, handlers, shoe company's, and in some cases, criminals. I played EYBL and AAU in Los Angeles back around 2004-2007 and knew a ton of shady arse people. These people always had their hands out or were looking to use these athletes to get a job. Even back then these shady arse dudes were starting to branch off into football. With the rise of 7v7 football it's allowed basically the same environment to inundate CFB recruiting. Now every recruit has some type of handler or "mentor" or "friend of the family". And you're starting to see certain schools that aren't traditional powers greatly benefit from this corrupt system. Couple that with an utterly toothless and inept NCAA and you're presented with the lawless recruiting landscape we see today.

1. Austin is from New Jersey.
2. Jacoby is originally an LA boy.
3. Thomas has connections from his time in TN, but make no mistake he's Gtl all the way.

Drake Davis get.to.know.him

He is the reason Tyron wussed out

I have some family in that small town of Amite. Would be cool to get a player from there. My aunt owned a shop in that town for many years.

Congrats Bama

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I think that has more to do with that 5-star not being as good as his ranking. I mean he was passed up by a guy who was the #64 ranked WR in the Class of 2014

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This has a lot more to do with TJ's lack of drive rather than his talent. Despite being a true freshman last season with Dural/Dupre here he played quite a lot, over the spring and summer he supposedly didnt want to put in the work and expected to be high up on the depth chart. When he was listed at #4 and #5 he got upset and has decided to transfer. He's absolutely loaded with talent and would have started next season IMO if he put the work in.

But yes LSU is absolutely ridiculously stacked at WR. Dural and Dupre everyone knows about, but then there's the freshman class we brought in which included:
4-star (6'6) Stephen Sullivan (#21 WR, #123 overall)
4-star (6'3) Drake Davis (#22 WR, #134 overall)
4-star (6'5) Dee Anderson (#37 WR, #189 overall)

All 3 of those guys could have gone just about anywhere they wanted with long offer sheets.

Along with in 2015 us also taking 4-star (5'11) Derrick Dillion, #21 WR and #169 overall as well as 4-star (6'5) Jazz Ferguson, #36 WR and #295 overall. Again, pretty great offer lists for both. So that's 5 4-stars over 2 classes (not including TJ who just transferred out and was a 5-star) of which 4 were Top 200 overall players and 4 are at least 6'3. They want a lot of height in the WR corps now and have recruited as such. We have Ausbon committed for 2017, 6'3 Top 100 overall player, as well as Netherly, 6'2 Top 247 player. Then of course you should know about the JUCO kid Guidry who should be the #1 JUCO WR but 1 site has screwed up his ranking which dropped him from a 4-star to 3-star. He was the biggest commodity in the JUCO ranks a few months back that Bama wanted badly.

And there it is.

So much for a civil discussion.

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Good God some of the Alabama fans on here best go let some air out y'all heads before they fricking explode. I will say that saying Smith is going to Alabama due to playing time over LSU is dumb but some of you fricking bow down to us mentality Alabama fans have is beyond ridiculous. 

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Now I'm curious. What post are you referring to? None of your fellow LSU fans felt the need to melt like you have and I honestly don't know what you are talking about here.

I mean, you say it's dumb for a LSU fan to say Smith is headed to Alabama because of playing time, yet that's exactly what the Alabama fans have said in this thread.

Kind of contradictory don't you think?

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Good God some of the Alabama fans on here best go let some air out y'all heads before they fricking explode. I will say that saying Smith is going to Alabama due to playing time over LSU is dumb but some of you fricking bow down to us mentality Alabama fans have is beyond ridiculous.

All I know is we have a very young and potential very good WR group.

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Alabama isn't hurting at WR either. Likely brings them all back, but Dieter, in 2017.