re: Nkemdiche / Connor / Jones Update

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BBQ.

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Hmmm ... sounds good ... and I am in Memphis

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has more to do with AUBURN...he setup an official vist there recently..We came in super late

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Tony Conner would ‘love’ to play for Melvin Smith
Posted on January 3, 2013

Orlando –- The big news of the day was South Panola safety Tony Conner deciding to push back his announcement until National Signing Day, which I will detail in tomorrow’s paper.
Tony Conner. Photo via Scout.com.

Tony Conner. Photo via Scout.com.

But Conner had plenty of other interesting thoughts on the last day of practice at the Under Armour All-American Game. He talked in detail about his four finalists: Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi State and Ole Miss.

Auburn is the most recent school to jump on Conner’s list, replacing Georgia and LSU. The big reason why the Tigers have made the final four is because of Melvin Smith, the former Mississippi State defensive backs coach, who was recently added to Gus Malzahn’s staff.

“(Smith) has been calling me,” Conner said. “I went to a couple Mississippi State camps where he coached me up so I’ve always wanted to be coached by coach Melvin Smith.

“We are real tight. He tells me what I do right, what I do wrong. When I go to camp he tells me what everything is. That’s why I’d love to be by coached by him.”

Conner says Smith’s departure from MSU hurts the Bulldogs’ chances “a little bit,” but that he is still interested in the in-state school. The 6-foot, five-star prospect says Mullen told him “he was going to have a good season this year, and they started out real good.”

He has also been impressed by what Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze has done in his first-year in Oxford.

“Coach Freeze has been telling me he is going to get things turned around. Based on the looks of things, he has turned things around a lot. I’ve been looking into that too. He tells me a great guy like you can bring great change.”

Conner would like to visit all four of his finalists before National Signing Day. By pushing back his decision to Feb. 6 it buys him some extra time to evaluate each school, though it could also up the pressure for the state’s top uncommitted prospect.

“There’s a lot of pressure,” he said. “A lot of people have been asking me am I going to ‘Bama. A lot of people have asked me about Ole Miss and Mississippi State. I just tell them I’m just giving it time right now.”