His grades will prevent him from playing anywhere imo. The suspension wasn't going to go away either. He's either gonna go JUCO which I can't see happening or just enroll somewhere try to get his grades in order and become eligible. He was not gonna get to run from his academics or his smoking issues by leaving LSU which is what his mom told him in the first place. She was giving him good advice, but I'm sure Mullen and all the others sold Arik on the moon. That's the dirty side of recruiting.. bad grades as in I've heard he's like below a 1.5 GPA bad. Remember guys LSU didn't even pull his financial aid and all his assistance despite him going in the transfer portal.. O and staff have done everything they can to save him from his own bad decisions but we see that hasn't worked. Damn shame. Mom wanted him to stay at LSU. I've heard rumblings the bad advice is coming from others tugging at him but I don't know of anything concrete. Most rumors point to a brother but that's all just rumors. Feel for the kid he's clearly not ready for everything that came his way and he's just compounding mistakes. Happens to really good people in life so often.. Looking ahead at tight end we are in the driver's seat for the next#1 tight end for 247.. There's always Jake Johnson! Come on down!
Lot of us here are. If you listen to enough voices and learn to kind of read between the lines and just use logic and reason you can get a pretty decent grasp on things without being in an inner circle. But I'm wrong plenty, it was always concerning when no one knew Arik was picking us. Not the coaches. Not the players or recruits. Not the recruiting guys. That was an early sign I think. Really hope he figures it out.
The real reason I/most come here. I have no inside info or connections to offer but did have lunch with a scout once. Like hearing reasonable takes from others. All I can offer is more opinion. My question would be if his grades were that bad, why did staff not intervene sooner? Academic bootcamp and such. I know there is a system in place to help these kids stay qualified. Or did he just say fkit, Im Ben Simmons 2.0? Momma cant be happy with that.
I mean just like with Jabril Cox not giving a dang about school this semester you can only do so much for these kids. They tried everything to keep him qualified and in school and full help above and beyond and well past any other schools do even when he went portal.. he's clearly impulsive and has questionable decision making skills at this point. Then the medical issues whether it was an addiction issue or the synthetic weed issue or a mood disorder (which btw many disorders personality wise show up in college years) we don't know but he's got issues. Don't think he'll be back with us. Who knows if he sees the field anywhere else. Talent is great but at some point you gotta prove you're worth the headaches, too.
