Let's put it this way, you don't get offers from that many schools, really good schools, if you are not wanted. His offer list was up there with the best of them. And yes, I could name a number of schools that would love to have his verbal. As for grades, this happens all the time with kids, many times it's the higher ups in the school system. It's their job to have a kid college ready, and some just fail. I've seen it both ways. Last year a friend of mine missed on a kid right before signing day, same coach this year, found out this week a kid is gonna make his grades. As for Lacy, when people at the school tell you there is no way he will qualify, then he does? As for this kid, tons of upside. I only wish him the best, with a hope everything is good to go, if not, the kid and LSU has time for those things to work out. OL are very hard to project, but I'd take his kind every year. Someone once told me a kid like Todd McClure with his size, wouldn't get an offer by LSU in this day and age. A good friend of mine in the profession said he'd take a kid like Todd in every class if he could find one. I know this there were too many schools and too many coaches that spent too many hours recruiting this kid. You can bet if he gave them his verbal, they would be more than happy today. Hawkins was the lowest rated by all services of the high school OL that came in that year, and he will be your LOT this year. I've always like Hawk, he has a great shot at going in the first round of the NFL draft. Another year with Grimes, playing what I think is his natural position, LOT, he too had a ton of upside coming into LSU. Oh, by the way, I do still kind of pull for the La kids in the Pro's. No matter what school they attend. But I pull so much more for Former Tigers.
The clearinghouse part was brought up by 247 yesterday. All of that wasn't an issue for Bama or Auburn all week and it is just icing on the cake for us. We have room to take him and work on getting him cleared. Everything else is just spin which is always expected...This guy is a huge pickup and more than worth the risk. Really no downside at all. Les meet with our compliance/admissions and then OVC's guardian this week and not a huge longshot as being potrayed by some.
I saw just as many incredibly ridiculous comments by Bama fans since yesterday AM as Auburn has been spewing.
That's the point here; stories like his don't happen all the time. They're very, very infrequent. When's the last time you heard about qualifications dealing with core classes when the students first two years—freshman and sophomore—in high school were in Nigeria? While you're not saying it directly, you're implying other schools were told Eddie being able to qualify was questionable, but not impossible. Other schools chose to pursue; LSU to slow-play. Things like that happen and as you said earlier about CVO happen all the time. These two situations are complete opposites of each other. As stated earlier there is little doubt he has all the talent and future a good SEC offensive lineman shows at this age. That's not the point.
By 247? Whom? I missed it. On 247, referencing "TOS," that I saw. It doesn't fit with my understanding of how the NCAA's Clearinghouse works. I can't speak to the issues at Auburn in regard to Chidi. You saying "it wasn't an issue for Bama" isn't correct. This specific spot has been intended for a left tackle prospect since early on and and I've watched his story; watched it pretty closely. There are a lot of moving parts with this spot in the 25...and, this particular one includes the aforementioned Willie Allen. Chidi's comparison to Eddie only works if you look at him as being slow-played due to the translations of transcripts, etc. (Yet, when looking at all three schools, and their individual numbers, it takes on yet another light.) Closer to the crux of the matter, in my opinion, especially if it works with the numbers.
What I'm saying Terry is that when an on campus high school person tells you there is no way a kid will make it, and then he does? You don't sign a kid unless you are sure that they have a better than avg shot at playing in the SEC. And like I said, the kid has too much upside, just like what bama and all the other teams saw.
Geaux 247 What is funny is there is a guy sitting in the office next to me who talks almost daily to a staff member at Bama, old buddies that go way back. He bragged about how the Bama staff visited OVC this week and convinced him not to commit to Auburn the next day and it worked, OVC pushed back his decision. Then went on to say that there is no doubt in his mind that the staff's hard work has paid off and they are getting OVC. After some ribbing back and forth yesterday, this same staff member confirmed that they were shocked about OVC not picking Bama. He was utterly disgusted. I have heard what this guy has said over the last few years and has been dead on most of the time, sure there is some homerism with him as well that you have to work through at times. As soon as it was announced as expected bama insiders left and right started using the same line, we didn't have room for him, etc...I was actually pretty amazed that Auburn insiders (at least one) admitted that they just missed him and still wanted him. It would be pretty foolish for any team to spend that much time on a propsect they didn't want or have room for especially this time of year. Even if I didn't have the information from the bama staff member it just doesn't add up. It isn't like new information arose to his academic status in the past 24 hours unless a team completely dropped the ball and did zero research.
You refer to spin, and then this comes out: As soon as it was announced as expected bama insiders left and right started using the same line, we didn't have room for him, etc...I was actually pretty amazed that Auburn insiders (at least one) admitted that they just missed him and still wanted him. Is this what you're calling spin? It's the same issue here. If there's questions about qualifying, and you have limited numbers, are you going to take a chance on a kid not making it on campus? If you make the decision you aren't going to give him a committable offer, because of other prospects, and that's due to qualifying, is it not accurate to say, "no more room?" I don't know if LSU has any back-counters, but the point remains the class is sitting on 19 verbals with less than a handful of days left until the dead period. The numbers are tighter at other schools. There's no more time being spent with Chidi than the other two OT's the staff is pushing for. He was slow-played due to qualifying. LSU has taken the chance. It's just that simple. Which goes back to the original question: sign and place? 2016 is a tackle rich year compared to 2015—leaves both teams an "out" so to speak...in Bama's case, hoping for a really good one.
This bama staff member said under no circumstance would they turn down OVC. To say anything different is spin. You are right spin is everywhere and this is just another example of it across all the boards.
