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Starkville Ole Miss signee didn't feel Miss St. wanted him as much

Starkville, Mississippi, the home of Mississippi State, is a town of just less than 25,000 people according to the 2010 census. It has one high school. The odds aren't high that the town will have a lot of big-time recruits.

So it's noteworthy that Starkville would have a top wide receiver who signs with in-state Rival Ole Miss. It's even more so when that recruit didn't approve of the way the hometown team recruited him.

Four-star wide receiver A.J. Brown, the No. 9 wide receiver in the country, told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger he "felt like [Mississippi State] didn’t do a good job of recruiting" him. His reasoning? Since MSU was the local school, he'd be inundated by Bulldogs coaches. He said he wasn't.

From the Clarion-Ledger:

“I felt like other schools wanted me more,” Brown said. “I mean I live in Starkville. I would expect Mississippi State would be hard, like every day here. I’d get tired of seeing them. But it wasn’t like that.”

Billy Gonzales and John Hevesy acted as the key recruiters in courting Brown.

“We recruited him as hard as we recruited anybody else that’s out there,” MSU coach Dan Mullen said. “We wish him the best. Our program’s not for everybody.”

According to his Rivals profile, Brown didn't even make an official visit to MSU and took visits to Ole Miss, Alabama (where he played Pop-a-Shot with coach Nick Saban) and Cal. He signed with Ole Miss on Wednesday and said he had to go with his heart and gut when making the decision.

He's part of an Ole Miss class that finished No. 7 in Rivals' team rankings and one of 10 four-star recruits that coach Hugh Freeze and his staff signed. Mississippi State, facing an upcoming season without departing quarterback Dak Prescott, is No. 36 in the Rivals rankings and signed three four-star recruits. However, the Bulldogs swiped five-star DE Jeffery Simmons away from Ole Miss.

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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!