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Louisiana HS coach won't help Alabama recruit his players after way ex-QB was treated
A Louisiana high school coach won’t let Alabama come to his school to recruit any of his players because of the way the Tide treated former LSU quarterback Brandon Harris.
David Feaster coached Harris at Parkway High School in Bossier City. He said Alabama wanted to give Harris an offer while he was still in high school, but there was a catch. According to Feaster, the offer was essentially just an invitation to come to an Alabama camp rather than an actual scholarship offer.
The story Feaster told on 104.5 ESPN in Baton Rouge, which includes former Alabama assistant and now Florida offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier and former Alabama assistant and now Arizona State coach Billy Napier, is why Alabama recruiters are no longer allowed on Parkway’s campus because of tactics Feaster considers unethical.
That spring everyone is coming in on Brandon Harris. They found him, his highlight film’s phenomenal, they’re coming to watch spring practice. Nussmeier and Napier come in, assistant coaches from Alabama. Both do a great job of recruiting, they love the guy. ‘Hey coach, we want to offer Brandon. I’m like ‘OK, good. How many quarterbacks have you offered so far?’ ‘Oh, about six or seven.’
‘Oh so you really haven’t offered anybody.’ ‘Well coach, an offer for us at quarterback is really an offer to come to camp.’ So I said OK I understand what you’re saying, I understand you’re offering these kids to meet Nick Saban. And that’s a big deal. He might go. But what I’m telling Brandon is you only have so much money and so much time to spend, go to the schools that have you at the top of the board.
Harris was the No. 5 dual-threat quarterback in the class of 2014 according to Rivals. And, per Feaster, was the top quarterback on the board for a lot of other schools outside of LSU.
After Napier saw Harris’ spring game tape, Feaster said Saban offered Harris a scholarship over the phone. But the offer wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
And so they gave him a scholarship offer. This is a committable offer. Then we Skype Nick Saban on my computer here a while later and we’re talking to him. He’s talking like ‘We want you to come to camp’ … we want you coming to this camp’ … and so he goes, and by the time he gets to campus in June — I’m not saying Brandon was going to commit to Alabama, I really don’t know — I just know it wasn’t an option. Basically what they told him at that point was hey we have other guys who are going to come through here, we’ve promised them a shot so we’ve got to wait and see them.
Harris then found out later via a recruiting story that Alabama had received a quarterback commitment from someone else. Alabama signed David Cornwell at QB in the class of 2014, though he’s transferred out of the program. Cornwell said in January he was heading to Nevada.
And while the incident with Harris means Alabama can’t come to campus, Feaster said he won’t stop any of his top-rated recruits from wanting to to go the school.
All I’m saying is this; if you offer [four-star QB in the class of 2018] Justin Rogers today and he doesn’t commit I understand that offer may not be good years from now. But if you offer, you’re making a committable offer — I made them make the distinction between a committable offer and just an offer to come to camp. If you make a committable offer, at some point there needs to be a window where my guy says yes I’ll take that offer and we’re done. And that never happened with Brandon. All it was was a lure dangling to get him to come to camp and competing against other guys.
It’s like OK maybe I’m playing too hard, I don’t know four years later, but I don’t want them on campus. I don’t want them making those kinds of offers to the rest of my guys. And my guys know, they can go to Alabama … I’m just not going to help Alabama recruit my guys.
Harris announced earlier this week that he was transferring from LSU. As a graduate transfer, he’s aiming to be eligible immediately at his new school.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
