Richard LeCounte hangs out with UGA coach Mark Richt. (Rob Saye/Special for the AJC)
There was rampant speculation that Richard LeCounte, a 4-star athlete from Liberty County High School, committed to Ohio State after attending The Big Ten school's "Friday Night Lights" camp.
The rumors started swirling after various media reports, and a tweet by Ohio State running back Ezeikel Elliot, the MVP of this past year's national championship game.
LeCounte told the AJC that he is still uncommitted and that Elliot’s tweet was a big misunderstanding.
“It wasn’t a commitment,” LeCounte told the AJC. “All throughout the event, we were just playing around with each other. We were doing this where people would throw the ball up and if someone was by you, they would try to dunk on you. So when you get dunked on, it’s like a welcome to the getting dunked on squad. It wasn’t a commitment or anything like that.”
Besides Elliot's tweet, there was another incident that suggested LeCounte committed. Lamont Wade, a 4-star cornerback from Pennsylvania, told reporters that LeCounte decided to be a Buckeye, according to Cleveland.com.
Richard LeCounte (StudentSports)
The 5-foot-11, 174-pound LeCounte said Wade was also mistaken.
“That was also a misunderstanding,” he said. “I had a really good time out there, but I didn’t commit or anything like that. I was just hanging out and the coaches were really excited to see me there. He (Wade) is one of the players in my class that I would like to play with. He told me that if I committed, he would commit, but I didn’t do that.”
Despite all of the rumors, the state's fifth best prospect in the class of 2017 says Ohio State is his leader right now, with UGA, Clemson, Florida State and Florida trailing in no specific order.. One reason why Ohio State is the school to beat is because his former Liberty County teammate, Raekwon McMillan, plays for the Buckeyes.
“I could see myself playing there, but I’m not ready to announce my commitment at this point,” he said
UGA is still in the mix for the athlete. He recently attended Mark Richt's 7-on-7 camp in June, and he had nothing but good things to say about the school.
“I really can’t complain about anything with them,” he said. “They are one of the top schools in mind for me. Georgia would be a really good place to be at.”
LeCounte says he speaks with UGA coaches once every couple of weeks. He says the Bulldogs still have time to leapfrog the Buckeyes for his No. 1 spot.
“All of these schools would be great fits for me,” he said. “It’s going to be a tough decision for me and my family to make.”
He has no timetable on when he will choose a school.
