Arden Key signed with LSU on Wednesday, but the elite pass rusher from Hapeville Charter regrets how things went down during a mercurial three-year process that epitomizes what modern-day recruiting has become.
Hour by hour, day by day, teenage athletes switch from longtime commitments. Coaches play the same game, pulling longstanding scholarship offers at the last moment in favor of another prospect. National signing day on Wednesday was no different.
Key committed to South Carolina as a sophomore. In the following 18 months, he de-committed, re-committed and de-committed from Steve Spurrier and the Gamecocks. He then announced his decision to go to LSU on Monday on national TV, choosing the Tigers over Auburn and South Carolina.
“If I had to do it all over again, I would have never committed my 10th-grade year and would have waited all the way to national signing day,” Key said Wednesday at signing-day festivities at the College Football Hall of Fame. “I took it the bad way. I committed, de-committed, committed again, de-committed again. Now, some people think that I’m not a man of my word, but I am. It’s just the recruiting process.”
A 6-foot-6, 215-pound defensive end with a firm handshake, Key kept his word to Les Miles and LSU. He recalled feeling the field at Tiger Stadium vibrate under his feet while on the sidelines for Alabama-LSU in November. It fueled his decision to head to Baton Rouge.
While Key’s drama ended Monday, there were plenty of tension-filled storylines that carried over to signing day. On Tuesday night, just hours before Greater Atlanta Christian receiver Darius Slayton was expected to sign with Georgia, he changed his mind. Slayton tweeted that he was headed to Auburn instead of Georgia, a last-hour flip to a rival school that he knew was going to cause some backlash.
“You had some people that were upset, and they said some negative things,” said Slayton, a 6-1, 182-pound receiver, who committed to Georgia on Dec. 4. “That’s expected in any situation like this, so I just keep moving on.
“Coaches can leave or can revoke your scholarship,” he added, “so ultimately, at the end of the day, you have to make the best decision for yourself and can’t worry about what other people think.”
Tucker linebacker Elijah Sullivan was committed to Auburn for a year, before the Tigers requested that he take a grayshirt instead. Sullivan thought it about, but said no thanks and signed with Kansas State instead.
For UGA, Slayton’s decision was just the beginning of a wild sequence of events that stretched into Wednesday night for coach Mark Richt. Georgia thought it had lost Macon County four-star linebacker Roquan Smith to UCLA, after he said on ESPN that he was going to be a Bruin. But shortly after the announcement, Smith learned from Georgia assistants that UCLA defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich was joining the Falcons as linebackers coach. Smith didn’t send his letter of intent and has re-opened his recruitment.
“It’s been interesting, and it’s not over yet,” Richt said of Wednesday’s events. “There’s still things swirling around out there still.”
Georgia convinced three recruits to change their minds on signing day. Offensive lineman Patrick Allen from Maryland picked the Bulldogs over Tennessee. Defensive back Rico McGraw from Nashville, Tenn., switched from Alabama to UGA, and athlete Shaquery Wilson from Florida flipped from West Virginia to Georgia. McGraw and Wilson both previously committed to the Bulldogs. Overall, Georgia got nine players to change their minds.
There was no such drama with the Bulldogs’ bell cow. Westover defensive tackle Trent Thompson, the No. 1-ranked player in the nation by 247Sports.com, sent his letter of intent to Athens around 10 a.m. Wednesday. Later in the day, Callaway wide receiver Terry Godwin signed with Georgia, helping Richt secure another top-10 class.
While Georgia’s class was influx for much of Wednesday, Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson got exactly what he expected — a deep and balanced group. The Yellow Jackets signed 27 players, the largest class of the Johnson era. Seventeen are state products, including Washington County safety A.J. Gray and Alexander B-back Mikell Lands-Davis. North Gwinnett defensive end Anree Saint-Amour and Buford safety/linebacker David Curry are among the crop of defenders for the Jackets, who are looking to build off this year’s surprising 11-3 mark that was capped by an impressive win over Mississippi State in the Orange Bowl.
“(This year’s recruiting class) went the way we had hoped,” Johnson said. “I like the balance of this class. We’ve gotten to a point where we have positions with the right numbers.”
“I’m happy where we are. We’re in a good spot,” he continued. “We have good potential and good depth at each position. There’s a good positive vibe out there and we want to continue to build on that momentum.”
For the second consecutive year, Tech’s recruiting class featured a pair of twins, this time linemen Brad and Scott Morgan of Etowah. The brothers considered splitting up for college, but ultimately made life easier on their parents by sticking together and heading to Tech.
“This simplifies things a lot,” happy mom Beth Morgan said. “We’re very happy, very thrilled.”
Nationally, Alabama claimed the top recruiting class — again. It’s the third consecutive season that Nick Saban has landed the nation’s most highly regarded group, according to 247Sports.com. The Crimson Tide’s haul includes four Georgia products: Mays offensive lineman Dallas Warmack, Central Gwinnett linebacker Adonis Thomas, Copiah-Lincoln Community College defensive lineman Jonathan Taylor of Millen and Carver-Columbus linebacker Mekhi Brown.
USC is No. 2, followed by Florida State, Tennessee and LSU in 247Sports.com’s rankings.
This was the first year the College Football Hall of Fame hosted signing-day festivities, which began with Westlake defensive tackle DaQuan Hawkins signing with Georgia at 8:45 a.m. Approximately 200 players and coaches from roughly 30 high schools made their way onto a stage set up on the Hall of Fame’s mini-football field.
It was the last signing day for longtime Brookwood coach Mark Crews, who is retiring after 13 years leading the Broncos..
“Yes, absolutely (I’ll miss signing day),” Crews said. “The part where the kids get rewarded for three or four years of hard work and good grades, it’s always the culmination that you want to see.”
