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Recruiting nuggets - Wednesday

Chase Parham

RebelGrove.com Editor
Staff
May 11, 2009
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Alabama remains a heavy player for both Jeremy Liggins and Channing Ward, and the Tide is telling recruits that available spots are dwindling -- down to five for the 2012 class. With the limited spots, Nick Saban is thinking about taking his in-home visit with Ward in the next couple days/weeks instead of deeper into the recruiting calendar. As you know, head coaches only get one in-home with each prospect. Considering the pool Alabama is recruiting from, this makes some sense. Make a hard push at Ward with Ole Miss in disarray. Get him, then great. If not, there's probably another Channing Ward Alabama can get if things don't work out down the line. Alabama visited Liggins at Lafayette on Monday or Tuesday. I think the coach was Jeff Stoutland, but I'm not positive about that. Liggins has taken an official to Auburn and set up officials to LSU and Alabama in (I think) January. That's not a big deal. He'll visit Ole Miss around that time too. Gunter Brewer has or will go in-home with Liggins this week.

Brewer also stopped by South Panola to check in with Temario Strong, Isaac Gross and Antonio Conner. I heard Branden Wenzel went to see CJ Beathard and I'tavius Mathers and will recruit on the coast on Thursday. Justin Crouse checked in with Jaylen Walton and other Memphis targets. The biggest thing right now is to get in front of kids with Ole Miss on your shirt. Every question can't be answered, but you just tell them to hang in there and you'll have a coach soon. News is pretty limited. Hard to give out concrete offers or move up a prospect's list when there's no true staff in place. It's mostly damage control. For now, it's being controlled pretty well. Austin Ray is the only casualty to this point. Plenty of time to work on things with Kailo Moore.

Ole Miss commit Ike Spearman just returned from an unofficial visit to West Virginia this past weekend. Overall the trip went well and the Mountaineers are squarely in the mix. He will return to Morgantown for an official visit in December or January. But Spearman is still committed to Ole Miss and waiting to see who the Rebels will hire to replace Houston Nutt. Ole Miss' chances of keeping Spearman's commitment intact were probably helped by two other schools that had made overtures in recent weeks - Illinois and UCLA - also firing their head coaches. Louisville plans to make an in-home visit with Spearman in the coming weeks as well, but at this time it appears West Virginia is the biggest threat to the Rebels.

I know there have been some questions on the board about interest in Amory quarterback Forest Williams. He missed two games with an elbow injury but threw for more than 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns this season. However, he doesn't have a Division I offer. I was told Saturday night from someone at the Egg Bowl that Mississippi State offensive coordinator Les Koenning is supposed to go see Williams, and Brewer was also planning to make contact. From Ole Miss' perspective, I guess an introduction isn't a bad idea just in case the new coach has interest, but there can't be much else to it. There's no new staff, no offensive system in place and no idea what Ole Miss will be looking for in a quarterback in a couple weeks. He's a good high school quarterback, but he seemed to float it a little last Friday against Lafayette. However, that means nothing. I'm far from a quarterback scout.

This post was edited on 11/30 8:53 AM by Chase Parham
 
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