Landon Collins’ recruitment takes another strange twist

A heated recruiting battle warmed up a little more this week. Landon Collins, the touted safety prospect from Geismar, Louisiana committed to Alabama on national television over his mother’s wishes, and video of the event went viral. Collins later told interviewers that he’d made his decision as long as two years ago and that he was solid in his non-binding verbal commitment.

But on Tuesday, Collins took an unofficial visit to the LSU campus in Baton Rouge—where his mother wants him to go. Rumors of the visit hit Twitter and message boards Wednesday, prompting media inquiries. ESPN’s Jamie Newberg sent this tweet:

That seemed to put the rumors to rest. But only a short while later, Newberg posted this to his account:

  Which of course ignited another round of Twitter fire and message board melty goodness.

BamaOnline.com later confirmed that Collins had indeed made the short trip to Baton Rouge and spoke with Les Miles and staff.

Regular readers of IBCR will remember that despite the highly publicized commitment event and Collins’ subsequent statements to reporters, coach Miles has never backed off recruiting him and even stepped close to an NCAA rules violation in saying so.

Some recruiting analysts believe LSU still has a slight to middling chance of flipping Collins and keeping him in state. However, current Tide running back Eddie Lacy—a high school friend and former teammate of Collins—is confident that the commitment will stick.

National signing day is Wednesday, February 1. Verbal commitments made before that date are non-binding.

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