Behind the Scenes: LSU pulls it off for Cai Bates

LSU pulled off a huge recruiting win on Wednesday when the Tigers landed a commitment from Top 100 prospect Cai Bates out of Orlando, Fla.

The competition was stiff for the Top 100 target out of the Sunshine State, and five teams – LSU, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida State and Ohio State – landed in visits in June.

As the dust settled from his visits, Bates spent the month of July weighing his college options.

On Wednesday evening, he announced his verbal commitment to LSU.

How did everything unfold behind the scenes? Here’s the rundown on the facts and buzz we gathered along the way.

Behind the Scenes: How LSU landed Top 100 recruit Cai Bates

*** In January 2022, which was just after his sophomore season, teams started to take notice. That month, Indiana and Iowa State offered him. In June 2022, South Carolina and Marshall offered. But things went quiet the rest of the summer ahead of his junior season.

*** After breaking out as a cornerback prospect during his junior season, teams from coast-to-coast came calling. First, it was a wave of Group of 5 offers. Then the he burst through the Power 5 ceiling, and this offseason he got offers from LSU, Alabama, Florida State, Ohio State, Tennessee, Florida and more. Over the span of the spring months, his scholarship list went to more than 40 offers.

*** Bates made a ton of offseason visits, but when you look back on it, it was clear LSU had made the biggest splash. When On3’s Keith Neibuhr dropped into Edgewater High in early-May, he sent me an interview he did with Bates as well as a photo. That day, Bates was in LSU gloves at practice.

“They say I am No. 1 on the board,” Bates said in May. “It definitely made me feel like a priority. They have a great relationship with my parents and a great relationship with my coaches. They came to my practice (Tuesday), and talked with my coach a lot and spent time with him. Coach Steeples was here. He’s a great guy. I have a great relationship with him.”

*** I was curious as to how Bates and LSU cornerback coach Robert Steeples were already close given he had just been offered recently, and it turns out Steeples was on Bates long before most teams even began their evaluations of him at cornerback. A year ago, Steeples was spending some time in the offseason looking over the cornerback board. The board had been set after spring and summer workouts, but they wanted to expand it. So, he started watching wide receivers who could convert to cornerback. After diving through a number of players, he found Bates. He wasn’t ranked by any recruiting services at the time, but Steeples saw a guy with ball skills and size. He had just finished his sophomore year and was playing a lot of receiver, so Steeples was obviously unsure about whether he would be interested in cornerback. Soon after, LSU found out Bates was already in the process of moving to cornerback. He immediately went on the LSU cornerback board, which is how he then became one of Steeples’ biggest targets at cornerback after they saw him in action as a junior this past season.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”und” dir=”ltr”>????????. <a href=”https://twitter.com/Deestroying?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@Deestroying</a> @EdgewaterFBall <a href=”https://twitter.com/FloridaPrepsFB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@FloridaPrepsFB</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/rnrsportsmedia?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@rnrsportsmedia</a> <a href=”https://t.co/T6a13oJZtE”>pic.twitter.com/T6a13oJZtE</a></p>&mdash; Cai Bates 4???? (@bates_cai) <a href=”https://twitter.com/bates_cai/status/1441839117508038660?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>September 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

*** On that Spring Game visit, Brian Kelly also pitched in with Bates in a big way.

“Coach Kelly has been recruiting me hard and has built a great relationship with my family,” Bates told On3. “Making it known that I’m a priority for LSU. (Coach Kelly) spent a bunch of time with me, the whole day on Friday, and I was in the loop before the spring game with the team in meetings.”

When the Bates family left that visit, the Tigers were in great shape.

*** Then came the summer months. June was jam-packed from start to finish. To show you how quickly his recruitment took off, he told On3 in May that when it came to summer official visits, his plans were as follows.

“I have two (dates) set,” he told On3. “LSU is June 2-4. Then I am not sure if it is Tennessee or Kentucky on June 16-18, but I am pretty sure it will be Tennessee.”

Less than a month later, Bates had shuffled up his plans and locked in official visits to Alabama, Florida State, Tennessee and LSU. He also mixed in an unofficial visit to Ohio State. LSU got the final official visit instead of the first official visit of the month, which I think really helped when it came to countering the move the Volunteers made (more on that below). Before the NCAA Dead Period kicked in, LSU was the final staff to meet face-to-face with Bates and his family.

*** When I spoke with Bates over the phone in early-July, I sensed he was overwhelmed by the process he had just gone through. I got the sense that he felt like LSU was his leader entering June, but then he got to have the red carpet rolled out not just in Baton Rouge, but by programs like Alabama and Tennessee and Ohio State and Florida State. All five of those teams won double-digit games this past season and all have well-known football programs. He had some really great options, and with all the coaches giving him their program’s pitch, he said he was going to take a step back and mull over his options. When he was ready, he would announce.

*** After a few weeks, Bates went public with his decision to announce on July 26. There had been significant buzz around Tennessee, and I can attest to that being real. The Volunteers had made a huge splash on his official visit and were closing strong. At that stage, it was on LSU to buckle in and not budge off the approach they’ve had all along – which was to go all-out for Bates as a key piece to the class. Steeples and the staff did just that, and the Tigers were the last team standing when the dust settled.

*** Now, here’s how the final few days unfolded. Bates had recently informed On3 that he had made his decision to pick LSU, giving us quotes to run a commitment story as he announced at his high school. Given we then knew the choice, we agreed to not put in any On3 RPM picks in the final two days so it wouldn’t take away from the spotlight of his moment. It’s not something that happens often, but we wanted to respect Bates and his approach given it matched how he’s been all along. Much like Javien Toviano in the 2022 cycle, Bates always kept to himself, he didn’t do a ton of interviews, he never got into pumping up fan bases on social media, etc. Instead, he went about it being meticulous with his process and keeping the discussions within his inner circle. And I’ll admit, because of that approach, even with On3 having a story ready on the pick being LSU, I can’t say I wasn’t still a little curious to see what the decision actually was when he announced. It felt like Toviano’s did.

*** I will add that I picked up on the reasoning for not wanting his moment spoiled by reporters making public predictions across the final 48 hours, and it was something I hadn’t thought of. It was not about the fans not being left to wonder, but rather about his friends, teammates and classmates at Edgewater High. He had the ceremony at his school in the summer, so it’s not like a normal school day when everyone files into the gym. Still, they had a packed out gym, and word is the whole school had been buzzing about where their star senior on the football team was going. I can understand perfectly why Bates would want that moment to come with some fun and suspense before he gets to reveal his college choice.

*** When I spoke with sources about why LSU liked Bates so much, his high IQ was quickly circled. Sources felt his combination of a love and understanding of football, but also an identity outside of that, was something that fit really well with what Brian Kelly is building. His Edgewater coaches have talked about this plenty, but Bates also has a great personality that really plays well on the team. As one LSU source said: “Cai is what LSU values right now in a football player”.

*** With the background at WR, Steeples is getting a cornerback with great ball skills who can create takeaways. The hopes this offseason at cornerback were to flip Ju’Juan Johnson from Colorado, land Ondre Evans and then get Bates. We saw that path unfold around March, and most felt if they could get 2 of the 3, it would be a win. Instead, they pulled off getting all three of them into the class. Toss in New Orleans defensive back Wallace Foster, who was already committed, and the addition of Bates to close out July give LSU a great class at cornerback – and the Tigers got there before senior seasons even began.

*** The biggest target left: Lousiana’s Wardell Mack. On3 ranks him as a Top 20 prospect nationally regardless of position, and he can play cornerback or safety at the college level. The Tigers are also still recruiting Texas five-star Kobe Black, who will make an official visit to LSU in September.

The post Behind the Scenes: LSU pulls it off for Cai Bates appeared first on On3.