College football recruiting roundup: Alabama cashes in, others miss opportunities

It was quite the busy weekend in college football recruiting. Alabama had an awesome group of star recruits visiting, so the biggest story lines came out of Tuscaloosa. And the Tide came through in an awesome environment in front of its four- and five-star recruits.

The most heralded player in attendance was Leonard Fournette, the best running back in the country and perhaps the best overall player. The five-star from New Orleans (La.) St. Augustine came away very impressed.

He got to hang with a lot of Louisiana kids who are committed to or leaning to Alabama. From ESPN:

“It was amazing,” Fournette said. “Both teams came out and played a good game. The crowd, especially the atmosphere, everything was great. Just to come out and hanging out with the guys like big Cam [Robinson], Tony Brown, [Laurence] “Hootie” Jones and all of them. We just hung out and had a good time.”

Robinson, a five-star tackle prospect and a fellow Louisiana native, spent most of his night hanging out with Fournette. The two didn’t spend much time talking about attending the same school, however.

“It was fun to hang with Cam -- it was a good experience,” Fournette said. “Me and Cam was up there talking, enjoying the game and having fun. We didn’t really talk about football, we talk more about our seasons and stuff like that. We don’t talk much about Alabama or what schools we’re going to go to.”

I’ve long thought Fournette would end up at LSU. If he heads to the Tide, it could be a scary scenario for the rest of college football.

Johnnie Dixon, a four-star receiver out of Palm Beach (Fla.) Dwyer High School, tweeted about Alama’s atmosphere.

Dixon is also strongly considering Miami.

2015 superstar offensive linemen Drew Richmond, of Memphis, was similarly impressed.

On the whole, however, it was a weekend of missed opportunities for home teams on big weekends.

Tennessee couldn’t pull the upset of Auburn because it couldn’t stop the run at all and its special teams were embarrassing. Florida lost at home on homecoming to Vanderbilt for the first time since the 40’s. Michigan lost in the Big House to a bad Nebraska team. Arizona missed out on its chance to beat a ranked UCLA team. Ditto Utah, which almost upset Arizona State. Kentucky could not show any progress against Missouri, losing by more than four touchdowns. Maryland was embarrassed at home by Syracuse. And Texas Tech was destroyed at home by Kansas State.

Despite Tennessee’s loss, five-star offensive tackle David Sharpe seems to have enjoyed himself ($):

“I think it’s a great school,” said Sharpe, who’s ranked by 247Sports as the nation’s No. 10 overall prospect and No. 2 offensive tackle in the 2014 class. “Before, I just thought it was just another school, but it wasn’t nothing like what I thought. People were telling me it was a great school, great fans and great atmosphere, and it was.”

Tennessee can offer early playing time, and that’s something important to Sharpe.

Florida did host two superstar defensive linemen in New Orleans’ Gerald Willis and Virginia’s Da’Shawn Hand. Willis tweeted positive remarks about the Gators.

I still expect Willis to select LSU.

Hand also seemed to enjoy his visit.

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