Four-star Dunbar (Ohio) receiver Joseph Scates says Alabama is his “dream school,” but he’s also considering a handful of others. Scates is the No. 28 receiver in the 2018 recruiting class, according to the industry-consensus 247Sports Composite.
Star WR recruit Joseph Scates calls Bama his dream school, but also considering others
The Ohioan is one of the top receivers in the 2018 class.
Alex Kirshner, SB Nation
Scates has had a busy recruiting winter and spring.
“It’s been Alabama, Penn State, Pitt, and Rutgers,” he told SB Nation at a Nike recruiting camp in Cleveland over the weekend. “Those are four schools that have been recruiting me very, very hard. Harder than most of the other offers that I have.”
Scates hasn’t made a formal cut to five, 10, or any other number of schools. But if he were doing that now, he said those four schools and West Virginia would qualify.
Scates was previously committed to Michigan State, but he decommitted in February. He now reserves special praise for the Crimson Tide.
“They’ve been recruiting me hard,” he said. “They’ve been talking to my parents, recruiting me hard. They’ve been sending me a lot of messages, calling me on a daily basis, calling my mom, checking on her.”
When the Tide offered him a scholarship, Scates said it was “kind of unbelievable.”
He’s got a lot of polish for a rising senior receiver, and he could fill a number of different roles. Scates is 6’2 and has outside receiver length, but he likes working out of the slot. It’s not hard to envision him running shallow crossing patterns from the slot on one play, then flexing out and burning safeties deep on the next.
“Wherever they put me, to be honest,” Scates said. “I’m gonna play wherever they put me. Athlete, it don’t matter.”
I asked Scates for a self-scouting report on his game.
“Speed,” he said. “Getting in and out of my routes. I’ve been working on my route-running a lot, so getting in and out of my cuts. Catch ability. The ability to run after the catch. That’s about it. Blocking. I’m a good blocker, too.”
Scates said he tries to model his play style after a former Bama receiver.
“Julio Jones, hands down. That’s it,” he said. “I love everything about him. I try my hardest to play exactly like him. I try to shadow him. That’s been my favorite player since I even knew about the NFL, since I’ve been growing up.”
