Five-star cornerback Patrick Surtain Jr. committed to Alabama on National Signing Day, picking the Tide over LSU, Clemson, and Miami. LSU had long been considered his likely choice, making this a particularly devastating commitment for the Tigers.
Patrick Surtain Jr., maybe the most hyped cornerback recruit ever, commits to Alabama
Meet the son of an All-Pro and 11-year NFL vet.
Nike, Getty
The elder Patrick Surtain turned 41 in June 2017. He was in the NFL as recently as the fall of 2008, when he capped an 11-year career with the Dolphins and Chiefs. He was a first-team All-Pro a while ago, in 2002, but it really hasn’t been that long since Surtain was a mainstay on the boundary in Miami and then Kansas City.
Anyway, his kid’s now the best cornerback recruit in the country. Surtain Jr. is the No. 4 overall prospect in the class of 2018, according to the 247Sports Composite. As it stands now, Surtain’s Composite player rating is 0.9973. You cannot be more hyped at corner than Surtain is.
He played his high school football at American Heritage near Fort Lauderdale, Fla. His father coached him there. (Alabama recently interviewed the elder Surtain for its defensive backs coaching vacancy, but the Tide didn’t hire him.) He was teammates at Heritage with four-star defensive end Andrew Chatfield (who committed to Florida on Wednesday) and five-star cornerback Tyson Campbell (who committed to Georgia).
Surtain Jr. has the potential to be as good or better than his dad was — a high bar considering his dad’s long run in the league after playing at Southern Miss.
Surtain is special because of his height, length, and athletic talent.
He’s a listed 6’2, and he’s got long arms that make him effectively taller than that. He has a long stride, but he’s agile enough to match receivers’ routes at any spot on the field.
He’s the sort of cornerback who, by his very presence, can close off entire sectors of the field. Think of a Richard Sherman or a Patrick Peterson. That ballpark.
How’s the younger Surtain compare to his dad? We asked him.
“It’s a little different, you know, because I was a little bigger than him,” the son told SB Nation earlier this summer. “I’ve got more of the physical attributes. But, you know, my dad was a competitor. I’m a competitor too. We’ve both got the same type of game.”
Surtain models his game specifically after Peterson’s, not his father’s. That makes some sense, given that Peterson shares a lot of Surtain’s physical gifts and recently rose up through South Florida to become an LSU and NFL star.
“We’re both fast. We both compete. We’ve both got great technique,” Surtain said.
Surtain is as sure a thing as any prospect in the country.
He will be a lockdown cornerback at any college in the country. Three years after that, if he wants to, he’ll follow his father to the NFL. The question with Surtain isn’t if he’ll be good, but if he’ll be a regular All-Pro or merely have an all-around quality career.
He’s as big a catch as any team will get in 2018.
