It’s fairly safe to say the Clearwater Tornadoes aren’t going be a one-hit wonder following their first district championship and postseason appearance in ages last season. Make no mistake about it, they’ve got hype surrounding them for a reason. We’ve got a different spin on a recruiting update however regarding one of the biggest–if not THE-biggest name of the bunch, Adarius Lemons. Instead of catching up with Lemons himself during one of the busiest times of the academic calendar, we got the scoop on him–and two of his teammates–from their head coach , Don Mesick.
Lemons is 6-feet, 2-inches, 197-pounds (he’s put on two inches and twenty-seven pounds since early January) and is one of the best running backs in his class coming from the Sunshine State in general in the 2017 class. Without a doubt, there isn’t a college coach in America that wouldn’t want his services, which leads to quite a bit of time doing other things besides keeping up with his main job–the classroom. With that in mind, Mesick gives us Lemons’ itinerary for the short-term–along with Kane Taylor and Jacquez Jones–both highly-regarded prospects themselves.
“Obviously there’s a lot of schools out there that want his services, but we are going to take a trip next week.” said Mesick. “We’re going to go down to Miami on an unofficial visit next Saturday the 19th and then the following weekend we are going to go and visit South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Auburn at the end of their spring break.”
The trip has a specific purpose, and if you can knockout as many schools as that during the course of a few days, why not bring the whole gang along? Which is exactly what Mesick plans to do.
“Both of these trips are going to have Kane (Taylor) and Jacquez (Jones) as well as Adarius. We’re just gonna make a quick roundtrip during their spring break because these schools want to see the kids and the kids want to see the schools.” Jones and Taylor also hold offers from Tennessee and Miami while Adarius and Kane hold offers from all of the schools on the trip.
Mesick also opens up about Lemons’ mindset with regards to a possible school choice. Although we can take take all of the suspense out of breaking any commitment anytime soon, because, quite frankly–that’s not happening anytime soon–we get some insight on what Lemons values in a school and program. We’ve talked about it incessantly about kids wanting to play for coaches more so than a program. Although it’s not the sole reason to commit, it’s something that kids value above anything else–and that’s loyalty.
“The only school that he’s mentioned that’s kind of high on his list is North Carolina, which has a lot to do with the relationship that he has with the running backs coach Chad Scott who came over from Kentucky, but he’s so far from making decision that I can tell you that there’s really no ONE school that’s leading the pack at the moment.”
The cautionary tell that Mesick refers to next, is something that’s being experienced by hundreds of prospects like Lemons at the moment. Although Lemons isn’t the type of kid to get distracted from the hoopla of grown men fawning over his every move, there’s the poignant reminder that he’s still a kid, and that this process is potentially one that will swallow someone whole without a support group.
“You can’t thoroughly research thirty or forty offers. There’s just not enough time in the day–it’s impossible. You’ve really got to narrow it down to ten and go from there. His mind is all over the place from the offers that are coming in daily right now.”
So, are those calls from coaches falling on deaf ears? Or are they being taken at all? Well–that depends on the most important thing in Lemons’ world at the moment. “He’s getting so many calls from recruiters right now, that if he doesn’t have his homework done, he ain’t answering the phone.”