MSU Football gets another commitment!

Over the past 15-20 years, the Mississippi State has done a very good job of recruiting in the State of Georgia for football players. Former linebackers coach Jim Tompkins opened up the pipeline to Georgia when he was hired by Coach Rocky Felker back in 1989. That pipeline remains open these days, as Mississippi State picked up a commitment from Brunswick, GA, athlete Darius Slay this past weekend. This was a big recruiting weekend for MSU, and Darius Slay is the fourth player that committed to MSU during the weekend. I talked about the other three in a previous post.

Based on what I've ready about Darius Slay, he appears to be a guy that has flown under the radar. I don't really pay much attention to the recruiting ratings the so called experts have. They are wrong on recruits just as often as they are right. With that said, sites like scout.com and rivals.com are a tool for the fans to use to learn some things about a player. In rivals.com's initial rankings of the top high school players in the State of Georgia, Darius Slay was rated 26th on the list. Georgia is a state that is stocked with talent, and being rated that high would be equivalent to being rated in the top 10 in Mississippi. Scout.com has him rated as a 2 star, and Scout's Inc. give him a grade of 77, which would put him in the top 10-12 in Mississippi based on their rankings.

There is a good article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution about Darius Slay.

A 4.37 forty yard dash time along with a 39 inch vertical is very impressive. Darius has played running back and wide receiver in the spread offense as well as safety defense. He also returns kicks and punts for his high school team. At Mississippi State, it appears that he is being looked at to play in the secondary, perhaps at safety. I believe the new coaching staff at MSU probably likes his size (6'0", 190 lbs), athleticism, ball skills, and range at the safety position.

Darius has chosen Mississippi State over offers from South Carolina, Kentucky, and Troy. According to the article I posted above, he apparently had a conditional offer from Clemson as well.