AJ Brown shares details of his recruitment, including signing day eve bribery attempt and Dan Mullen’s lack of effort on the trail
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Is college football recruiting really be as scandalous as some make it out to be? It depends on who you ask but according to Tennessee Titans star receiver AJ Brown, his college recruitment was pretty wild.
Rated as the No. 36 overall prospect in the country and the No. 4 receiver in the 2016 recruiting cycle, Brown was asked to share some details of his college recruitment during a recent appearance on the Barstool Sports “Bussin’ With The Boys” podcast.
The most interesting recruiting story Brown was willing to share on the show occurred just before National Signing Day. When asked if schools tried to buy his services, Brown said a bag of money was delivered to his doorstep on the night before signing day that he had to turn away.
Here’s what Brown said when asked if schools really try to bribe elite prospects on the recruiting trail.
“Oh, it’s definitely true, definitely true,” Brown responded. “The night before signing day, I got a knock on the door, bag full of money in the front. Swear to God. They kinda tried to leave and we like, ‘Nah, we good, bro. We don’t need this.’ I swear.”
As most Mississippi State fans are well aware, the Starkville native turned down the option to stay local and play for Dan Mullen’s Bulldog program. So why didn’t Brown go to Mississippi State?
“It was kinda too close (to home) and the coach didn’t really recruit me,” Brown said. “He just expected I was going to come.”
Florida fans can relate to that comment.
So you may think Ole Miss was Brown’s dream school growing up but that wasn’t the case. The star receiver always envisioned himself playing at a different SEC West program.
“Nah, I was LSU growing up,” Brown shared.
So why didn’t he play his college football in Baton Rouge?
“They didn’t really pursue, they just offered me,” Brown added.
No wonder Les Miles is out at LSU. It’s hard to believe Ed Orgeron would allow that to happen.
During the interview, Brown shared one final interesting recruiting nugget.
“I was about to go to Alabama,” Brown said without further explanation.
It’s fair to wonder why Brown didn’t play for Nick Saban but when asked during the interview how much Ole Miss paid him to play in Oxford, Brown just laughed that question off without offering any other response.
Saban probably doesn’t find that very funny.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
