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Flashback: Lamar Jackson as a prep star

"I've never met anything like this guy." - Coaching legend Rick Swain

The class of 2015 was the first full Louisville recruiting class I covered at CardinalSports.com, so it will always be a group that I will remember. One of the prospects just happens to be Lamar Jackson, who has captured the attention of national media, and his performance this year has ESPN's College Gameday coming to Louisville.

In this article, I look back at Lamar Jackson's recruitment and how it was as a reporter.

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Boom or Bust

A staple of my recruting coverage at CardinalSports.com is the "Class Superlatives" story that I post a few days after each National Signing Day. Here was my excerpt on Lamar Jackson from February 11, 2015.

"In my opinion, Jackson is either going to be a star or a bust. He has all of the athletic ability and speed in the world to be a great dual-threat quarterback, but it's also possible he won't develop properly in his dropback passing game. He's in good hands with Garrick McGee and Bobby Petrino teaching him how to play the quarterback position at a high level."

Early on in Jackson's career, he's obviously been a "boom." His work as a dropback passer can still use some work, but he's certainly exceeded everyone's expectations.

A 2015 quarterback wasn't originally in the Cards' plan

In the spring of 2014, I talked with a very well placed Louisville source that told me that the Cards weren't planning on taking a quarterback in the class of 2015. It had to be the perfect fit, and that's what they got in Jackson. They had a commitment early on from Ross Trail, who ended up signing with Cincinnati, but he was not the type of quarterback that Bobby Petrino wanted. Petrino inherited the commitment from Ross Trail from the Charlie Strong regime.

Of the 2015 quarterbacks the Cards offered, all but one of them (Tucker Israel, Clemson) were rated as four-star prospects. It's clear that the Cards were swinging for the fences in taking a 2015 quarterback, and they hit a home run in Jackson.

Jackson was committed for a while without visiting

I wrote this in my "2015 Wrap Up: QB's and RB's" On February 19, 2015 about Jackson.

"In this age of decommitments coming so commonly, it's eyebrow-raising to me that Jackson ended up signing with Louisville when you look at the context of his whole recruitment. He committed back in late-August and it was immediately said that Jackson's commitment would be soft. He went five months as a UofL commit without visiting campus, which is something you don't see often - usually a kid decommits if he hasn't visited over that period of time. That just speaks volumes to the job that Lamar Thomas did recruiting Jackson. At the end of the day, Jackson is a "boom or bust" guy that I think will be a boom for Louisville."

The other contenders

Jackson took an official visit to Nebraska in September of 2014, which is just a couple of weeks after he committed to Louisville. So right then and there, Louisville fans had reason to worry. However, Nebraska didn't stick around in his recruitment for long, and his recruitment was pretty quiet until the winter. Then Mississippi State and Florida got in the mix.

Jackson's other three official visits were as follows: Louisville January 16, Mississippi State January 23, and Florida January 30. With Florida getting the last official visit, the Gators and new coach Jim McElwain looked prime to steal Jackson from Louisville, and this leads me into my next point..

Lamar Jackson was the Rivals Camp QB MVP in March of 2014

The Florida backpack and National Signing Day drama

The night before National Signing Day, I felt pretty confident that Jackson was going to stick with Louisville. However, he showed up at his National Signing Day ceremony wearing a Florida backpack. Most of Louisville's 2015 class had already faxed in their letters of intent, and the Louisville fan base had their full attention turned to Jackson.

All of the vibes we had headed into National Signing Day were thrown at the window and for good reason. Jackson admitted to the south Florida based Sun Sentinel newspaper that he didn't know where he'd be choosing.

"When I was up there, I thought I might decommit," Jackson said on Signing day of 2015. "It really came down to the wire. I had to go with my gut."

It was just that close between Louisville and Florida. Who knows what Jackson's college football career would be if he chose Florida?

Rick Swain and Lamar Thomas

Rick Swain was a legendary high school football coach in the state of Florida. He coached in the state of Florida for 41 years, and his last year coaching, Swain was the head coach at Boynton Beach, which of course was the high school of Lamar Jackson.

"I've never met anything like this guy," Swain said about Jackson on December 16, 2014. "He's a different animal."

Jackson had a phenomenal senior season as he threw for 1,360 yards and 18 touchdowns while rushing for just over 1,000 yards and 17 touchdowns.

Whenever I talk to high school coaches about their players, of course they rave about them and say that they're going to be the next college football stars. Most are wrong, but Swain was correct about Jackson.

The greatest thing that Lamar Thomas did in his couple of years as the wide receivers coach at Louisville was recruit Lamar Jackson to Louisville. During Thomas' high school football career, he was coached by Swain at Buchholz High School in Gainesville, Florida. Thomas also coached with Swain at Boynton Beach from 2008-2010.

Swain's familiarity and relationship with Thomas might have been the biggest thing going for Louisville. Swain guided Jackson's recruitment. Jackson was also very close with Thomas as well.

The Boynton Beach - Coconut Creek game

On October 24, 2014, I watched the craziest high school game of my life (click for story).

At the time, I was the publisher of FlaVarsity.com, the high school site covering Florida high school sports on the Rivals.com network. I streamed the live feed of the Boynton Beach vs Coconut Creek game via HSPN.

It was a wild 63-58 win for Jackson and Boynton Beach. Jackson had nearly 500 total yards and accounted for five rushing touchdowns and two passing touchdowns. It was a sign of things to come for Louisville.

Jackson scored two touchdowns in the last two minutes of the game to give Boynton Beach the come from behind win.

Interviewing Lamar Jackson

As a recruiting writer, getting interviews with recruits is a very important part of our job. In my year of covering Jackson, I only got one interview with him.

On June 9, 2014, I wrote the story titled "4-star QB connecting with Louisville" - my lone interview with Jackson. He was very hard to get ahold of on the phone, so most of the time I just went through Swain to get information on Jackson.

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