Jaevon McQuitty has many regional suitors
On Thursday, Minnesota joined Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, and Nebraska to offer Battle (Mo.) wide receiver Jaevon McQuitty.
“[Minnesota] called my coach and my coach gave me their number. I called and talked to several of their coaches and they told me how I would have a bright future there and had an offer,” he told Gopher Illustrated in an interview yesterday.
“They said I would have a bright future regardless of where I went. They told me they wanted to get me on campus this spring or summer to check the place out and do some research on the coaching staff and academics to see if it’s a fit for me.”
McQuitty, ranked the 38th best receiver in the 2017 class, walked away with a great impression of the Gophers.
“They seemed like really energetic on the phone. They seemed like they really wanted to get to know me, and that’s a really big thing for me. I want to talk to coaches who really care about me, not coaches who fake it. I want a school who care about me as a person, and I got a good impression from the coaching staff by just talking to them.”
McQuitty heard from assistant recruiting coordinator John Schaekel on September 1, the first day of contact for juniors. Communication with the Gophers dwindled until yesterday, and now McQuitty said he’s looking forward to hearing from Minnesota more frequently.
“They contacted me on September 1 and have been sending me mail. When their head coach stepped down, I stopped getting mail from them. I didn’t hear from them again until the offer today.”
Battle High School is in Columbia, Missouri, which is also the location of the University of Missouri. McQuitty says he’d love to stay at home and be a Tiger.
“I haven’t really had that much contact with them, but an offer would mean a lot. I was born here, and it was the school I grew up and loved. I always watched on my TV and went to games, so it would be great to go there. It would almost be like I’d be a hometown hero. It would mean a lot.”
The 6’2”, 190 pound receiver listed Nebraska, Indiana, Iowa State, and Iowa as the schools recruiting him the hardest. Despite so much hometown and regional interest, McQuitty isn’t dead-set on staying within driving distance.
“I’ll probably stay in maybe the Midwest region, but I wouldn’t mind going out to the Pac-12 or SEC. I know my family would like for me to stay in the Midwest area, but I wouldn’t mind going elsewhere.”
Right now, McQuitty is debating between whether or not he wants to be an early enrollee. He’ll need to decide by the fall, as his coursework could change if he were to be a December graduate.
When it comes time to make a decision, he has his priorities set. One of the most important factors will be academics. McQuitty hopes to be an engineer or go into marketing.
“From top to bottom, my priorities are like how far away school is, and then what they offer for majors and their graduation rate, and then their offense, and then if I couldn’t ever play football ever again would I like being a student there.”