Elijah Higgins talks early standouts in fast recruitment

NEW ORLEANS, La. – Elijah Higgins has been a busy man for the past couple of weeks as he’s been trying to keep track of all the attention that he’s received on the recruiting trail.

Even he admits that offers have been coming in at such a dizzying pace, that he hasn’t really had the chance to truly absorb what’s available to him. With spring on the horizon, and what promises to be a next few months filled with visits and countless check-ins from coaches around the country, he’s hoping to get a better idea about what he wants from those that want him.

“It’s been a great experience,” he said. “A lot of kids maybe got started a little earlier than I did, so maybe it was a little more spread-out for them, but for me it’s been back-to-back-to-back. It’s been fun, but it makes it kind of hard to sit down and evaluate each school one-at-a-time, but it’s brand new to me and I’m still figuring things out.”

Higgins followed up an unofficial visit to LSU while in Louisiana competing in last weekend’s Pylon 7-on-7 tournament with a visit to Texas for the second of the Longhorns’ junior days on Sunday. He told OrangeBloods.com that he would put Texas ‘up there’ with his early list of top choices, but should the Tigers ante up and offer him as well, they have already made a strong impression with him.

“I wasn’t expecting it to be as nice as it was when I went,” he said. “When we go there, Coach [Ed Orgeron] was just really excited about everything, and all the coaches are really energetic. I was not expecting what I saw - it was really nice - and that just reminds me that I need to make sure that I really check out all my options because you’ll never know what something really is until you check it out yourself.”

Higgins also made a junior day stop earlier this month at Texas A&M, who offered him at the end of January. He said that the Aggies have been one of the teams that he’s talked about most with his 7-on-7 teammates and that the staff has done a nice job of building a relationship with him early on. Otherwise, he said that offers like Notre Dame and Stanford have stood out early because of their combination of tradition and academic prestige.

On Notre Dame

“They have a lot of tradition there,” he said. “That’s another thing that I’m looking for in a school; where I can go and there is a strong tradition and a lot of culture at the school as well. I enjoy that a lot, especially with so many people and a lot of support staff and people like that.”

On Stanford

“Coach (Bobby) Kennedy is the receivers coach, but what he’s telling me is that they run their offense is exactly how they do in the NFL,” he said. “So that’s what’s appealing to me; you’re kind of learning the next step already and just the area, the academics and just being an elite football team are really the types of things I’m looking for as well.”

On his recent Texas A&M visit

“It just really felt like a family - like they’re all tight together,” he said. “The coaches are really cool and I got to sit down with them. The way Coach (Dameyune) Craig coaches is amazing. We sat in his room for a while and he showed us the way he coaches. The facilities are insane out there and putting all the puzzle pieces together, everything is really nice.”

Since Higgins’ popularity is a relatively recent phenomenon, he said that he’s not far enough along in the process to make any major decisions just yet. He does think that he can have a group of programs narrowed down by the start of next season to seriously focus on.

“Definitely by early on in the season I kind of want to figure things out for sure,” he said. “I’m not really going to rush myself and in the end, make the wrong decision. As far as letting everyone know my top schools, I’ll try and get that done in a couple of months after I have had the chance to get out to see and feel everything out instead of just cutting schools off.”