Five-star talks Alabama visit, upcoming visits

Minkah Fitzpatrick, one of the first five-stars in the 2015 class, visited Alabama last weekend. This wasn't the first time the Jersey City (N.J.) St. Peter's Prep star had been to the Tuscaloosa campus.

"We arrived Friday night," said the 6-foot, On Saturday morning we did all the junior day stuff. I got to see the dorms, cafeteria and parts of the facilities I've never seen before.

"We went on a bunch of tours around the school and facilities," he said. "Then we watch a workout and sat in on a defensive backs meeting. After that I talked to a bunch of coaches. Coach Smart and I were just going over all the different types of coverages that they run and different packages they run. It was cool when I got to talk to coach Saban. We talked about the school and how I would play for him.

"They were showing a lot of love this time," Fitzpatrick said. "I enjoyed it a lot more than the first time because I was with other kids and I could talk to them about the school and what they were looking at."

Fitzpatrick picked up a few new offers in the last week and a half and now has close to 30 offers.

"I got offers from Michigan State, Tennessee, Florida and Michigan recently," he said. "I'm visiting Florida in a couple weeks. Tennessee and Michigan are also some schools I'm considering."

Fitzpatrick, who has a lot of family in the south, has scheduled a few visits in February.

"In one trip I'm going to visit Georgia, Florida, Miami and maybe Florida State," said Fitzpatrick. "That'll be during my break on February 14 through February 23.

"I've been trying to stay in touch with the Georgia coaches and I've been getting a lot of mail from them," he said. "I want to get down there for their junior day. I think getting coach Pruitt was a nice move. I think he was the defensive backs coach at Florida State so knowing that the defensive coordinator is experience with the defensive backs is a big plus.

"Coach Williams and coach D'Onofrio have been up a couple of times during this contact period," Fitzpatrick said. "They've been showing a lot of love and I think they are recruiting me the hardest right now.

"I've been talking to the linebackers coach from Florida," he said. "He's the recruiter for my area and he came up a couple of times. It's a good academic school and a good defensive backs school."

A few other schools have already made a good impression on Fitzpatrick.

"Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Miami have been recruiting me pretty hard," said Fitzpatrick. "I've been talking to coach Donovan. I think he's the new defensive backs coach there. I've also been talking to Coach Gattis. It's a great staff coming from Vanderbilt and hopefully they do big things over there at Penn State.

"It's going great with Ohio State," he said. "A few coaches have come by. I think they were here three weeks in a row. I have been talking to them a lot."

Fitzpatrick is committed to play in the 2015 Under Armour All-America Game.