Four-star cornerback Dijon Lee Jr. makes Alabama pledge
Dijon Lee Jr. had offers from all over the country. He took multiple visits all over the place and saw his top schools often.
And in the end, Alabama won out.
The Crimson Tide had taken the lead in the recruitment of the high four-star cornerback from Mission Viejo, Calif., a while back and even though Georgia, Washington and others pushed really hard, Alabama held on to land his commitment.
While the combination of position coaches Donte Williams and Travaris Robinson at Georgia was significant and had a considerable pull on Lee, the Mission Viejo standout hit it off with new position coach Maurice Linguist especially at Alabama, who left a head coaching job at Buffalo to play for the Crimson Tide, and others in Tuscaloosa.
Lee ended up choosing Alabama over Georgia, Washington, Texas, Texas A&M and others.
IN HIS WORDS
“It was a great visit,” Lee said during the spring. “Coach (Kalen) DeBoer is a great coach. They have a lot of things going up there. They’re still Bama.
“Most definitely still feels like Bama. A little new staff, they do things a little different but they still do things the same pretty much. It’s still Alabama.
“It’s a good connection because me and DeBoer have a great relationship. Moving over to Alabama we kept the same relationship and we actually built on it. It’s building up even more.”
RIVALS REACTION
A little luck is always needed in recruiting and since Lee had a prior relationship with DeBoer during his time at Washington, that carried over when DeBoer took the Alabama job and then Lee loved the assistants that came onboard as well.
It felt for a while that a commitment to USC would happen. Then when Williams left the Trojans to coach at Georgia it felt almost inevitable that Lee would commit to the Bulldogs because of their tight relationship.
But the Crimson Tide continued to be persistent in recruiting Lee, hooking him up with Linguist and kept having him on campus to keep him comfortable.
A potential five-star candidate, Lee is the second elite corner from California to pick the Crimson Tide as they have Santa Ana Mater Dei’s Chuck McDonald also committed.