Jalen Preston sorting things out with in-state teams, Sooners & LSU

Rivals100 wide receiver Jalen Preston has made a habit out of making the extraordinary look routine and top college programs are getting more serious about adding his game-breaking ability to their recruiting classes.

In his last conversation with Rivals.com, Preston confirmed that LSU and Texas A&M were two teams likely to fall in with a top group of teams he’s looking to get things narrowed down to in the coming months. Since then, he’s been in College Station for a junior day visit, but chose not to make a planned visit to Baton Rouge in anticipation of his participation in a camp last weekend.

Otherwise, Preston did make a trip up to Norman for Oklahoma’s junior day event in February. He said that Cale Gundy has been the assistant that has been in touch with him most frequently between all the schools recruiting him most as of late.

In addition to things picking up with the Sooners, he said that he’s planning on being at Ole Miss on April 18 and recently Baylor and TCU have been new teams to make him a priority.

On Oklahoma

“The visit went great,” he said. “I had a nice talk with the coaches and they showed me the new facilities, those new facilities are nice. Once they get done, they’re going to be nice … They said by the spring game that the locker room and everything will be done, so that’s when they want me back up there.”

“I was watching film on Dede (Westbrook) and (Sterling) Shepard and they were showing me where I’d be,” he said. “They’re probably recruiting me as an inside receiver, but I play (outside too). They said they wanted players they could put anywhere on the field.”

On Texas A&M

“This time they took me to the dorms that the players stay in the first year,” he said. “I went walking around the coaches offices too and those were pretty nice. I had a talk with Coach (Kevin) Sumlin and he was just telling me they’d really treat me like family up there.”

“I’ve still been talking to Coach (Aaron) Moorehead more than anybody [on the Aggies staff],” he said. “He hasn’t been to one of my basketball games in a while but he said he’ll see me soon when he comes back down to Manvel.”

On TCU

“Some of the players that have been up there have been telling me how nice the facilities are,” he said. “I’ve never been there though; I’ve passed by it a couple of times, but I didn’t have the offer at the time. Now that I have the offer and they’ve been showing interest, I should make a trip up there.”

On Baylor

“I think that I’m really important to them right now,” he said. “Actually, they hit me up a couple of times just in the last three days, just wanting to have a talk about the school, so I’m going to try and get up there.”

Preston has held offers from programs across the country going back to the beginning of last year, but at this point, his focus is definitely centered on the teams more regionally located, particularly now that Baylor and TCU are ramping things up. That’s crucial considering he’s starting to think more earnestly about which teams to include in a top-ten - or fewer.

He added that he’s still very interested in making it back to LSU for a visit before the end of summer, although he wasn’t sure of a more specific time. Former receivers coach Dameyune Craig was his main recruiter there, so a visit to re-establish some relationships will be critical for things to move forward with the Tigers.