Never too early to look at the future

The old adage that it’s never too early to start thinking about next year certainly rings true in recruiting.

It’s understandable that some college coaches are already canvassing high schools and scouring videotape looking for high school juniors – for the class of 2003.

But what about the class of 2004? Yes, recruiting even goes that far.

One player that has caught everyone’s eye is Shreveport (La.) Evangel Christian Academy sophomore quarterback John David Booty.

Booty, who is 6-foot-3, 180 pounds with 4.5-second 40-yard dash speed, is the early favorite to be the top-ranked player in the class of 2004.

“He’s had a real good year for us,” Evangel coach and John David’s father, John Booty, said. “I think a lot was expected of him and he’s pretty much held up to where he probably should be.”

Expectations run high at Evangel, so to meet the Evangel standard says a lot.

Booty follows a succession of Evangel signal callers that have earned Division I scholarships. His brother Josh Booty, now with the NFL Browns, started the tradition for the 12-year old school. Phillip Deas, Brock Berlin and Brent Rawls were next in line.

Booty, in his first year as a starter this season, led the Eagles to a 9-1 regular season finish. He completed 179 of his 277 attempts for 2,750 yards, with 36 touchdowns and only seven interceptions. His quarterback efficiency rating is a whopping 186.57.

John Booty says his son is already receiving a lot of recruiting attention.

While it’s too early say that he has a favorite or that one school in particular is the leader, John David, according to his father, does have a few schools that seem to standout.

“We’ve been watching some teams more than others on the TV this year,” the elder Booty joked.

Those schools are Miami, Texas and UCLA.

“He’s going down to Miami for their summer camp this year. That’s probably going to be the only camp he goes to this summer. I think he likes the run-pass mix that they have in their offense. And Josh really likes coach (Butch) Davis, and he talks highly about Miami. So I think that may have something do with John David thinking about Miami, too.”

What about the Longhorns and Bruins?

“We’ve had several kids go down to Texas and they just love it there. They’re sold on it. That means so much when you have players some place that really like it. We went down to their spring game last year and we’ll be back to some games next year probably. Mack Brown and Greg Davis are really good friends of ours.”

“With UCLA, John David got a chance to meet coach (Bob) Toledo while we were out at the Elite 11 camp and that meant a lot to him. He really likes all of the skill personnel that UCLA seems to always have. That’s a big thing for a quarterback. He also likes Los Angeles.”

Booty is set to make an unoffical visit to Tennessee for the Memphis game with several of his teammates and a few of his assistant coaches.

It’s amazing that Booty is already this deep into the recruiting process, already a veteran of nationally organized camps, spring games and even direct interaction with head college coaches.

It just goes to show that even college coaches are already looking far into the future. Booty will not sign a letter of intent until February 4, 2004, but the race for his signature has already begun.