Personal relationships are key in 2020 DB Lejond Cavazos' recruitment
2020 Cibolo-Steele defensive back Lejond Cavazos name is pronounced lej•end. Commit that to memory now, because it’s going to be coming up a lot over the next few years.
Cavazos has created quite a stir this spring after picking up five big-time offers in short order following a Freshman All-America Bowl performance in January and a few eyebrow-raising testing sessions during camps. He picked up an offer from Tennessee this week, but already had Auburn, LSU, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M in-hand before that.
For a young prospect that has gotten his recruitment off to such a fast start, Cavazos seems to have a pretty good handle on what he’s in for. He’s visited some schools and scheduled trips to others because he’s already forming opinions for when it comes time to decide which schools he’d like to take official visits to.
Even though the Sooners were officially the first team to offer Cavazos, it seems his opinions of LSU and A&M are strongest due to some previously formed relationships with the respective coaches. In the Aggies case, his friendship with 2017 quarterback signee, Kellen Mond, is also an early influence on him. Prior to finishing his high school career in Florida at IMG Academy, Mond established himself as a top prospect out of the San Antonio area.
“He loves it,” Cavazos said of Mond. “He’s always talking about getting me up there - he’s always like ‘When are you coming? When are you coming? When are you coming?’”
Cavazos will be in College Station for the Aggies’ spring game and said that his rapport with head coach Kevin Sumlin had already been established. These days, he said that Sumlin and Ron Cooper are both personally working on him.
IN HIS WORDS
On Texas A&M
On if past visits with sister while she was recruited as a track athlete factor into his opinion
“That made me a little bit of a fan, but she signed with (Texas) Tech, so that doesn’t have anything to do with it,” he said. “The fans are great - I love the fans. And it’s a beautiful campus too. I know that they would help me to be successful in my life after football.”
More on his relationship with Kevin Sumlin
“I’ve known Coach Sumlin for a while now, but never known him as a coach of mine,” he said. “I didn’t think I was going to get this big in football … but we have had a relationship already before I became a recruit.
On LSU, where he visited last week
“The whole staff knew my name - even Coach (Ed Orgeron),” he said. “I was like ‘Oh! This is good’ and he introduced me to the team. In a team meeting as a 2020 freshman? It was great.”
“I went into their defensive backs meeting and (Corey Raymond) treats everyone the same,” he said. “He doesn’t care if you’re a freshman, if you’re a four-star, a five-star, or a zero-star when you get there, he’s going to treat you like he does everyone else … He’s going to keep it 100 every second of every day. He’s not going to sugar-coat anything.”
On early relationship to Ole Miss
“It’s a good campus and the coaches are genuine,” he said. “They’re not going to be fake with you. There’s just something about Ole Miss I like; the coach wasn’t just talking to me about straight football, he wanted to tell me about academics, wanted to know what I wanted to major in, it wasn’t just a football call.”
On Oklahoma, where he plans on attending an upcoming spring practice
“I just hope that when I go I enjoy it,” he said. “I don’t want it to be like a serious trip, I just want to get to know the coaches more because I don’t know them that well. I’m just trying to build a relationship with them because I don’t know them at all yet.”
RIVALS REACTION
Although Mond is now towing the line for the Aggies, he did share a little bit with Cavazos about Auburn.
“I haven’t been there yet but I have heard a bunch of stuff about it from Kellen,” he said. “It’s a great campus from what I hear and Coach (Greg) Brown seems like a great guy, and I need to get out there.”
Otherwise, it appears as though A&M has always had a head-start with him. Although he’s going to be on the field for the first time as a recruit for the Maroon and White game, he knows what to expect from the gameday atmosphere at Kyle Field. That doesn’t seem to make him any less excited for it.
“I haven’t visited another stadium like A&M’s,” he said. “That Kanye West thing they do, that really gets you.”