Decision Day Coming for James
On Saturday morning news broke that Oklahoma had offered Baton Rouge (La.) Madison Prep Academy defensive lineman Troy James and it seems that within a week they'll know their fate with the 6-foot-4, 268-pound three-star defender. That's because James has already set his announcement date and it's less than 24 hours away.
"It’s been great, I’m really making my decision on Thursday. Oklahoma came into the picture, we sat down and talked about it, it’s basically between five schools," James said. "I’ll make my announcement on Thursday.
"For sure it’s (between) Oklahoma, Arkansas, N.C. State, Tulane, Cincinnati, and Colorado.
"I’ll be doing a press conference here at my school (on Thursday).
"I knew what I wanted to do, this week, Friday the day of our game, I wanted to do it before our game.
"I wanted to do it then because my grandfather, his birthday is Nov. 11 but since I can’t do it on that date, I'm going to do it the day before. I know he’ll be proud of me. He always pushed me, he stayed in South Carolina but he was from Louisiana. But he also taught me to be respectful."
Louisiana's No. 30 prospect already held offers from Arkansas, N.C. State, Cincinnati, and Memphis amongst many others but admits the Sooners, amongst others, have picked up interest considerably as of late.
"I don't think there is any real reason, I don’t really have a senior highlight tape yet. The highlight tape a lot of people watch is my sophomore tape, with me playing at running back," he said. "Most coaches tell me they love the way I get to the ball, the way I attack, and my physicality.
"Most of them wonder if I’m really tall enough to play or anything – they don’t think I’m tall enough or my arms are long enough, that’s just one of my downfalls. I think my effort and aggressiveness makes up for that."
One school that has asked few questions about James' size and measurables but had an entirely different question is Arkansas, one of his perceived leaders.
"They offered me over the summer, their question wasn’t with my height, they didn’t question my ability, it was the whole thing with my grades – they just wanted to see if I was going to pull that grade up," he said. "When I came up on my unofficial, they never questioned my ability or my height. The only reason was because of the ACT score."
However the timing of offers isn't something that James has spent a lot of time worrying about.
"That’s nothing I really worry about, I just look at every offer, it could be taken away any time of the day, everything happens for a reason, so everything is in God’s hands for me," he said. "I walk around as the same person as I was before hand."
That ability to see clearly is due, in no small part that James - due to his decision largely being made - isn't weighing too heavily on his mind at this point.
"To me, there isn’t anything really to balance, my recruiting I’m not even focused on that right now. I got (his Madison Prep teammates) all together. We had a meeting that the coaches didn’t know about – I told them for my perspective ya’ll know what my mindset is about everything," he said.
"I just love to play the game, I don’t even care about all of this. My high school career is over. All the attention, that is for the juniors and sophomores, we’re going to get this state championship.
"Everyone says you’re one of the best because you’ve got these offers. These offers don’t mean anything if I don’t bring Madison Prep their first state championship this year, I block out the recruiting and focus on a state championship."
To date James' lone official visit went to Arkansas, and he says that with his decision rapidly approaching the likelihood of further official visits is remote.
"When I make the decision, I might take an unofficial but I don’t think I’ll be taking any officials. I most likely won’t be taking any more officials."