QB recruit who picked Princeton over Alabama
LANCASTER, Calif. – It’s hard to be miserable in Cancun, especially when you’re in the Mexican resort city for your 18th birthday, as Brevin White was in late July. But surrounded by family and friends, shimmering water and sandy beaches, White was just that: miserable.
Or uptight, maybe. Stressed. He was making his family miserable, at least. The four-star quarterback from Paraclete High School, located in this charter city in the Antelope Valley of Southern California, was constantly checking his phone in search of updates from his future college program of choice — awaiting word from the head coach that he’d been accepted into the school, which would free him to make his non-binding verbal commitment.
The call came on July 25, with White in a hotel room joined by his parents and the coach on speakerphone to break the news: You’re approved. We’re ready whenever you want to make the next step.
White looked at his parents. Let’s do it, he said. I want to commit right now.
Then, in true Cancun fashion, the family celebrated at Senor Frogs, that ubiquitous warm-weather chain of party-hard restaurants.
The school?
Princeton.
No, not Southern California or UCLA, two schools within 90 minutes of Lancaster, nor another program along the West Coast. Not to a program in the Big Ten Conference, the Big 12 Conference, any league in the Power Five — White committed to the Ivy League, which has produced 15 presidents yet only six firstround NFL draft picks.
“I finally had the world’s weight lifted off me,” White said. “A lot of people aren’t able to pass up on opportunities that come. It was hard for me to turn down schools and wait for the right opportunity to come and the right school to come around. But ultimately it did, and it paid off.”
It already was one of the more distinctive stories of this or any recent recruiting cycle: White was a consensus four-star recruit, one of just a handful at the position in his recruiting class, and your random top-flight quarterback recruit will always go for glitz and glamour over an Ivy League institution’s classical education.
Then Alabama called, and things got interesting.
For another recruit, maybe, a late scholarship offer from Alabama would alter the equation in one way — making the prospect consider the fit, the coaching staff and the opportunity. For White, the offer led to a question unique to his recruitment: Do I attend the top business school in the country or play for the nation’s top football program, maybe the greatest dynasty in the sport’s history?
“I committed a while ago, but the whole story blew up with the whole Alabama thing,” he said. “Nobody just turns down Alabama like that. If the No. 1 football school in the country is after you, you’re going to show them the love back. So I was interested.”
The first rush of calls from the Alabama coaching staff began in the week leading into the Crimson Tide’s matchup with Clemson in the Sugar Bowl, as defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi followed up those calls with an in-home visit with White and his family in early January. A second visit followed, along with more calls, and Lupoi persuaded White to take an official visit to Tuscaloosa on the first weekend of February.
He was hosted by sophomore Tua Ta- govailoa, the hero of Alabama’s championship-game win against Georgia. He took note of the waterfall, the support system for academics, the facilities, even the new dining center currently in construction. On his first full night on campus, his mother attended a cocktail party at the Saban residence and saw Saban do the “wobble.” White watched Alabama take on Oklahoma in basketball.
He drew formations and plays for the Alabama coaching staff. They’d ask for his favorite play; he’d go up to the board and map it out. During a dinner hosted on the suite level of Bryant-Denny Stadium, White, a fan of country music, was walking past the 50-yard line when Sweet Home Alabama came on the loudspeakers. He got chills.
That Sunday morning, White went to Saban’s home with the six other recruits on campus and toured the property — checking out the palatial estate, its bevy of Mercedes and off-road golf carts. Saban pulled him aside. We want you to enroll on Feb. 12, he said, in eight days.
“You’re feeling good about yourself when you’re driving to the Birmingham airport,” White said. “My expectations were as high as expectations could go. And they still were shattered. Alabama was just a whole other level.”
It wasn’t the first time White had been tempted by a scholarship offer. He was offered before his sophomore year by Arizona State, where his brother, Brady, played before transferring to Memphis, and gave the Sun Devils heavy consideration. Likewise with Washington. Minnesota and head coach P.J. Fleck made a furious push for White last fall, even drawing a visit for the Golden Gophers’ win against Nebraska. Alabama was different, White admitted.
But he stuck with his commitment to Princeton. After returning home from his Alabama visit, White mapped out the pluses and minuses for each school. Princeton had the education; Alabama the football program. The Ivy League afforded network opportunities; the Crimson Tide had their straight line to national championships and the NFL. He asked himself: What checks the most boxes for me?
“Brevin is going to be successful wherever he goes,” Paraclete High School principal John Anson said. “What a level-headed, great kid to be able to put it into perspective like that. I think he’s really at peace with that. He could go play anywhere. He certainly has that skill set. But I think that he really valued the word that he gave, and he didn’t want to go back on that.”
White spoke with former Princeton quarterback Jason Garrett, the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, who eased his nerves in one respect: If you’re good enough, the NFL will find you. The league found me, he said. That, combined with the doors opened by a Princeton degree — White spoke of a “40-year plan” as a factor in his decision — convinced him to stick with Princeton.
That’s how this unique recruitment played out: White will enroll this summer as one of five quarterbacks on Princeton’s roster and the only one who could have gone anywhere, including the top program in the country, but chose the Ivy League.
“Both schools are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Not a lot of people get to visit Alabama, let alone play football there. Not a lot of people get accepted into Princeton and get to have that experience there and play football,” White said.
“At the end of the day, it was Princeton. I just knew that Princeton was still where I wanted to be.”