Austin Joyner is ready for his college recruitment to be over.
The Marysville Pilchuck running/defensive back is in high demand. As one of the top recruits in the state, he hears from several recruiters on a daily basis. Joyner’s cell phone is constantly buzzing. When he’s in class, in the weight room or trying to find a few minutes to relax, there’s always someone who’s trying to sell him on the “university of his dreams.”
“It’s pretty stressful actually. Whenever I’m doing something, I’m constantly getting messages on Twitter or people texting me to set up interviews with the coaches and reporters,” Joyner said. “Probably like 25 texts or (Twitter) messages a day — most of the time it’s not just a one-message reply.
“Whenever they recruit now, they’re all in. And they’re recruiting really heavy right now.”
It’s been this way for as long as Joyner can remember. When he was in ninth grade he attended a Nike recruiting combine in Hawaii where he finished in the top 30. The star running back continued to open eyes his sophomore season with 2,034 rushing yards, which garnered interest from schools across the country.
Joyner has received enough recruiting letters to fill a box that’s approximately 4-feet tall.
“I can’t pinpoint that date at all (when it started),” Joyner said. “It’s been awhile.”
“If I had to guess he’s probably got 2,000-3,000 letters. You get to a point where he just stops reading them,” said Arnold Joyner, Austin’s father. “One of the things Austin did early on was he narrowed his list to three, because he saw it just got so crazy.”
Mississippi State once sent 101 letters to Austin Joyner in one day. His parents, Arnold and Jayne Joyner, would sometimes read them.
Many remain unopened.
“Maybe one of these days we’ll go through all of them and open them,” Arnold Joyner said. “Or maybe we’ll throw them away. Who knows?”
By the end of his sophomore season, Joyner had scholarship offers from Washington and Washington State. In an effort to prematurely end the recruitment, Joyner twice committed early. Joyner committed to Washington, the first school to offer him a scholarship, on Nov. 19, 2013, but decommitted from the Huskies a little more than two weeks later when former head coach Steve Sarkisian left the program for USC.
“The school is basically bricks and grass and trees and books. It’s the people. It’s the people that make it all different,” Arnold Joyner said. “It’s those relationships. I know coaches can leave and go to different schools after you sign, but before you sign you have some say. And it’s those relationships with the people that make the difference.”
In mid-April 2014, Joyner tried again, committing to Washington State. But once again, he reopened his commitment — this time on Dec. 2 after WSU fired defensive coordinator Mike Breske, who had been one of Joyner’s main recruiters.
“It’s a huge thing to have a coach that you like because you’re going to be spending practically all of your time with them,” Joyner said. “For me, my (defensive backs) coach would be a person I really need to like. I don’t know the one at WSU. That’s one of the reason’s I decommitted. I think you have to have a pretty good connection, know what they teach and like what they teach. It’s going to be a long four years if you don’t like the guy you’re working with.”
While inconvenient, Joyner’s recruiting journey is not atypical for an athlete of his stature.
“It’s not that uncommon, what he’s gone through for a top-tier recruit,” said Brandon Huffman, the National Director of Recruiting for the recruiting website Scout.com. “He committed early (and the) head coach leaves. He committed to another school and the coordinator leaves. I don’t want to say he’s been unlucky, but he’s made a choice and then coaches leave, which happens in these situations.”
Scout.com ranks the 5-foot-10, 186-pound Joyner as the No. 29 cornerback in the nation and has the senior slated at No. 268 in its “Scout 300” list. ESPN.com ranks Joyner as the No. 1 recruit in Washington state and also has him at No. 268 in its “ESPN 300.”
“He’s a football player. He’s not just a running back or a quarterback. He’s a football player,” Huffman said. “He’ll specialize on one side of the ball, but he is too talented to keep off the other side. You look at what’s happening now, especially at schools like Washington (with all-purpose athlete Shaq Thompson). (Joyner’s) best position is running back, but he thinks his higher ceiling to playing at the next level is at cornerback. But I think his ability to make a difference is at running back. Teams just want to get him to come, and then they’ll figure it out when he gets there.”
Marysville Pilchuck head coach Brandon Carson praised Joyner and his family for how they have handled the wild recruitment demands.
“I think he’s handled it as well as you can,” Carson said. “I don’t think he really enjoys the whole recruiting process thing. That’s why you’ve seen him commit early twice already. I can’t imagine what it’s like for him on the social media end, with Twitter, Facebook and all those. He’s really done a great job navigating the process with his family.”
Carson started getting calls about Joyner after his sophomore season. The Marysville Pilchuck coach says, “it’s just part of the job.”
“With the way film is nowadays, (coaches) can see in film what type of player they are,” Carson said. “They ask questions like, ‘What type of person are they?’ ‘What kind of student?’ They’ll ask about his practice habits and work ethic that kind of stuff.
“He gets rave reviews from me on the field and off it.”
Joyner has narrowed his list to three schools: UW, WSU and Boise State. Along with coaches, Joyner said there are several key factors he’s looking for when making his decision, including the players on the team, the depth chart, ability to play right away and academics as well as how the dorms are set up.
He took official visits to Washington and Boise State in December and is visiting Washington State in January. National Signing Day for football players is Feb. 4, 2015.
“I do think of the three schools he has in his final three, he doesn’t have a bad choice,” Arnold Joyner said. “That was the thing that made it real easy for us. … There wasn’t a bad choice.”
Seemingly every visit sparks a debate on social media about where Joyner will end up. He’s seen tweets that say he’s already committed to UW, WSU and Boise State.
None of which are correct.
“It’s actually kind of funny,” Joyner said. “I’ll post a picture from somewhere and the fans start going back and forth and are fighting for no reason. Boise State fans will be arguing with UW fans and UW fans will be arguing with WSU fans. People are saying I’ve committed all over.”
“It’s like they know more about what he’s going to do than he does,” Arnold Joyner said. “We read and just chuckle.”
The elder Joyner said he thinks his son is happy the recruiting process is winding down.
“As he got further in the process the more he got annoyed by it,” the elder Joyner said. “It was so funny. I would tell him most kids would love to be in the position that you’re in. He couldn’t care less. I’d say you have to go call so and so. He doesn’t want to call. He wants to go to the high school basketball game.”
Joyner said he’s very much “undecided” right now and has no timeline for when he might commit. If he knows where he’s leaning, he’s not dropping any hints about who will win the Austin Joyner Sweepstakes.
“Whenever it happens,” he said. “I do (want it to be over), but I don’t want to rush it either. I’m going to commit when the time’s right. I don’t have a set date or anything like that.”
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