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2019 4* LB Lavonta Bentley


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LB has been blowing up this week
AU & Bama offered yesterday & my twitter TL is blowing up on analysts being very high on him
Article being posted below was before the AU offer was know but speaks very highly of LB
Now goes to Jackson-Olin. same school as TD Moultry & Coynis Miller

 

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2019 Alabama LB Bentley roaring on recruiting trail

Class of 2019 linebacker Vonta Bentley is heating up on the college football recruiting trail.

Vonta Bentley entered the week without an Football Subdivision scholarship offer. Alcorn State was the first football offer the class of 2019 linebacker had reeled in. He was eager to prove he would be worth it.

But his junior campaign at Birmingham (Ala.) Parker, and the corresponding video, has helped do it for him. In about a 24 hour span, Oregon, Troy, South Alabama and Florida Atlantic all had a hat on the table in verbally offering the 6-foot-1, 217-pound junior. The news has come in fast and furious since he moved and enrolled at Birmingham (Ala.) Jackson-Olin High School for the spring semester.

The Mustangs head coach, Tim Vakakes, is bullish on Bentley's ability now and moving forward.

"Coach (Tim) Vakakes is a great coach," Bentley said. "He's helping me out, putting my film out, and coaches love it. They see the potential I have.

"It's a great feeling for these opportunities."

According to Vakakes, plenty of additional offers should be expected in fairly soon. Programs like Alabama and Auburn are aware of Bentley and are in the evaluation stage of the process with him. Few programs to visit Jackson-Olin this week have left without letting the coach know the rising-senior linebacker has an offer from their school.

"They say when they watch my film, they fall in love," Bentley said. "They see explosion, they see the power that I'm kicking and from there they just offer.

"I can be a leader and it's fun to knock people out....come downhill or pass drop. I feel middle linebackers should be involved in every tackle."

The Ducks extension may have caught his attention most, to this point.

"Oregon is kicking flavor," he said with a laugh. "I just love their program, it would be insane to play for them. I love Oregon and what they're doing for their players."

An in-state program, UAB, could be next up. The Blazers have been in contact.

"UAB is a great program and it's home," he said. "That's something I can look into. People from the city can play at home and have more pride. That's a great choice."

Bentley is in no rush to accelerate the recruiting process, especially considering he has yet to make a single prospect visit, something he expects to change in the near future. Three programs on his radar have yet to establish contact but he is working towards it ahead of his senior campaign.

"Miami, North Dakota State and UCF," he said. "Miami is my number one team, I got so much to say about them. I just love Miami, that's one of the schools I've wanted to go to. They make football fun, like it was back in the day.

"I've been following them since I was in the sixth grade."

The championships at North Dakota State, at the FCS level, stand out. But that's not it.

"It's a great program with football and academics," Bentley said of the Bison. "It's also far out, where I could see some things I haven't."

Another program that went undefeated in its division, UCF, recently caught his attention.

"They have a great program, too," he said. "They give you opportunity. I was watching the game against Auburn...they give real opportunities on the football field like (Shaquem Griffin)."

Bentley is one of several class of 2019 prospects picking up offers at Jackson-Olin. Fellow linebacker Jammal Abrams and offensive prospects Traveon Pickens and A.J. Toney have commanded attention following top 100 prospects in back to back classes with Tadarian Moultry in 2017 and Coynis Miller in 2018. The newest member of the 2019 Mustang program has an idea what he is looking for, early on.

Academics, family feel and "the feeling of home" will be deciding factors for Bentley.

 

 

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1 hour ago, ClaytonAU said:

Don’t crush him though

LB is not Stidhams GF so you don't have to worry about that.

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What's it like to get offers from Alabama and Auburn on same day? Jackson-Olin LB knows

Lavonta Bentley tweeted this morning that he expected an "unbelievable, amazing, fantastic day."

He had no idea how prophetic his words would be.

The 6-foot-1, 220-pound Jackson-Olin linebacker received scholarship offers from Auburn, Alabama and LSU today, having started the week with no offers from Power 5 conferences. He is a junior and part of the Class of 2019.

"It's been great," he said this afternoon. "It feels great to know that these big, SEC schools want me and think I can help their program. ... It's a blessing."

Today's flurry of offers continued a whirlwind week for Bentley.

The 6-foot-1, 220-pound linebacker started the week as a relatively unknown recruit, a high school junior dreaming of one day playing college football. Then, Oregon offered him a scholarship. Then came an offer from Florida Atlantic, coached by former Alabama assistant Lane Kiffin.

Jackson-Olin coach Tim Vakakes said the Mustangs were impressed with Bentley's aggressiveness and toughness when they had to game-plan for him and play against him.

"He's a striker," Vakakes said. "He's a very strong, very physical player. (Parker) Coach (Andre) Robinson and his staff did a heck of a job with him and put him in position to make plays."

Jackson-Olin has become a must-stop on the for college recruiters recently, with 2017 linebacker T.D. Moultry signing with Auburn, 2018 defensive lineman Coynis Miller committed to Auburn, and 2019 prospects Jammal Abrams and A.J. Toney also having Division I offers.

 

 

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Nice film. It is crazy how many times LB's do not get blocked at all in HS. Not sure if it is because of the kids speed or that the OL and RB's can't get to the second level and block. Also, interesting to me that a kid like this vertually gets no love in recruiting then all of a sudden he is a super hot commodity. It happens every year. Look at Fields from last year went from a so so prspect to the number # recruit in the country very quickly. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Alright, looking at our roster I'm climbing in the boat @Mikey captains.

We need a sense of urgency to start bringing in LBs. We have 12 linebackers who will be on the roster next year (barring transfers and random occurrences). That being said, of those 12, only 4 of those really deserve to be on a SEC roster (Moultry, McBryde, Wooten, Britt) and 3 will be freshman this year (McClain, Harris, Marsh). So next year we'll have 7 serviceable linebackers at most. Hope we get a big LB class this year! The talent is most definitely out there! 

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1 hour ago, Zeek said:

Alright, looking at our roster I'm climbing in the boat @Mikey captains.

We need a sense of urgency to start bringing in LBs. We have 12 linebackers who will be on the roster next year (barring transfers and random occurrences). That being said, of those 12, only 4 of those really deserve to be on a SEC roster (Moultry, McBryde, Wooten, Britt) and 3 will be freshman this year (McClain, Harris, Marsh). So next year we'll have 7 serviceable linebackers at most. Hope we get a big LB class this year! The talent is most definitely out there! 

I believe we are better there than y'all think.

There are other positions on the team that haven't nearly been recruited or developed as well as LB has. Numbers or talent are severely lacking at OT, CB, and S. We typically only play 2 at any given time. I don't see the need for any more than 3 in this next class.

 

As far as my count goes, we have DD, MA, DW, McBryde, Wooten, Britt, McClain, Harris, Marsh, and possibly Jibunor. That's 9-10, and we only lose 3 to graduation. We don't need an extra large class.

 

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Agree. That said, since this is the Vonta thread, we should absolutely look to continue the JO pipeline and get another quality in-state LB for this class. 

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2 hours ago, bigbird said:

I believe we are better there than y'all think.

There are other positions on the team that haven't nearly been recruited or developed as well as LB has. Numbers or talent are severely lacking at OT, CB, and S. We typically only play 2 at any given time. I don't see the need for any more than 3 in this next class.

 

As far as my count goes, we have DD, MA, DW, McBryde, Wooten, Britt, McClain, Harris, Marsh, and possibly Jibunor. That's 9-10, and we only lose 3 to graduation. We don't need an extra large class.

 

Ignore me, I've been off base all day with Auburn football.

Still would like to get 2-4 solid guys

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23 hours ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

We are absolutely loaded at LBer. 

We aren't in the horrible shape we were in at LB a few years ago, but I'd fall short of calling it "absolutely loaded". We needed Quay Walker in the current class before we started talking about being loaded there.

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4 minutes ago, JDUBB4AU said:

Roquan is a stud, but he gone to the pros right? 

It was a joke haha, yes probably a top 10 pick.

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20 hours ago, ClaytonAU said:

But but but Roquan Smith

Results. It's about results lol.  I think T-Will will have our LB's continuing to play better.  Yes I am using Roquan Smith as an example.  We need consistent production from the LB position.  I am hoping that Steele will use them more to bring pressure up the middle this year which has been lacking as a compliment to our outside rush.  I would also love to see more run blitzes this year.  With our DL taking double teams due to how good they are we should be killing teams with the MLB.

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I think most people have been referring to Roquan as the guy you to whom you can point as what you can do developing and using talent. Just like Bammer with Mosley/Ragland/Hightower/Foster. We need *that* guy.

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There you go.  Roquan Smith is what Kirby will use for the next 2 years when he is recruiting stud LB's that want to play in the NFL.

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On 2/14/2018 at 12:45 PM, NorthGATiger said:

There you go.  Roquan Smith is what Kirby will use for the next 2 years when he is recruiting stud LB's that want to play in the NFL.

Why can't we use that same line of thinking at Corner back... Carlton Davis and all... How about running back.  Wasn't KJ an all american as well...  The destination has a lot to do with where kids end up regardless of who the recruiter is.  We are still growing and seems we are trying to get in earlier on kids this cycle but so is everyone else.  We however are going after good talent and put up a good fight just sometimes we finish 2nd in the recruiting race for players sometimes we finish 1st.  Auburn isn't for everyone.  Just like UGA, bama, miami, lsu, etc aren't either.

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46 minutes ago, corchjay said:

Why can't we use that same line of thinking at Corner back... Carlton Davis and all... How about running back.  Wasn't KJ an all american as well...  The destination has a lot to do with where kids end up regardless of who the recruiter is.  We are still growing and seems we are trying to get in earlier on kids this cycle but so is everyone else.  We however are going after good talent and put up a good fight just sometimes we finish 2nd in the recruiting race for players sometimes we finish 1st.  Auburn isn't for everyone.  Just like UGA, bama, miami, lsu, etc aren't either.

I agree with you on CB and RB recruiting for sure. I think what Auburn needs is a back that produces big time at the next level.  I also think Auburn needs to make use of multiple backs that can play so that we don't run them into the ground.  That can be used against you in recruiting as well.  This offense and the number of carries Gus gives a RB tend to have us put up good rushing numbers.  I just don't understand why we can't seem to gain traction with the elite RB's and that is not a slam on our guys.  We have not even been in the conversation for a 5* RB since Lattimore and Dyer.  Thats what 8 or 9 years ago.  If KJ was a first round back and the top back in the draft then it would be easier to compare him to Roquan.  I hope for Carlton's sake and Auburn's that he goes really high in the draft.

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