For Byron Cowart, it's been a long recruitment that finally ended this afternoon, as he signed with the Auburn Tigers. There was drama following his public pledge to Gus Malzahn and his program. After speaking with his coach (Sean Callahan) and mentor (Woodrow Grady) here's the back story that led us through today.
Its been a long day for Byron Cowart. This five-star defensive end from Seffner (Fla.) Armwood committed to Auburn. It was a dream of his do to it on ESPN and thats exactly what he did when he picked the Tigers this morning.
However, there is more to this story.
Everyone in the recruiting circles just assumed Cowart was headed to Florida for the longest time. It was his school and close to home. But along the way he grew to love two additional programs Auburn and Florida State.
People forget that Cowart was at the Iron Bowl in 2013, where Auburn defeated Alabama on Chris Daviss historic game ending touchdown. Thats the day he first opened up his eyes to Auburn.
That season the Tigers lost to FSU in the national title game. Heres where the Seminoles come in and where Cowart started paying close attention to the national champions.
Lets fast forward ahead to this season. Cowarts plan was to announce his decision on ESPN at the Under Armour All-America Game in early January. He was torn between three schools Florida, FSU and Auburn. But leading up to that all-star game he thought he had his mind made up. He was going to commit to Jimbo Fisher and the Seminoles. Thats the school he was feeling at the time.
But Cowart choose to hold off on his decision knowing he wasnt quite 100%.
This is when his recruiting world was turned upside down. This was right after Florida and Will Muschamp parted ways. Muschamp finally ended up with the Tigers, landing the defensive coordinator position on the Plains. All the while two other things happened; Cowart was getting to know the new Gator staff and he was trending away from Florida State.
A major battle ensued between the Gators and Tigers. All the while Cowart struggled to come up with a true decision. Theres no question that he has a tremendous relationship with Muschamp and really wanted to play at Auburn. He also felt a strong pull to Gainesville and the Gators.
Cowart simply didnt know what to do with signing day finally here. He received two sets of Letters of Intent, one from Auburn and one from Florida. Cowart elected to sign both this morning before his scheduled announcement at 9 a.m. It was Cowart that instructed his high school coach, Sean Callahan, to hold both sets of papers until he sorted things out about what future school he would call home.
What people fail to realize is that this kid was truly torn and for very good reasons. He was torn with the idea of being eight hours (Auburn) from home as compared two (Gainesville). This was especially difficult considering how close he and his mom are. Its always easy to think about yourself going to a school thats not close to home. But in the end, when its crunch time and a decision has to be made, its tough to follow through for some. Thats what happened here.
Unjustly, people threw stones at Callahan, saying he held up Cowarts paperwork. That was simply not the case. It came down to Cowart being comfortable with going to school at Auburn with mom being back in Tampa.
And in the end, it came full circle, as Cowart eventually did fax in his paperwork to Gus Malhazn and the Tigers.
Some kids simply get undone by the process. Some players love the drama. Some recruits can't handle the pressure and make bad choices. In this case, Cowart simply struggled in deciding between two programs, one close to home and one not. In the end, Cowart followed his heart, with mom's blessing, and he's now an Auburn Tiger.
-Jamie Newberg
