Courtesy of Jeffrey M'Ba
Jeffrey M'Ba Blog: No. 1 JUCO Prospect on Coaching Carousel, Mom in America with Decision Approaching
Jeffrey M'Ba is one of the most highly-recruited prospects in America, hauling in 30 offers since arriving on the Junior College scene at Independence C.C. in Kansas. He has agreed to give Sports Illustrated exclusive access into his world by chronicling his journey to football from his time in France to his recruitment and preparation for his upcoming commitment decision.
Hello again everyone! I am back with another blog.
Since I was last able to share my journey with you all, I have been traveling a lot. The recruiting process is finally coming to a close, and I am excited to share about my last two trips and future plans.
When I last talked to you guys, I was on my way to Tennessee. That was a great visit. I could tell that Knoxville is a small town but a good town. I can see the fans love Tennessee and watching Tennessee play. I could feel the love when I was there. I caught myself taking some pictures with Tennessee fans. It was a lot of fun over there.
Tennessee was the first visit my mom has ever got to go on with me. I was just glad to be able to experience that with her finally. She really enjoyed herself there and being in America. I was just glad to be able to show part of America to my mom.
I got to spend time with Coach (Rodney) Garner and learn about how he develops players. He has a good track record, but what I was looking to see was how I would fit in with them. For me, you can be the best coach in the world, but if I don't fit in with you, I am never going to be able to be what people expect me to be. That was an important thing to me to really focus on during the visit.
Probably my favorite part of the visit to Tennessee was seeing the stadium. It was huge. I felt like I was in "Gladiator" while I was in there.
Next, I went to Mizzou, and my mom was able to experience that with me as well. I had already visited there once before on an unofficial visit, so I knew what to expect on the visit there. But I wanted my mom and my uncle to be able to experience it with me, be on the campus and see everything that I saw there.
They had wanted me to come for an official visit for a long time. They have been recruiting me for a long time, so I wanted to give them that chance.
We talk almost every day, and they have shown me so real love and told me that I could be great there. Coach Al Davis was actually a coach in JuCo (junior college) before, so he knows what it is about to be in JuCo, and my coach has known him for a while. So I wanted to make sure I got to see what he could offer me as a player because I have only heard good things about him, so I wanted to see in real life it was true.
While I was on these visits, some crazy news happened at two of my top five schools.
Coach Mario Cristobal left Oregon to go to Miami. I learned the news like everyone else and was trying to follow it. One of my friends told me that Cristobal was never going to leave (UO), so I was confident in that before I saw it all on the news. It was kind of hard because I was supposed to go to Oregon for a visit. I felt sad for my mom because everybody was here and the tickets from Oregon to France were ready to go, so I was a little bit sad. I felt bad because I felt kind of stuck.
But my mom was able to go back into France with my uncle after the Mizzou visit, though.
I knew the recruiting process would be hard, but I didn't know that some of this bad news would come. Obviously, they are both in my top five schools, and I am just like, 'wow.' That is good news for Miami, and they are probably going to be good again. I actually believe that Cristobal is going to change everything over there, but as far as my part, I don't know what is going to happen with them because I don't know who is going to be on the new coaching staff. I really tried to go back to Miami another time, but that didn't happen because there just wasn't enough time. They are still one of my top schools, but I don't really know what is going to happen.
My visits are officially over, and I am now getting ready to head back home to France to spend time with my family and make my final decision. I want to talk with them and stop talking with the colleges for now. I want to focus on that, and then when I decide where I want to go.
Everyone will know on December 19th. I am going to be committing on live TV in France.
That is all for now! I can't wait to talk to you guys soon!
