The situation:
Louisville has one tight end spot left in the 2021 recruiting class. Recently Christian Pedersen took a flight from California to Louisville to check out the city and the campus even though coaches can't host prospects. This hasn't been an uncommon occurrence as players and their families can still freely travel on their own dime anywhere they want. So that's what the Pederson's did.
On May 30, Pedersen released a top-three of Louisville, San Diego State, and Virginia. I caught up with Pederson to discuss where he is in his recruitment and found out some very interesting things.
In his own words:
On his visit to Louisville: "We got off the plane and went straight to Cardinal Stadium and looked at it. My dad's cousin, my second uncle, lives in Louisville and he has a friend there who is a professor so he showed us around the campus. That was really good to see."
How Louisville plans to use him: "They see me as both (inline tight end and H-back). The big reason they really want me is that they want to be versatile with me and when I'm in the game it doesn't tip off the defense if I'm on the ball or off the ball."
On why he didn't visit Virginia while he was on the east coast: "We already booked the tickets to Louisville. We were looking for plane tickets to there but it's just a lot of travel. There are a lot of connecting flights on the way to Louisville and by the end of the trip, me and my dad were pretty jet-lagged. We might visit but just not right now."
On San Diego State: "They were the first school to pull the trigger and offer me. So I've been taking to them for a while. They've recruited me for a long time and they've been recruiting me just as hard from day one. I haven't visited there but I might go down, it's not that far from me. It's like a nine-hour drive or an hour and a half plane ride."
On moving across the country to go to college: "It's definitely different because life, in general, is different over there than in California. You gotta live and experience things. If you live in a bubble your whole life you're not going to get to experience all the things in life you want to experience, you know what I mean?"
On when he's going to make a decision: "I don't know yet. I'm gonna take this Holiday weekend off and then start to get serious about it."
On what "Take this Holiday weekend off and then start to get serious about it" means: "You'll find out, I'll let you know."
Dave's Deliberations:
His claim that he's going to take the weekend off and then get more serious about his decision was interesting to me for a number of reasons. Number one is that he hasn't visited San Diego State or Virginia but he did fly across the country to see Louisville. He said he might visit Virginia later but that means he has to make another cross-country trip in the middle of a global pandemic when numbers are beginning to spike again. I ain't buyin' that one. Then he said he's never visited San Diego state either. I went ahead and put my pick in for Louisville. Keep an eye out for a commitment date soon.
