Before his surprising commitment to play for Gus Malzahn at Tulsa and his subsequent flip to Arkansas, Tyler Wilson tried to commit to LSU.
He revealed that tidbit Thursday on The Morning Rush, a radio show based in Fort Smith.
“I don’t know if I ever told that story,” Wilson said. “I always felt like maybe everybody at Arkansas would hold that against me.”
A four-star recruit and the No. 9 pro-style quarterback in the Class of 2008, Wilson was highly sought after, with offers from schools across the country.
One of those schools was LSU, which invited him to a big camp the summer before his senior year. During the camp, the Tigers hired one of Wilson’s relatives.
It didn’t take him long before deciding he wanted to play in Baton Rouge and he wanted to “calm the waters” of the recruiting process, so he reached out to offensive coordinator Gary Crowton to give him the news.
“I come back from the camp and I was sold on LSU,” Wilson said. “I called Gary and said, ‘Coach…I was very impressed and would be interested in committing at this point.’”
However, when Crowton went to relay the news to head coach Les Miles, there was a problem.
“Les said, ‘I have put the brakes on accepting offers for quarterbacks currently due to E.J. Manuel,’” Wilson said. “E.J. Manuel and Terrelle Pryor were No. 1 and No. 2 in the class and they were not going to accept a commitment from a quarterback until E.J. made his decision. Well, E.J. was not going to declare or commit to anybody until signing day because he had that luxury.”
With the benefit of hindsight, it’s interesting to look back and see how it all played out. Wilson ended up committing to Tulsa despite several other big-time offers, but flipped to Arkansas after Bobby Petrino was hired.
Manuel picked Florida State and went on to become a first-round draft pick, while LSU signed Jordan Jefferson. Although he started 32 games during his career with the Tigers, Jefferson completed only 58.6 percent of his passes for 4,733 yards, 34 touchdowns and 20 interceptions.
Wilson started only 24 games in his career, but had much better stats, completing 62.6 percent of his passes for 7,765 yards, 52 touchdowns and 26 interceptions.
It could be argued that LSU might have won the 2011 national championship game against Alabama with Wilson under center because the Tigers struggled to move the ball and were shutout. LSU lost only two games in 2010, so maybe that season could have been different, as well. Who knows, Miles may still have a job if that's how it all played out.
You can listen to Wilson tell the story here: