'13 OH WR Shelton Gibson

#110
#110
Just two days after Shelton Gibson committed to West Virginia, he decided to follow through on his plan of taking an official visit to Tennessee this weekend before officially ending his recruitment.
Shelton Gibson at Cleveland Heights

Top247 wide receiver Shelton Gibson of Cleveland committed to West Virginia on Wednesday but followed through on his plan to visit Tennessee this weekend.

He returned home Sunday thinking he may not be finished traveling just yet.

The Top247 wide receiver from Cleveland Heights High School in Cleveland, Ohio, who committed to West Virginia on Wednesday, said he’s still “really strong” in his commitment to the Mountaineers following his weekend visit to Tennessee, but the Vols gave him “a lot to think about.”

Gibson, a four-star prospect who’s ranked the No. 135 overall prospect and No. 16 wide receiver in the industry-generated 247Composite for the 2013 class, said he’s planning to return to West Virginia next weekend on an unofficial visit before perhaps returning to Tennessee with his family the weekend of Feb. 1 to take another look at the Vols.

“I’m going to go down there (to West Virginia) and come back up here (to Tennessee), so, in two weeks, I’ll be back up here,” Gibson said.

“It’s just going to come down to Tennessee and West Virginia.”

The 5-foot-11, 181-pound Gibson admitted a second trip to Knoxville is just “something I’m thinking about” right now, but he said he believes it will “most definitely happen” because his mother hasn’t been to Tennessee’s campus before.

“She won’t want me to commit nowhere, and she hasn’t been able to come down here. My mom said she’ll check out the town, see the environment and everything. Me and her feel the same way about schools,” he said.

“I mean, West Virginia’s still up there, just because I just committed there, and they’re up pretty high. My mom went down there with me, so my mom takes a big part in this — like, 50 percent of it. Whatever she thinks, I talk to her and everything, so that’s why she’s coming down (to Tennessee) in two weeks.”

Gibson, who claims to have been electronically timed at 4.42 seconds in the 40-yard dash, said his first visit to Tennessee more than lived up to his expectations.

“I mean, I was expecting it to be a good visit, just because it’s the SEC,” he said. “But I didn’t know the tradition was going to be like this.”

He said he “got a lot of one-on-one time” with new Vols coach Butch Jones throughout the weekend.

“I talked to him about, like, how Tennessee really is,” said Gibson, who also has taken official visits to West Virginia, Ohio State and Kentucky. “Coming down here, I didn’t know nothing about their traditions or anything, and it was, like, amazing — the Vol Walk. At dinner, we were introduced like it was a game day, and we were running down. It was just amazing.”

He said he had heard good things about Jones, who previously was at Cincinnati, from former Bearcats tight end Travis Kelce — one of Gibson’s former high-school teammates — and current Cincinnati wide receiver Jeremy Graves, a fellow Cleveland native.

Gibson said Jones turned out to be “exactly what Travis was telling me. He keeps everything 100. He won’t pull you no 50 percent or nothing.”

While Gibson admitted his potential roles in the spread offenses at West Virginia and Tennessee were relatively similar, he noticed that Knoxville is “much bigger” than Morgantown, W.Va.

“It’s a lot more people here,” he said. “But the thing is, is that a good thing or a bad thing? When I was in Morgantown, it was safe around there. It’s safe around here, too. Nothing happened — I didn’t see anything happen — but that’s the things I look at.”

Tennessee still is in the mix, Gibson said, because “everybody’s real cool” there. He said he likes Jones, Vols wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni and linebackers coach Tommy Thigpen, who previously recruited Gibson at Auburn.

“I was about to commit to Auburn (at one point),” Gibson said. “When they gave me the offer, I was about to commit the next morning. I’ve always called to talk to Coach Thigpen on the phone. He’s one of them coaches that you can go to and, like, if you’ve got a personal problem, you can talk to and he’ll understand what you’re talking about.”

Gibson said he has yet to set up his in-home visit with Jones, but West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen is scheduled to make his in-home visit with Gibson on Tuesday.
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#115
#115
005 said:
may not be a matter of want
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True, I hope he can get his grades in line to play here. North, Harris, Smith, Jenkins, and Gibson would be a ridiculous WR class to go along with Croom, Pig, Bowles, Carter and Dallas.
 
#118
#118
Seems like several of the visitors are really buying into the tradition of Tennessee! I like that Jones is stressing our past. Don't remember recruits mentioning this in the past? I could have forgotten, i guess?
 
#119
#119
Will be interesting to see where we are with him after the Boyd visit next weekend. I think both could be explosive players for us.
 
#122
#122
Welcome to the once, present and future Wide Receiver U. (with apologies to King Arthur)
 
#123
#123
"While Gibson admitted his potential roles in the spread offenses at West Virginia and Tennessee were relatively similar, he noticed that Knoxville is “much bigger” than Morgantown, W.Va."

Someone should post this on the WVU forum. The one where the WVU fan was saying "Morgantown is closer to civilization".

LOL. I've always liked WVU, my niece is a freshman there in the nursing program. I've got a couple family members who have attended. But most of their fans are as idiotic as they come. And they are 100% convinced their program is on par with the likes of UT, Bama, Okla, Texas, USC,OSU, Mich, etc. When in reality they're more like a Clemson, Va. Tech, etc. That's not a bad thing, but they are clearly confused as to where they stand. They hate the SEC with a passion and consider anything SEC overrated, blah blah blah. I would love nothing more than to get this guy. 1) he's an awesome player 2) to see they're dramatic reaction.

I'm telling you, most of them are 100% convinced WVU is a better program than UT. If he comes here he just might be my favorite recruit just for pure spite. Wrong...I know. But oh well.
 
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