re: Help me understand the Willie Gay and Jacob Phillips saga

One thing to remember is that Phillips was very well known to LSU prior to the allstar game when Gay was clowning with Phillips on camera. In other words, Gay wasn't recruiting Phillips to LSU, or at least seriously, and Gay didn't 'open LSU's eyes' to Phillips. Maybe they talked about playing together; they for sure did connect at the game.

Phillips at the game definitely changed his recruiting. The stuff with Gay is probably just coincidental. If Gay hadn't been clowning with him and said his famous 'tell them Willie Gay is on the way' statement the LSU coaches/reps would have still noticed Phillips performance anyway. Which was a factor in LSU making a concerted effort (and devoting less effort to Moses & Allen) to go after Phillips.

So to connect a push for Phillips to Gay's statements isn't accurate. The connection is Phillips' performance at game and the push following that, he just happened to pal around with Gay at that game.