re: What’s the story on 2025 5* WR Caleb Cunningham out of MS?

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I’ve lived in MS for a long time and I still can’t explain it. Kids have no problem going to Alabama or Auburn if they are highly rated. I think it’s cultural in their mind. Alabama seems like a more successful Mississippi while Louisiana is a weird culture. They have this reverence (admiration) for Alabama and know they will never get to their success. But, LSU is seen as beatable and on the same level.

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This. Having played ball in MS in 08-11, this was the mindset of some of our better players that signed or were recruited. It continue to be that way when I was a high school sports writer in the Hattiesburg area during 2014-2017. For some odd reason, Alabama was viewed almost in the same light as Ms State and Ole Miss, like it was an almost in-state school. Never ever understood why it was treated that way and why most guys wouldn’t even consider LSU or Tennessee or even Auburn. They’d only go there as last resorts.

But it’s also probably just a small town Mississippi mindset that infects the entire state and every culture. To most recruits, them making it to MS State or Ole Miss is MAKING it. Anything outside of the state, outside of Tuscaloosa, is seen as strange and weird. There’s just lots of loyalty and stupidity and a lack of motivation to want more than what Ole Miss and State can bring you. Don’t get me wrong, they produce a little bit to the NFL but it’s like every other recruit in any other state views college as a means to an end: getting to the NFL somehow. Meanwhile most MS recruits are just happy to have made it to Ole Miss, MS State or Alabama. It’s fricking sad