re: Weeks brothers question

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We got Whit as a transfer from West Virginia I think,

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Driving home with his mom in January 2022, West felt exhausted. He had visited Southern Cal first after entering the transfer portal. Once he got back, he and his mom drove eight hours to Virginia, packed his stuff and turned around in one day. He still had official visits scheduled to South Carolina and LSU. He decided to cancel the trip to Baton Rouge.

West entered the transfer portal after Virginia coach Bronco Mendenhall resigned at the end of the 2021 season. LSU was the first school to offer him a scholarship. He hesitated to go “because I was kind of dead set that I was going to South Carolina.” His dad told him if he wanted to cancel the visit, he needed to call Brian Polian, LSU’s recruiting coordinator at the time.

While David grilled hamburgers at home, Polian called. David said he was not going to tell his son where to go, and Polian asked whether he could continue to talk to West. David agreed. That night, as West and his mom drove back, Polian persuaded him to visit LSU. West made back-to-back visits to LSU and South Carolina, and when he returned, all his mom heard about was the size of Tiger Stadium and Mike the Tiger.

“I came out here, and then I went to South Carolina the next day,” West said. “Immediately after that, I knew I wanted to come to LSU.”

At one point near the end of the visit, West sat in a car with Polian.

“There's one thing,” West said to Polian. “You got to offer my brother.”

Polian called Whit on the spot and offered him a scholarship.

A four-star recruit, Whit wanted to end his recruitment before his senior year so he could watch his brother play. He decided among LSU, Ole Miss, Georgia and Oklahoma. Some coaches tried to persuade him not to follow his brother, arguing he should create his own path. But the brothers wanted to play together. LSU gave them the chance, but Whit needed to visit.

“I knew I had to go see it for myself first,” Whit said. “Because I was like, 'It's a big plus factor, but if I go down there and hate it, I don't want to go.' ”

On his visit, Whit watched a hype video in a small theater. The bass boomed, and he imagined what it would feel like to play in Tiger Stadium. That swayed him. So did devouring a mound of crawfish at coach Brian Kelly’s house. His mom said he “ate so many, it was almost embarrassing.” Having been through recruiting before, his brother advised him to trust his gut.

“He was able to guide me and be like, 'Dude, everybody's lying to you. Go where you want to go. None of it's true. The first instinct you get, go there,’ ” Whit said. “That's what I had at LSU, so that's why I'm here.”

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