Twenty-nine days ago, Plant City offensive lineman Montel McBride got the phone call of his life.
McBride, the 6-4, 330-pounder and three-star recruit according to 247Sports.com, was at McDonald's after school with a few of his friends. He called Alabama's defensive line coach Chris Rumph, then talked with offensive line coach Mario Cristobal. Then, Nick Saban got on the line.
His friends didn't believe him.
"Next thing they hear is, 'Hey Montel, this is coach Nick Saban,'" McBride said in a interview in mid-June. "It went from walking away to, wait, who is that? It was so funny."
Then came the words he'd been waiting to hear.
"He said, 'I wanted to tell you that you had an offer from the University of Alabama,'" McBride said. "He had a long dragged-out speech and he said it a few times. By that time, it had already sunk in. I was like, whoa. I was beyond excited, bouncing around and going crazy."
Tuesday, he's officially became a member of the Crimson Tide.
McBride verbally committed to Bama at The Opening, a four-day camp held at NIKE's headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., which is hosting 150 of the nation's top high school football players. Keith Niebuhr, of 247Sports.com, tweeted a photo of McBride in an Alabama hat, saying he picked the Tide. He choose them over offers from Auburn, Louisville, FSU and USF, among others.
McBride has had a busy first-half of the year. He reeled in his first offer from UMass on January 27th, won OL MVP honors at a Rivals Camp a few week later, and went on a bus tour to Kentucky, Clemson, Vanderbilt, Louisville and Tennessee last month.