Speed rusher pledges to CSU

A stressful period leading up to National Signing Day was put to rest on Sunday for Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Saint Thomas Aquinas pass rusher Arjay Jean. The 6-foot-3, 220-pounder had seen his recruitment heat up dramatically over the past two weeks, but the culmination of his recruitment ended Sunday when he decided to call Colorado State head coach Mike Bobo and inform him that he wanted to be a Ram.

The phone call to Bobo came soon after Jean finished his CSU official visit in Fort Collins.

“He was happy,” Jean said of Bobo's reaction to the news of his commitment. “I called Coach Bobo to inform him I would be committing before I did everything.”

Jean explained that a wide array of factors aided him in his decision making process.

“The campus, the city and how the coaches emphasized family – family is the main thing for them,” Jean explained. “That's how Coach (Roger) Harriott was coaching down at Saint Thomas. He (Bobo) kind of reminded me of Coach Harriott a little bit.

“We checked out the school, the city. We did a lot of things with Coach Bobo's family. We checked out the stadium, looked at the gear, talked to them about where they see me in the defensive scheme, which is kind of similar to the defensive scheme at Saint Thomas."

Jean is an intriguing prospect for a multitude of reasons. A big, strong and athletic pass rusher for one of the nation's premier high school programs, Jean missed the final six games of his senior season after severely dislocating his elbow.

“My senior year was going pretty well – everything was going great. But then I had an opportunity to start one game when Nick Bosa just happened to get injured. In that game that I started, everything was going well until I was going off the edge and going for a sack, I grabbed him and my hand was below my waist and my elbow got dislocated.”

He informed GoldandGreenNews.com that he is ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation process and will be a full go for all football activities in two months.

Prior to him electing to sign with CSU, Jean was hearing heavily from a bevy of college recruiters.

“Purdue, Illinois, Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Illinois, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Louisville, Southern Illinois... those are the ones I can remember,” he said.

There were plans for Jean to take a last-minute visit to Iowa State after leaving Fort Collins, but he told ISU coaches that he would no longer be taking that visit. He is no longer considering any other visits.

“I'm shutting down my recruitment,” Jean said.

Now that the recruiting process has finally concluded, Jean elaborated on his sentiments in committing to CSU.

“Man, it's such a relief. I had coaches coming at me at the last second. The past two weeks were very stressful. I had one coach that was telling me that he was going to offer me, then one coach telling me they weren't. Multiple coaches said they had to talk to their head coaches. I said I had multiple schools that I would like to go to, but Colorado State was the main one that interested me.”

As a senior, Jean tallied three sacks and 18 tackles, according to Maxpreps.com. His loaded Saint Thomas Aquinas squad, which boasts ten Power-Five conference commits in the 2016 recruiting class, finished 13-1 and coasted to the Florida Class 7A state title.

Jean is Colorado State's 21st commitment for the 2016 recruiting class. Stay locked in to GoldandGreenNews.com and The Fort for the very latest on the Rams recruiting front with NSD just days away.

Ryan Krous is the publisher of GoldandGreenNews.com. You can email him at ryan.krous@gmail.com or follow him on twitter @RyanKrous for all the latest and breaking Colorado State news.