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National Signing Day 2015: Byron Cowart National Letter of Intent Drama

Cowart committed to the Tigers on national TV, but now there's all sorts of drama about his LOI.

By Walt Austin
Student Sports Flickr

5* Defensive End Byron Cowart announced this morning that he was committing to Auburn to the uproarious pleasure of Auburn folks everywhere. Then the questions started coming... He announced for Auburn, but Auburn had not announced receipt of his Letter of Intent. What was going on?

The insanity started happening about two hours ago when Mike Farrell of Rivals.com tweeted this:

So Auburn folks were once again ecstatic. However, there was still silence from the Auburn football offices. Farrell clarified his information about an hour later with this tweet:

Now is where the real craziness begins.

So what is going on? A 7on7 coach said on Twitter that he was barred from attending the announcement and said that Cowart's coach at Armwood High School was trying to push players to the Gators. From Cowart we have word that he gave his LOI to his coach to fax. His mother says the LOI was faxed. The coach says he's undecided after announcing his commitment to Auburn.

On top of all this, there were reports this morning that Cowart had signed LOIs to both schools and was still unsure which he would send in. It's obviously a very stressful time for the young man, but if you watched his interviews and talks on ESPN and with others, it did not appear like he was a young man struggling with his decision.

Finally, there's this:

Is this a case of an overzealous and pushy coach? Is Cowart just really undecided? You have to feel for him, no matter what happens. This is a lot to be put on a young man of his age to make this kind of decision. If it is truly him being undecided, then I hope he ends up making whatever choice is right for him. If it's all the efforts of a coach to push a player to another school (one where that coach's son is on staff, I might add), then that is just despicable.

We'll keep you updated as we learn more.

UPDATE:

Well. If that's true, then it sounds like this is all on the high school coach. Wow.

UPDATE #2:

Ok, so this makes things a bit better, but still horrible. It tells me that he did plan on waiting to fax the LOI until after CeCe Jefferson announces (and yes, we're still in it for the package deal), but that he does plan on signing with Auburn whatever happens.

UPDATE #3:

This whole thing is just so weird.

So that closed door meeting? Someone getting the riot act for the embarrassment he's caused?

Update #4

It appears the saga has ended, and Cowart is finally officially an Auburn Tiger.

War Damn.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Confirmed <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Auburn?src=hash">#Auburn</a> has received Byron Cowart&#39;s LOI <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WarEagle?src=hash">#WarEagle</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RivalsNSD?src=hash">#RivalsNSD</a> <a href="http://t.co/2bFJKj8xtR">pic.twitter.com/2bFJKj8xtR</a></p>&mdash; Mike Farrell (@rivalsmike) <a href="https://twitter.com/rivalsmike/status/563079271405879296">February 4, 2015</a></blockquote>

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