No. 4 OLB teases visit to Alabama rival despite commitment to Tide

Despite being committed to Alabama, this recruit isn't shying away from one of the Tide's rivals.

Recruiting battles between Alabama and Georgia are seemingly always ongoing, but two more are in the works in early January. Crimson Tide commit Markail Benton made waves over the weekend by announcing he will take an official visit to Athens and he wasn't the only one to make that declaration. Fellow Alabama pledge VanDarius Cowan put together a similar announcement and, even if his original Tweet was deleted, the good folks at Saturday Down South captured the gist of it here.

snip20170108_27

Cowan is a consensus top-100 recruit that hails from Palm Beach Gardens (Fla.) and his frankness in considering Georgia as an option is likely troubling to the Alabama faithful. On one hand, 247Sports reports that the 6-foot-4, 226-pound linebacker is also considering official visits to Ole Miss, Oregon and LSU in the near future, perhaps lessening the blow of the Georgia trip. On the other, it would be hard to find a more direct competitor to Alabama on the recruiting trail than the Bulldogs, so any conflict between the two SEC programs is noteworthy at the very least.

Markail Benton and VanDarius Cowan may very well follow through with their original pledges to Alabama and, if they do, this will be much ado about nothing. Until that happens, though, interest will exist in their every move and that includes any journey to Georgia.