'A dream come true': Alabama offers La Cueva's Mason Posa
La Cueva’s Mason Posa, left, stiff-arms Volcano Vista’s Devin Banks, during a game at Nusenda Community Stadium on Sept. 8. Posa, a four-star linebacker, committed to Wisconsin on Thursday.
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It’s official. Half of last season’s college football national semifinalists are in pursuit of Mason Posa.
Posa last Saturday received a scholarship offer from Alabama, and new coach Kalen DeBoer, who just last month coached the University of Washington into the national championship game.
DeBoer and Washington had already offered Posa, and that recruitment didn’t end when DeBoer left for Tuscaloosa.
“Them offering me was a dream come true,” said Posa, La Cueva High School’s stellar 6-foot-3, 210-pound linebacker who is coming off a magnificent junior season for the Class 6A state champion Bears. “My dream school was Oklahoma, but also Alabama. Just one of those schools that was a dynasty when I was growing up.”
Posa’s offer from the Crimson Tide qualifies as one of the most significant offers ever made to a New Mexico prep football player. He is at least the second New Mexican to earn an offer from Alabama; Nick Saban offered Eldorado quarterback Zach Gentry before Gentry ultimately decided on Michigan.
“If you want to be the best player in the country, you go to 'Bama,” Posa said. “Getting an offer from them is just unbelievable.”
Posa admitted he wasn’t sure if Alabama would extend an offer, even with DeBoer leaving for the Southeastern Conference.
But Alabama, which lost in the national semifinals to eventual champion Michigan, joins what is a supremely impressive list of Division I power schools who have recruited Posa and offered him a scholarship.
Posa said he has had regular communications with DeBoer while he was in Seattle.
“He’s a good guy,” Posa said. “He’s one of my favorite coaches.”
And, Posa added, DeBoer told him recently, “'I look forward to coaching you someday.' … He’ll carry on that Nick Saban legacy.”
Washington is one of seven schools where Posa already has made a game day visit. The others are Wisconsin, Utah, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Southern Cal and TCU.
Posa said his plan for the moment is to announce his commitment on next December’s national signing day. Washington’s new coaching staff hasn’t lost interest in Posa, and his scholarship offer to play for the Huskies remains.
Other schools that have offered Posa are Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Cal, Duke, Illinois, Nebraska, Oregon, Stanford and Texas A&M, plus both New Mexico and New Mexico State.
Posa said he’ll make some official visits this summer, and has no plans to attend any football camps in June or July. He’ll begin to get into his football offseason soon, as he finishes his season with the La Cueva wrestling team at the state tournament this weekend in Rio Rancho. He is the overwhelming favorite to win state at 215 pounds.
Meanwhile, one of Posa’s teammates, quarterback Cam Dyer, continues to add D-1 offers himself. New Mexico State made an offer last week; Nevada has also joined the list.
Dyer last fall was named the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year. New Mexico, Texas Tech, Louisiana Monroe and UTEP also have offered Dyer, who will be a senior next season for the Bears.
