247Sports lists Cass Tech’s Donovan Peoples-Jones as the top receiver in the country and top player in the state.
Donovan Peoples-Jones has gone viral.
Quiet by nature, the 6-foot-2 junior wide receiver/cornerback recently had a video posted of him dunking over three people in the Detroit Cass Tech gym.
247Sports lists Peoples-Jones as the Class of 2017’s top receiver in the country, the top player in the state of Michigan and the No. 5 overall recruit nationally.
Alabama is recruiting him. Michigan has Tyrone Wheatley and Jedd Fisch after him. Michigan State’s duo of Terry Samuel and Brad Salem keep constant tabs on him.
A freakish athlete at receiver or cornerback, Peoples-Jones wants to make a quick college decision.
“I’ll be enrolling in a school in January so it’ll have to hit me before then,” he said. “I won’t quite make it to national signing day, but I’ll have to figure it out so I can be an early enrollee.”
He now has 11 schools he is considering after adding Florida State to his list after a recent visit.
Since last summer when he turned heads at Nike’s The Opening football camp in Oregon, Peoples-Jones has been on everyone’s radar. He was also one of a few juniors invited to the Rivals 100 Five Star Challenge. Michigan quarterback commit Dylan McCaffrey has started a friendship on twitter with him.
“I just stay humble and focus on my priorities, really,” Peoples-Jones said. “Everything is according to plan.”
Cass Tech coach Thomas Wilcher takes players on a southern trip during spring break, so Peoples-Jones recently visited SEC country in Tennessee, Alabama and Florida.
“It helps us a lot; we get exposure,” said Peoples-Jones. “You get to see different parts of the country and how people live in different parts of the country. They have their own individual way of doing things. It shows you how football is played in different parts of America. Different people might need to go to a school like Alabama, or need to go see a school like USC or Florida or Tennessee.
“Everybody, I think, enjoys the road trip. It brings us closer as a team, as a family. Those are the good things about the road trips.”
Wilcher said the trips are good for his student-athletes.
“It’s good for the kids to see different parts of the country,” he said. “In making a college choice, kids should be able to have multiple options. Seeing a different part of the country lets the kids know there is more than just life in Detroit.”
Peoples-Jones said he’d like to visit all 11 of his possible colleges before making a decision, which could mean a hectic summer since he hopes to graduate in December and enroll in January.
This fall, he’d like to remove the sting of last year’s state final loss to Romeo by capturing the state title as a senior.
“Still to this day I watched the game recently at school,” he said. “It was like ‘wow’ there were so many things we could’ve done. So many plays we could’ve made to change the outcome. It’ll drive us a lot. Coming that close to a state championship is every high school’s players dream and losing sticks with you.
“We’ll use that as motivation and drive us this season.”
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