Arizona State may have only been recruiting New Orleans St. Augustine High School defensive lineman Kyran Bourda for just about a month, but even that relatively shorter recruiting process did yield a positive result. During his official visit to Tempe over the weekend and just a few days before the February signing period begins, Bourda pledged to ASU.

“I just loved it out there on my visit,” Bourda said. “The coaches, the school, the beautiful location was just great. I love the Pac-12 conference. Everyone I met was genuine and loving people. I’m from Louisiana, and people make Arizona look like it’s just a desert with nothing else to do, but I loved the environment there. Everything on campus is close to each other, within walking distance, and not spread out. The scenery is beautiful, and everything is so clean.

“My host was (current EDGE ASU player) Prince (Dorbah). He was telling me that this is a team that’s gonna start getting better as more players come in, and he told me that the school is a beautiful environment to be around. The team has good dudes, and everybody is locked in with each other.

Even over a period of just a few weeks, Bourda said that he was able to form a tight relationship with ASU’s defensive line coach Vince Amey and also enjoyed meeting Sun Devils’ head coach Kenny Dillingham.

“Coach Amey is a cool coach,” Bourda said. “When I talk to him, he’s laid back, but I know when we are on the field, he’s gonna bring it and coach you the best. He told me that I could bring that nastiness, speed, and twitch to the defensive line. He said that in their new system, the defensive line is going to eat and have a lot of one-on-one matchups, so that’s what he likes about my game. He said I could play both 3-technique and nose tackle. When he was showing me some film, I knew I would be a good fit there.

“I loved meeting coach Dillingham. He’s a cool dude, a good coach, and he kept it upfront with you.”

UAB was the only other school that the lineman had officially visited, and Bourda added that recently he had been in close contact with Penn State, Miami, and Colorado. Bourda is scheduled to arrive in Tempe in the summer.

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