Top-50 California prospect Sire Gaines commits to the Sun Devils

Another day in July, another California prospect commits to Arizona State's 2024 class at the linebacker position. Following the July 4th pledge of California Top-100 San Diego's Martell Hughes, California Top-50 prospect Perris Orange Vista ATH Sire Gaines announced his commitment on Saturday night.

“What stood out to me was how real the culture was,” Gaines said of his Arizona State official visit in a previous interview. “There’s nothing I don’t like about Arizona State. I loved everything about it. Coach Dillingham is a player’s coach. When I first got there, he didn’t see me, and he was playing shadowbox with his players. It’s not a team where the players will be by themselves, and then the coaches are by themselves. No, he’s gonna be with his players because he loves being with his players. Everything he does is surrounding his players, because at the end of the day, to have a good team, the players have to feel that they have trust with their head coach and they can go to him if they need anything.”

Gaines’ relationship with ASU’s linebackers coach, AJ Cooper, was naturally another catalyst for tonight’s decision.

“All coaches there keep it real, especially Coach Cooper,” Gaines remarked. “He showed me that I can possibly become, if God blessed me, an NFL linebacker. He pulled up film, and he showed me the details of the defense that they were playing. If I went there, I’d be doing the same things without even noticing that I’m doing now in my high school defense. It’s just now I will be better at it because I’m practicing it 200 times. They showed me that I will be running the same plays like Fred Warner from the 49ers, and he’s the No. 1 linebacker in the NFL.

“Coach Cooper thinks I have a good size for a linebacker and said that I have the speed to play linebacker in their system. He wants smart, fast, and physical linebackers, and that’s what he sees me as, coming in and doing some damage. Obviously, I have to develop in weight and strength and stuff. He doesn’t want a 240 or 250-pound linebacker. He wants a linebacker that can move, and he saw that I ran a 10.9 in the 100 meters last season. He has high hopes for sure.”

In his junior year, Gaines recorded averaged 9.6 yards on 884 yards rushing, scoring 16 touchdowns, as well as hauling in 49 receptions for 820 yards and nine scores. On defense, he tallied 27 tackles, five tackles-for-loss, three sacks, and an interception.

It wasn’t only important for the Orange Vista High School standout to have strong and positive interaction with the ASU coaches, but he wanted the same level of communication with the players he met with during the visit. According to Gains, that experience did certainly deliver.

“(ASU linebacker) Tra Brown, that’s my guy there,” Gaines said of his host player. “We both come from the same area in California, the IE (Inland Empire). He told me that he followed the defensive coordinator (Brian Ward) and Coach Cooper to Arizona State from Washington State; he had the option to go to USC, which is a big time school, and really the hometown school for us. He could have gone to Texas A&M, But he chose Arizona State over all those schools because of the relationship that he had with the coaches.

“He told me Coach Cooper treats him like a son like Coach Cooper. Coach Cooper is a player’s coach, and he’s a development coach. He’s not just worried about football, football, football. He had a presentation on the visit about being a great husband, being a great man, and getting a degree. It was talking about all of these things first, and the NFL was last. Everybody wants to go to the NFL, but how are you gonna get there? He talked about all of those steps to get there. That’s his mindset. It’s talking about the discipline, the accountability, all the steps to get there to the NFL.”

Washington State and Boise State were the other two schools on Gaines’ short list, and he did visit them along with ASU and San Diego State. The linebacker prospect plans to graduate early, and his pledge represents the 17th pledge in the 2024 class17th pledge in ASU’s 2024 class and the third commit from the state of California.

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