Alabama football: Crimson Tide offers scholarship to 8th-grade LB

Not every eighth grade football player can match Jesus Machado's graduation gift - a verbal scholarship offer from the University of Alabama.

Machado is at Champagnat Catholic in Hialeah, Fla., in August by Dennis Marroquin, who revealed the news about Machado. While written scholarship offers cannot be extended until a player is a high school senior and verbal offers are nonbinding, Machado already has verbal offers from West Virginia, Iowa State, Michigan State and North Carolina State.

Machado is a linebacker prospect who played on Champagnat's varsity football team as an eighth-grader. The offers are noteworthy in that they are strong signals of interest and value in recruiting circles but ultimately hold no weight or responsibility for either side.

The offers are not uncommon for middle schoolers these days.

Miami (Fla.) head coach Mark Richt and LSU coach Les Miles have made headlines with similar moves since Signing Day 2016 in February.

Richt offered Georgia eighth-grade quarterback Harrison Bailey a scholarship on February 17, and Bailey posted for a photo in a No. 5 Miami jersey when he confirmed the news on Twitter. Since he is in the Class of 2020, Bailey has three more years to wait before he can officially sign a binding letter to join the Hurricanes.

Bailey is 6-3, 175 pounds and said he was told by Richt they made the exception to offer a scholarship to a kid without a driver's license for a reason.

"You're talented and we think you can handle it," Bailey told Youth1.com of the meeting. "We don't think you'll get a big head and we want to offer you a scholarship."