CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Chad Ibieta never got to play college football.
The former Marine and semi-pro linebacker, however, did get to spend a few months practicing as a walk-on for Nick Saban’s LSU Tigers in the early 2000s.
So when Saban’s defensive coordinator at Alabama, Pete Golding, called Ibieta on Monday afternoon to try to get his son, Landon, a 6-foot, 190-pound receiver and recent Miami Hurricanes commitment, to visit Tuscaloosa and work out for Saban privately, the Chalmette, La., native and car sales consultant got a slight chuckle out of it.
“I told Landon this was going to happen,” Ibieta said of his son, who is rated the 99th-best receiver in the country and a three-star recruit according to the 247Sports Composite rankings but is likely to rise up those charts in the weeks ahead as Alabama, LSU and other Power 5 teams try to pry him from his pledge to Manny Diaz and receivers coach Rob Likens.
“Everybody wants to recruit him harder now …,” Chad Ibieta continued. “But we’re telling everybody we’re not going nowhere.”
How did the Hurricanes get the heads up on Ibieta? Likens knew Ibieta’s trainer from his days at California as an assistant, Ibieta’s father said.
Mandeville (La.) coach Hutch Gonzales, a former Canadian and Arena Football League receiver who played for Hal Mumme at Southeastern Louisiana, is convinced Ibieta would have had more Power 5 offers before Miami got him an official visit if not for COVID-19 affecting the 2020 season.
Ibieta missed two games in 2020 because of virus protocols and injured his hip right before the start of the season. He still managed to collect 33 catches for 714 yards and 14 touchdowns and returned a punt and a kickoff for touchdowns in eight games. Mandeville went 8-2 and reached the third round of the Class 5A state playoffs.
“We have great youth leagues around here and Landon was a kid who was a park-ball legend,” Gonzales said. “People have known about Landon since he was a 7-year-old and everyone realized if he continued to work the way he did and grow, he was going to be a Power 5 guy.
“Like Landon, I was a 6-foot, 185-pound receiver who ran a 4.4 and had good hands and ran good routes, so I knew he was going to be a guy coaches were going to want to see in person. They were not going to do a sight-unseen offer, even on film. He’s not the 6-3, 200-pound jumper. Landon was going to need to be seen. And with the COVID and not being able to go to camps, it absolutely hurt him. When the 7-on-7 stuff started back up and he made that trip (to LSU in June), I knew he was going to blow up.”
Gonzales said he’s been getting calls from SEC coaches over the past few days disappointed Miami beat them to the punch.
“When he’s 100 percent healthy he’s off-the-charts fast, and he changes direction as good, if not better, than anybody I’ve ever seen,” Gonzales said of Ibieta, who ran a hand-timed 40-yard dash in 4.44 seconds and has a 35-inch vertical leap and 73-inch wingspan. “He did have the little hip thing. It almost equated to a little pinched nerve in his lower back. It gave him some issues, really more uncomfortable than pain. But he was a tough kid. He never complained to me about it and never asked to come out or not play.”
Gonzales describes Ibieta as a dynamic playmaker.
“Anytime we could get the ball in his hands, we would,” he said. “We gave it to him a lot on jet sweeps. If we needed a yard, there was almost no doubt he would get two or three. He played running back most of his life as a kid. We put him at receiver when he got to us because we wanted to get the ball to him down the field.
“His first varsity game, first play of a jamboree, he ran a hitch, came back down his stem, caught the football about one yard beyond the line of scrimmage and I was about to fuss at him for not taking his route deep enough. Then he put his foot in the ground and went 80 yards for a touchdown and no one got close to touching him. At that point, we knew the next three years were going to be a lot of fun.”
Ibieta, who started playing football when he was 4 and also grew up playing baseball and running track, comes from a family of athletes. His mom was a district champion hurdler in high school. His uncle, Juan Ibieta, pitched at Tulane. Juan’s son, Justin, is a second-year quarterback at Tulane.
Like his father, Ibieta grew up rooting for LSU. His favorite player was Pro Bowl defensive back Tyrann Mathieu. But since moving to receiver his freshman year, Ibieta hasn’t played much defense at all. His favorite player to study now is former Alabama standout and Denver Broncos first-round pick Jerry Jeudy. Ibieta’s father said his son loves to study film and is a good student with a 4.1 GPA.
“He picks up offenses quick, understands coverages and routes. That’s his strength,” said Chad Ibieta, whose family lived in New Orleans’ St. Bernard Parish area before it was displaced by Hurricane Katrina. “A lot of people have been writing Landon is a possession receiver, not a burner. I’m like ‘Dude, him and (four-star athlete) Kendrick Law are the two fastest kids (on the Bootleggers). He’s a consistent 4.4 kid every time he runs. The last time he ran track he ran a 10.8 in the 100 (meters) and that was last year.”
Ibieta said when his son worked out for LSU coach Ed Orgeron earlier this month, the Tigers coaching staff tried to convince him to hold off on committing to other programs. But LSU’s coaches also told Ibieta they didn’t have an available scholarship for him with three other receivers already committed to the 2022 class and would need to make room.
“From then on, they’ve been calling every day, messaging him all the time,” Chad Ibieta said. “But at the end of the day, he’s been liking Miami since the jump.”
And he’s not planning on straying.
“I had (a visit to) Wake Forest, but I’m not going anymore,” Ibieta said. “Like coach Diaz and coach Likens said, if you’re committed and you keep visiting, you can stay committed, but that means they’re still looking, too.”
Said Chad Ibieta: “Miami saw him, offered him and has been making him a priority since the beginning. Landon’s a loyal kid.”
