One second, Rick Stockstill heard the news that Todd Bates was leaving Clemson for Oklahoma.

The next second, he was on his phone calling Nick Eason.

"I said: 'Nick, what do we have to do to get you involved in the Clemson deal?'" Stockstill recalled today in an interview with Tigerillustrated.com.

"I love Nick Eason."

Stockstill's love for Eason goes back to the early stages of Eason's recruitment out of Lyons, Ga., where he played at Toombs County High School.

Join Tigerillustrated.com subscribers on The West Zone message board!

Stockstill, who's been the head coach at Middle Tennessee State since 2006, remembers getting in on Eason before other schools and later holding on as the big dogs pursued him.