Houston WR Jaetavian Toles talks about his Tulane commitment

Houston (Texas) Stratford wide receiver Jaetavian Toles is not worried that Tulane’s offense will be too run-centric for his skills. In fact, he’s comfortable with everything about the program.

Toles, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound prospect with relatives in New Orleans, met the Tulane coaches for the first time at a mega camp in Katy, Texas earlier this month. He then visited the campus on the weekend of June 17 and committed by the time he returned to Houston.

“I felt like I was at home, and it was real close to how the high school I go to is right now,” he said. “I just felt like I belonged there. You get that feeling sometimes, and I got it. I visited McNeese, UTSA, Louisiana-Lafayette and U of H (Houston), and I just got a better feel about Tulane.”

New Tulane coach Willie Fritz has a unique offense with option-based principles out of the spread formation. Toles said his high school would use a similar system in his senior year after relying heavily the past two years on Texas A&M signee Rakeem Boyd, who rushed for 2,519 yards as a junior and 1,396 yards as a senior.

He expects the Wave to utilize its personnel the right way, including taking advantage of his receiving skills. Although he could not remember how many catches he made a year ago, he knows what he does best.

“It’s my explosiveness,” he said. “I’m very explosive out of my cuts.”

Stratford’s offense certainly was explosive last season on the way to a 10-2 record, undefeated district performance and two-game postseason stint in Class 5A. The team had scored 37 or more points in seven of its last eight games before losing 14-6 to Temple in the second round of the playoffs.

Toles is focused in the classroom, hoping to major in engineering at Tulane, and he expects to be a focal point of the Stratford offense as a senior with Boyd gone. His school’s conservative offense may have put him under the radar as a recruit—Rivals.com has not given him any stars-- but he expects to break out in a big way this fall.

He already is eagerly anticipating his time at Tulane.

“Educational-wise, they are one of the top 25 schools in the country,” he said. “They have a new head coach, it’s in New Orleans and I feel like I can make a name for myself there.”