Louisiana high school coach fired days after saying Alabama can't recruit his players

Parkway High School has relieved head football coach David Feaster of his duties after six seasons. The news comes days after the coach appeared on a radio show in Louisiana and said he would no longer help Alabama coaches recruit his players. Per the Shreveport Times, Feaster will retain his duties as a teacher at Parkway:

The Alabama dust-up came to light again this week when Feaster reiterated his thoughts about Alabama with Fletcher and called Alabama football “unethical” on a Baton Rouge radio station.

The current Parkway administration didn’t take kindly to the attention and felt Fester was “undermining” school officials and potentially hurting other Panthers athletes who could be recruited by Alabama.

"Most people are going to say 'Feaster just ran his mouth,' but (Parkway) made it clear to me why they fired me," Feaster said via The Shreveport Times. "They can say what they want to about Alabama, but (Bates) cited me for insubordination. He said, 'You should have checked with me before you banned Alabama.'

"I said, 'That was four years ago, you weren’t even the principal here.' But he said I brought so much negative publicity to the school I had to go."

Feaster appeared on ESPN 104.5 in Baton Rouge to discuss his former player, quarterback Brandon Harris. The Parkway coach said thanks to what happened with Harris and then-Bama coaches Doug Nussmeier and Billy Napier, Alabama coaches were no longer welcome to recruit his players.

But this apparently isn’t the first run-in Feaster has had with Bama coaches. Crimson Tide coaches have reportedly not been welcome by Feaster for more than one year. Feaster told a local radio host of the banishment back in 2015.

Feaster said that Harris, who announced that he would be transferring from LSU earlier this week, had an offer from Alabama when he was a recruit back in 2014. But the offer was more about getting Harris to come to an Alabama camp, rather than a committable scholarship offer. That’s a common recruiting practice at schools besides just Alabama. Verbal offers are not written offers, and until a Letter of Intent is signed, a school or player can back out of any informal agreement.

Below is the transcription of Feaster’s radio interview, courtesy of CBS Sports:

“They love the guy,” Feaster said. “(They say), ‘Hey, coach, we want to offer Brandon.’ I said, ‘OK, good. How many quarterbacks have you offered so far?’ (They said) ‘about 6 or 7.’ So I said, ‘So you really haven’t offered anybody.’ (They said), ‘Well, coach, an offer from us at quarterback is really an offer to come to camp.’ I said, ‘OK, I understand what you’re saying. You are offering these kids to meet Nick Saban. It’s a big deal and he might go. But what I am telling Brandon is you only have so much money and so much time to spend, go to the schools that have you at the top of the boards.”

Feaster went on to say that Napier contacted him again later after seeing Harris’ spring game film, calling him “phenomenal.”

“Napier calls me the next day and says, ‘Coach, I have some good news for you. Tell Brandon to call me on this phone during this period and I’ll put Nick Saban on the phone,”’ Feaster said. “We do that and Saban says, ‘You have a scholarship at the University of Alabama.’ So, they gave him a scholarship offer. So this was a committable offer.

“By the time he gets to campus in June — I’m not saying Brandon was going to commit to Alabama, I really don’t know. I just know that wasn’t an option. Basically what they told him is that we got other guys that are going to come through here, and I promised them a shot. So we have to wait and see then.”

Under Feaster, Parkway’s football team lost more than two games in a season just one time, during his first season as head coach. The Shreveport Times named him Coach of the Year in 2013 after leading the Panthers to their first-ever state title game appearance.