Horns get hosed!

[wishbonesooner]

I just heard the #1 RB in America, a verbal for Texas, signed with Colorado. Poor Mack.

[Ardmore_Sooner]

It's true. Scott chose to be a Buff. Makes no sense to me.

[OSUAggie]

Family pressure.

[Scott D]

It's true. Scott chose to be a Buff. Makes no sense to me.

his uncle (one year older than him) is a WR for the Buffs. It's been a pretty poorly kept secret since midseason that he was a relatively strong Colorado lean.

[CatfishSooner]

bwhhahahah...poor texass

[Curly Bill]

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

[snp]

He never verballed to UT.

This will be interesting to pay attention to the next few days. Rumors going around about foul play.

[soonerfan28]

Were there any other signing day switches?

[trwxxa]

I know aTm had a declared receiver, Sedrick Johnson, sign with Iowa St.

They also had a declared D-lineman sign with the domers, even though that was not such a huge surprise.

[Scott D]

Were there any other signing day switches?

Joe Adams switched from USC to Arkansas, and a couple of kids switched from Florida (one to USC, one to Miami), another switched from Georgia to Clemson.

[BigRedJed]

I seriously think Colorado is on the mend. Maybe he knows something we don't.

[KingDavid]

I seriously think Colorado is on the mend. Maybe he knows something we don't.

they had a great class. that Coach is a winner. and unfortunately, we gave them a huge helping hand in making their case to recruits for getting back to being a contender.

[wishbonesooner]

Seems like the kid didn't like Major Applewhite being the horns RB coach, and opted for CU.

[SOONER STEAKER]

What do you expect from a bunch of HOSE HEADS? TAKE OFF!! YOU HOSER!!

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

they had a great class. that Coach is a winner. and unfortunately, we gave them a huge helping hand in making their case to recruits for getting back to being a contender.No schmidt!

[freshchris05]

And OU got hosed by Julio Jones! Poor Bob! Glass Houses...............


Julio was a strong bama lean always... i don't think you fully understand that saying...

[MamaMia]

they [Colorado] had a great class. that Coach is a winner. and unfortunately, we gave them a huge helping hand in making their case to recruits for getting back to being a contender.
Beating OU is a good recruiting tool. :O

[Straz1999]

Thats gotta bite REALLY hard with Charles leaving.

[snp]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/sports/ncaafootball/07preps.html?_r=4&pagewanted=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin

Looks like UT's savior was the real culprit.

[BigRedJed]

I am NOT going to register somewhere to read about horns. Even the Times.

[snp]

I am NOT going to register somewhere to read about horns. Even the Times.

www.bugmenot.com

[BigRedJed]

Or, you could just cut and paste the text. :D

[OSUAggie]

February 7, 2008

A Prize Recruit’s Thinking Cap Carries the Letters C.U.

By THAYER EVANS

ANAHEIM, Calif. — In a nearly empty ESPN Zone restaurant here Wednesday morning, Darrell Scott, who is considered the nation’s top high school running back, ended the recruiting drama that had gathered for months around his college choice.

He dressed in a three-piece, single-breasted, light-brown suit with a pale-blue shirt that he purchased Saturday. He wore diamond stud earrings, and he put on the hat of his chosen team: the University of Colorado.

“It’s a great fit,” he said. “I’m excited to be a Buff.”

The decision to play for the Buffaloes did not come easily. Although Scott announced it Wednesday morning as part of national signing day, his choice had come a day and a half earlier during a grueling discussion at a dining room table in his family’s townhouse in Oxnard, Calif.

The interest in his recruitment was so intense that he did not attend his school, St. Bonaventure High in Ventura, on Tuesday to avoid reporters.

“I’m relieved,” he said more than an hour after faxing his letter of intent to Colorado. “There’s too much pressure. Now I understand what people talk about. It really gets intense at the end.”

Scott gave The New York Times a rare look at a recruit’s thought process by inviting a reporter to witness his final private discussion about the programs seeking his services: Colorado, Texas, U.C.L.A. and Louisiana State. The 90-minute conversation in the townhouse included an assessment of the teams, the pleading of a spurned Texas recruiter, the elation of a Colorado coach and a surprise text message from a star quarterback.

Scott was widely viewed as a recruiting prize. At 6 feet 2 inches and 215 pounds, he has been clocked at 4.4 seconds for the 40-yard dash. He rushed for 2,443 yards and 33 touchdowns on just 275 carries this season. His decision gives Colorado Coach Dan Hawkins a signature recruit to continue building around. In two seasons at Colorado, Hawkins has worked to overcome scars left by past off-field scandals.

Alexis Scott sat down with her son at 7 p.m. Monday. She held four 3-by-5 note cards and a lime green ink pen as a purple candle flickered on the table. She wrote Texas, Colorado, U.C.L.A. and Louisiana State on the cards.

“We’ll do the pros and cons of each school, and then we’ll go from there,” Scott told his mother.

In the minds of many, Texas was the favorite. Scott had privately committed to the Longhorns two weeks ago, and he had made official visits only to Texas and Colorado.

The discussion started with Louisiana State. He cited Coach Les Miles, running backs coach Larry Porter and last month’s national championship as positives. But he said the Tigers had not spent enough time recruiting him. Scott also worried about the potential culture shock of moving to the Baton Rouge, La. After two minutes, he eliminated L.S.U. from consideration.

Scott then focused on Texas.

“I like the area,” he said. “I like the atmosphere, the fans, everything. The coaching staff.”

But both mother and son also had concerns.

On Jan. 9, the Texas running backs coach, Ken Rucker, became the team’s director of high school relations and player development. He had 21 years of experience as a running backs coach in college. Three weeks before signing day, Major Applewhite, a former Longhorns quarterback, was hired as the new assistant head coach and running backs coach. He had been Alabama’s offensive coordinator.

Scott had been recruited by the Texas wide receivers coach, Bobby Kennedy, but he told his mother that the change of running backs coaches worried him. Scott said he had made his private commitment without considering the potential impact of the change.

“I was just thinking about other things,” he said. “But the more time I thought about it, the more it scared me.”

Scott pressed on, mentioning the Longhorns’ commitment to running the ball. He spoke fondly of Coach Mack Brown. He cited the Longhorns’ national prominence, which his mother mentioned was similar to L.S.U.’s.

She then asked him about U.C.L.A., the only local program under consideration.

She said Scott had been somewhat impressed with the program, which hired Coach Rick Neuheisel in late December.

“But there’s no time,” Scott said. “I don’t know any of them. Mom, there’s two days. Come on. It’s a little bit too late.”

Conversation turned to Colorado. Scott mentioned that he had a two-year relationship with the team’s running backs coach, Darian Hagan. He also said that his uncle, the rising sophomore wide receiver Josh Smith, played for the Buffaloes. This caused Scott’s mother to raise her eyebrows.

“I know, but it’s a big thing,” Scott said. “I mean, family comes first.”

Soon his mother’s cellphone rang. It was Kennedy calling from Texas. Scott told Kennedy he would call him back.

His mother then asked him about Hawkins, Colorado’s innovative and philosophical head coach.

“He’s a good man,” Scott said. “I don’t know how to put him into words. He has a vision for that school.”

Scott and his mother shared a concern about Colorado’s weather. But he assured her that the Buffaloes have an indoor practice facility. He returned to the positives, including a rush-oriented offense and a depth chart that gave him a chance to play as a freshman.

After 15 minutes of discussion, Scott declared that Texas and Colorado were his finalists. He revisited his concern about Applewhite’s experience with running backs and said he did not want to attend a university where he did not know the position coach.

“I do need to learn from somebody,” Scott said. “I do need to know how to actually do footwork and everything.”

When the starting Texas tailback Jamaal Charles had declared for the N.F.L. draft on Jan. 2, Scott said he was “locked” to play for the Longhorns. But that changed when Kennedy and Rucker visited later in January and informed him of the staff change.

Alexis Scott acknowledged that the move had significantly hurt the program’s standing with her son. Still, she asked her son if he thought it was a risk to attend Colorado, which went 6-7 last season. After nearly 25 minutes, Scott told his mother that Colorado was his leader. Less than two minutes later, he said he had decided.

“I want to be part of a team going back to glory,” he said.

Scott dialed Hagan on a cellphone. His girlfriend, Brooke Calcagno, who had been sitting in the living room without saying a word during the talk, asked him to put the call on speakerphone.

When Hagan answered, Scott delivered his news: “Yeah, it’s official. D-Scott is a Buff.”

Hagan paused and replied, “Hey, hey.” He added: “I pictured this man. Glad you’re in the family.”

Scott then called Hawkins, who did not answer, before calling Kennedy and informing him of his decision.

As they talked for 25 minutes, Scott twirled a business card from Kennedy in his hands while the coach frantically tried to sway him. He reminded Scott that Applewhite had called him but that Scott had not returned the calls.

Kennedy said Texas would call more running plays out of the I-formation and mentioned that Scott could potentially win the Heisman Trophy for the Longhorns. Kennedy implored Scott to trust him and encouraged him to put his faith in his decision with God.

When Scott eventually said he was no longer leaning toward Texas because of the coaching change, Kennedy said he was disappointed and baffled.

“Texas isn’t the spot for me because of that move,” Scott said. “That’s it.”

The words seemed to leave Kennedy speechless.

“All right, Coach,” Scott said. “I’m sorry.”

After Scott hung up, his mother asked again if he was sure about Colorado.

“Yeah,” he said. “That was pretty tough, Mom.”

Five minutes later, Scott talked to Hawkins. He simply told his new coach, “Darrell is a Buff.”

Hawkins replied, “Are you sure?”

Scott answered, “100 percent sure.”

The drama did not end there. Later Monday night, Scott received a text message from quarterback Mark Sanchez of the University of Southern California, saying, “Hey, give me a call A.S.A.P.” Scott did not respond.

On Tuesday, Kennedy called Scott, but he did not answer. He did, however, return a telephone call from Texas tight end Blaine Irby, a former teammate at St. Bonaventure.

Rumors circulated Wednesday morning that Scott had picked Colorado because his mother was accepting a bank job there. Alexis Scott, who manages an OB/GYN practice, emphatically denied such speculation.

“That’s crazy,” she said. “I’ve never even worked at a bank.”

Scott said he doubted his mother would move to Colorado.

Less than an hour before his announcement, he received another text message from Texas quarterback Colt McCoy, saying: “Call or text me, man. It’s Colt.”

It was further proof that recruitment does not end until a player picks a hat.

[47straight]

The whorns are completely unbearable today down here. The amount of whining and moaning is unbelievable.

However, the two worst offenders have to be:

Mack Brown

Mackie Mack went on and on in his presser about cheaters and parents who look him in the eye and lie. Get over it, move on. You can't recruit outside the state.

Geoff Ketchum

Operator of orangebloods.com. He was ****ed because his guy got shut out of the press conference for Darrell Scott. He kept saying "they didn't want to answer the tough questions." Like a 17 year old kid owes you "tough questions" about what he decided to do with his life. This guy is the ultimate jock sniffer. He then reflected the pettiness of the whorn nation by insinuating that there were jobs for the parents involved by going to Colorado.

Unbelievable.

[cvsooner]

Unfortunately, we will have to play this kid, either way. Sounds like a good kid. Good news is going to Colorado we won't have to play him every year.

[goingoneight]

Thats gotta bite REALLY hard with Charles leaving.

Depends on who you're talking about... Hugh Charles left at CU and they're loving this! :D

[Big Red Ron]

The whorns are completely unbearable today down here. The amount of whining and moaning is unbelievable.

However, the two worst offenders have to be:

Mack Brown

Mackie Mack went on and on in his presser about cheaters and parents who look him in the eye and lie. Get over it, move on. You can't recruit outside the state.

Geoff Ketchum

Operator of orangebloods.com. He was ****ed because his guy got shut out of the press conference for Darrell Scott. He kept saying "they didn't want to answer the tough questions." Like a 17 year old kid owes you "tough questions" about what he decided to do with his life. This guy is the ultimate jock sniffer. He then reflected the pettiness of the whorn nation by insinuating that there were jobs for the parents involved by going to Colorado.

Unbelievable.HA HA:D

[ric311]

I figured you guys would get a kick out of this. The insinuations they're leveling are nothing short of appalling. And Scott wasn't the only kid CU got instead of Texas. Bryce Givens also had to choose between CU and UT and chose CU. This was a very good recruiting year for Coach Hawkins. The turds from Austin simply can't comprehend the idea that somebody might want to go somewhere besides Texas, and therefore have come up with a litany of accusations against anybody and everybody involved in the recruiting of Scott - except their own staff.

It's actually quite amusing. I could get used to seeing this kind of meltdown from them.

BTW - the lead recruiter for Scott was Darian Hagan. As we like to say, Hagan is still undefeated against Texas!!!

[UTgolfer]

Whining over a lost recruit is a waste of time! My fellow Longhorns should stop wasting some much good oxygen over this as nothing positive will come of it.

However, it is only fair to point out that the source for the rumors about jobs and improprieties is not a disgruntled UT fan, its the recruiting coordinator at Scott's high school. And both the NY Times and Dallas Morning News have reported on it.

We look like a bunch of obsessed crybabies at this point but an objective observer would have to agree that the initial source of the story is extremely puzzling.

[ric311]

Whining over a lost recruit is a waste of time! My fellow Longhorns should stop wasting some much good oxygen over this as nothing positive will come of it.

However, it is only fair to point out that the source for the rumors about jobs and improprieties is not a disgruntled UT fan, its the recruiting coordinator at Scott's high school. And both the NY Times and Dallas Morning News have reported on it.

We look like a bunch of obsessed crybabies at this point but an objective observer would have to agree that the initial source of the story is extremely puzzling.

Is that coach Sosini? If so, he made no effort to show impartiality in Scott's recruiting. He wouldn't even talk to the Colorado people. Dude is a dooooshebag. But he's your *********, so you got that going for you, which is nice.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

hasn't this happened before...marcus houston anyone?

[UTgolfer]

Is that coach Sosini? If so, he made no effort to show impartiality in Scott's recruiting. He wouldn't even talk to the Colorado people. Dude is a dooooshebag. But he's your *********, so you got that going for you, which is nice.

According to the DMN it is Roger Sosini. Admittedly, I know nothing about the guy and if he has a past history worth noting I would be interested in hearing it.

[ric311]

According to the DMN it is Roger Sosini. Admittedly, I know nothing about the guy and if he has a past history worth noting I would be interested in hearing it.

His past history worth noting is that he was apparently dead set against Darell going to CU from the outset and made no bones about it. He wouldn't grant interviews to the CU Rivals folks. He accompanied Scott on his trip to Austin, but not to Boulder, and so on. Apparently, Scott cut him off late last week and told him he didn't want to talk to him anymore. Then, like magic, we start hearing about how Scott's mother was offered a banking job paying 6 figures. Hey, I'm a banker in Colorado, we don't make that much. I knew THAT was a lie right away. The stuff this guy came up with was such hogwash to be laughable. The only problem is that there was a bunch of UT folks who bought into it. If I had to guess, I'd say he was fishing for a job with UT and thought if he could produce Scott he'd have a better shot. Keep in mind that Scott only went to St. Bonaventure HS for one year. It's not like this guy was his long-time mentor.

[UTgolfer]

His past history worth noting is that he was apparently dead set against Darell going to CU from the outset and made no bones about it. He wouldn't grant interviews to the CU Rivals folks. He accompanied Scott on his trip to Austin, but not to Boulder, and so on. Apparently, Scott cut him off late last week and told him he didn't want to talk to him anymore. Then, like magic, we start hearing about how Scott's mother was offered a banking job paying 6 figures. Hey, I'm a banker in Colorado, we don't make that much. I knew THAT was a lie right away. The stuff this guy came up with was such hogwash to be laughable. The only problem is that there was a bunch of UT folks who bought into it. If I had to guess, I'd say he was fishing for a job with UT and thought if he could produce Scott he'd have a better shot. Keep in mind that Scott only went to St. Bonaventure HS for one year. It's not like this guy was his long-time mentor.

Let's assume for a moment then that Scott picked CU for the right reasons, whatever they may be. That means Sonsini is either vindictive or a bad researcher. Vindictive in that he simply wants to lash out at a kid who didn't take his advice...or a bad researcher because there is absolutely no history of Mack hiring HS coaches of recruits. In the current world of never ending self promotion and career advancement neither of those seems a plausible explanation for his statements. However, given what just happened with the kid who claimed to be recruited by Cal and Oregon, nothing would surprise me these days.

[ric311]

Let's assume for a moment then that Scott picked CU for the right reasons, whatever they may be. That means Sonsini is either vindictive or a bad researcher.

Certainly vindictive, probably a bad researcher. I have no inside information, but his actions indicate to me that he had an ulterior motive for pushing UT from the get-go. Once that wasn't going to happen, we saw his vindictive side. I mean really, why concoct a story about his mother being offered a 6-figure banking job in Boulder? It's so easily refuted and so obviously false.

[The VIIIth]

I know aTm had a declared receiver, Sedrick Johnson, sign with Iowa St.

They also had a declared D-lineman sign with the domers, even though that was not such a huge surprise.

We got Lamar Harris from them after he verballed to aggy.

[BeetDigger]

The Whorns were asking why he would go to CU when he would have a much better chance at the MNC with Texas. I think they meant to say "... much better chance at second place in the Big XII South and a shot at the Cotton or Holiday Bowl." According to the Whorns, everyone cheats, especially OU, aTm and now CU - everyone that is except Texas.