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View Full Version : Update on Walker tomorrow, not good (if true)



The Consumate Showman
1/26/2006, 08:12 PM
On the animal this evening, Albert reported that Brandon Walker will announce tomorrow morning at around 8:15. He reportred that Bobby Bowden is scheduled to arrive in Coffeyville tomorrow, shortly after Wlaker is scheduled to announce. Now, the accuracy of this info is called into question automatically because one, Al's not always the best source of info, and two, Bowden may have scheduled this flight a week ago and could be cancelling it tonight.......c'mon Walker...BOOMER SOONER BABY!!

Also, I haven't seen it posted here and haven't checked the FB board yet, but apparently Miami posters are saying that Gresham is going to commit to Miami. This, I believe, is the sheer cockieness of Miami coming into play. They probably think that they can get any TE they want any year because of their "history" of raising TE's at Miami. OU has a pretty good run of TE's, Zabel, Jackson, Alexander, and Smith.....Go to hell Miami ba$tardZ!!!!!!

BASSooner
1/26/2006, 08:19 PM
yeah I heard about him announcing tommorow but I did not hear anything about bowden arriving afterwards. That's pretty cheap...too bad it won't be worth it when he wears his sooner cap.

Ruuuuuufus
1/26/2006, 08:35 PM
Bowden is actually supposed to be in there at 7AM before Walker announces.

soonerdave79
1/26/2006, 08:37 PM
Why do the Miami Cocaine fans think Gresham is going to Miami?

BASSooner
1/26/2006, 08:40 PM
beacause they try to get greedy. With bowden showing up for walker's announcement, i think that is REALLY dumb because that just applies pressure for walker.

Soonerus
1/26/2006, 10:06 PM
Is it physically possible for Bowden to be up that early ????

jdsooner
1/26/2006, 10:14 PM
When you're the top junior college offensive lineman in the nation on the board, the pressure to make a decision can be intense. The pressure is magnified even further when you're being recruited by Bobby Bowden and Bob Stoops. But the end is near and a decision is forthcoming for four-star junior college offensive lineman Brandon Walker of Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College.


Rivals.com

Brandon Walker will announce his decision on Friday.
Walker will announce his decision to world Friday at 8:15 a.m. cst on Rivals Radio (http://rivalsradio.com). It's a decision that he's still wrestling with now, even though he's less than 48 hours from making his announcement.

"I don't think I know what I'm going to do," Walker, who is 6-foot-3 and 315 pounds, said. "Right now it's still about 50-50 between Oklahoma and Florida State. Tonight I'm going to pray on it, tomorrow I'm going to think about it, and then Friday I'm going to announce it on Rivals.com."

Walker said he's hoping to have all of his friends and family back home in Detroit listening to the broadcast, and there will be hundreds of Seminole and Sooner fans waiting on the big news. The announcement itself will be exciting, but making the eventual choice has been agonizing.

"Everybody in Coffeyville has an opinion and they're telling me about it," he said. "Since we're closer to Oklahoma, I get a lot of people telling me I should go to Oklahoma. I have to do what's best for me, though. They'll support me no matter what I do, but there's no question they want me to be a Sooner."

Walker went over the positives of each school one more time, talking about the Sooners first.

"Kevin Wilson has been recruiting me for a while, and he's probably built the best relationship of all the coaches recruiting me," he said. "He's just expressed they have a major need for offensive linemen and I could go down there and play right away. He's also done things the right way and made it clear to me that I'm an important guy for them.

At Florida State, Walker is being recruited by Kevin Steele, Rivals.com's 2005 recruiter of the year, and Mark McHale. Florida State also has plenty of positives that impress the nation's No. 12 juco player.

"They're also low on numbers, and they're talking about me coming in and playing right away," he said. "I want to be somewhere where I can play right away. Florida State has also got the warm weather, the ladies, and they're one of the all-time best programs out there."

Wilson from Oklahoma visited with Walker on Tuesday and the Florida State coaches were originally set to visit with him earlier this afternoon. But he did get a message on his cell phone telling him that Bobby Bowden will now visit with him on Friday morning before he's set to announce.

Walker, though, dismissed talk that the visit is a clue as to where he's leaning toward.

"I think he's just trying to get the last word," Walker said. "I wouldn't say that it's a clue as to what I'm thinking. I know the Florida State coaches said they knew I was announcing Friday morning, but I guess that was when it was best for them to get the head coach out there. I don't know if it'll make much of a difference, because I'll have my mind made up by then."

Now the world just has to wait and see what that decision will be.

BASSooner
1/26/2006, 10:58 PM
Even though he is telling this to the public he probably has a budha statue in his closet with the OU logo on it's head

Ruuuuuufus
1/26/2006, 11:00 PM
Reportedly he told the Florida St. coaches not to show up tomorrow.

Gandalf_The_Grey
1/26/2006, 11:08 PM
I hear he is committing to to Southeastern Oklahoma State University Savage Storm...cuz they have a sweet nickname...that is what i hear...

BASSooner
1/26/2006, 11:20 PM
I hear he is committing to to Southeastern Oklahoma State University Savage Storm...cuz they have a sweet nickname...that is what i hear...
yeah they are hard to compete with...:eek:

KingDavid
1/26/2006, 11:56 PM
Reportedly he told the Florida St. coaches not to show up tomorrow.

please tell me you're not just f)(*ing with us on this statement. i can't take it.

Frozen Sooner
1/27/2006, 01:19 AM
He is not messing with you. No Bowden visit tomorrow. Walker is all but in the bag.

jkm, the stolen pifwafwi
1/27/2006, 01:27 AM
have you been following this antonio logan el saga?

Frozen Sooner
1/27/2006, 02:34 AM
Not really-didn't he commit to Penn State?

AllDay28
1/27/2006, 09:19 AM
I hear he is committing to to Southeastern Oklahoma State University Savage Storm...cuz they have a sweet nickname...that is what i hear...

Yeah, I bet he was mesmerized by their beautiful campus!! :hmfic:

SoonerMX
1/27/2006, 09:22 AM
Walker is a sooner!!

Ruuuuuufus
1/27/2006, 09:22 AM
Welcome to OU Brandon :)

TripleOption14
1/27/2006, 09:25 AM
GREAT!! more running lanes for AD and co.!!!!

Sooner in Tampa
1/27/2006, 09:34 AM
Enjoy your trip to Norman Mr. Walker...we are waiting for great things from you.

Desert Sapper
1/27/2006, 09:42 AM
Hope you have the guts for the S&C program...

#1 SOONER FAN
1/27/2006, 09:46 AM
That good news, welcome Mr. Walker!!!

jkm, the stolen pifwafwi
1/27/2006, 10:52 AM
Not really-didn't he commit to Penn State?

apparently, we backed off when he committed to maryland last year.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/football/bal-sp.terpsfoot25jan25,1,3123113.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/preps/football/2006-01-25-logan-el-penn-state_x.htm

the only thing missing is a hot tub...

Frozen Sooner
1/27/2006, 10:54 AM
Penn State sure does seem to be having a killer recruiting year...

NormanPride
1/27/2006, 11:18 AM
The amount of recruits they've stolen from people is incredible. And it's not just winning close battles, either. Many recruits that seem almost a lock for one team just up and commit to PSU. I'd cry foul, but it's JoePa...

Oh, and the BaltimoreSun article is for registered people only. I hate that. Can I get a summary?

jkm, the stolen pifwafwi
1/27/2006, 12:37 PM
http://www.bugmenot.com/view.php?url=www.baltimoresun.com

NormanPride
1/27/2006, 02:12 PM
Thanks, jkm.

Makes me think of what Myron Rolle did to us. He talked all the time about how close he and Stoops were, how they talked all the time just to talk. Then when his commitment came up, he called all the coaches BUT Stoops to tell them his decision. Good Friend Bob had to find out from the media.

TripleOption14
1/27/2006, 02:31 PM
Thanks, jkm.

Makes me think of what Myron Rolle did to us. He talked all the time about how close he and Stoops were, how they talked all the time just to talk. Then when his commitment came up, he called all the coaches BUT Stoops to tell them his decision. Good Friend Bob had to find out from the media.

IMO we never really had a "real" shot at Rolle. All the signs from day one pointed to a school in Florida. I knew he wasn't gonna be a Sooner and i'm sure Stoops did too.

NormanPride
1/27/2006, 02:44 PM
I doubt Stoops would have spent so much money and time on him if he didn't think he could get him.

Mjcpr
1/30/2006, 09:48 AM
Not sure if this is the article jkm posted, but....

Farrell's SportingBlog

Big heads prevail as recruit leaves Terps hanging
January 27, 2006

Getting "caught up in the process" is a term college coaches and recruiting analysts use often. It's basically when a player begins to believe the hype surrounding him and takes the attention of college coaches a bit too seriously. It happens with family members of recruits as well, be it parents, grandparents, uncles or brothers. And when it happens, it can get ugly.

Take the case of Forestville, Md., offensive guard Antonio Logan-El. Logan-El is a top-five guard nationally and a top-100 football player. He's 6-4 and 309 pounds and very athletic. But Logan-El is what we call a boom-or-bust prospect; in college, he'll either be great or he'll sit on the bench. His work ethic is a bit questionable, he's not physical on the field and he takes plays off. When he does make an effort, he makes offensive line coaches drool, but it's still not nearly enough. Regardless, more than 50 schools all wanted to take a chance that they could be the match that lit his fire.

The problem was, the quiet, humble kid committed to Maryland and Ralph Friedgen during his junior year of high school. Maryland represented everything he wanted and he stood fast to his commitment as offer after offer arrived in his mailbox. His grandfather, a huge part of his life, was very satisfied with Maryland as a school who would take care of the kid who was like a son to him. But then something changed.

I know so, because I spoke to both Logan-El and his grandfather before the change. Today, they seem like different people. Maybe it was when the big offers from Oklahoma, Tennessee, Penn State and Florida came in. Maybe it was after the NIKE Camp held at Virginia Tech, where he dominated everyone (without pads) and folks like myself began to gush about how good he was. Whenever it was, it happened. Logan-El and his family got caught up in the process.

Suddenly, he wanted to take all five of his official visits and make sure his choice of Maryland was correct. And for that, there is no blame. A player has every right to make sure he's making the right choice, and Logan-El still maintained his commitment to Maryland, albeit a "soft" one. But this was just the beginning of the change. On each successive official visit, Logan-El was treated like a king. He was showered with compliments and apparently his head grew bigger and bigger. He still maintained his commitment to Maryland, but, oddly enough, set a date for his announcement, the first I've heard of from a player who already has made a commitment.

His announcement was to be carried on ESPNews and held at the Baltimore ESPN Zone, a public restaurant where anyone could attend. Logan-El and his family invited a bunch of people and they had to have known that numerous Maryland fans would be in attendance. Heck, they even invited the Maryland coaches to attend, surely a sign that he was sticking to his original commitment. No one in their right mind would make an announcement in a public place in Baltimore and invite the Maryland coaching staff if they were choosing another school, right? Wrong.

When the broadcast went live, his announcement turned into a puppet show of sorts. He was asked what school he would be attending and he held up a Florida Gators hat. The stunned silence in the ESPN Zone and on the air made it clear that no one knew what was going on. But then Logan-El talked a little about Florida but said he wasn't going there. He did the same with Tennessee and Maryland, and then showed a Penn State hat. He followed that up with a picture of himself with Joe Paterno and said he was headed to State College, Pa., to the roar of his family and the jeers of the Maryland faithful. The kicker was that he said he chose Penn State because of a value system he coveted, a value system that helped him choose the right program.

Logan-El might have picked the right school for him, and Penn State is a great program that produces terrific players on and off the field, but apparently his value system included stringing along Friedgen and his assistant coaches. It also included remaining committed to a program he knew he wasn't going to attend and rubbing salt in the wounds by making his announcement in Baltimore in front of a pro-Terrapin crowd he invited himself. And I'm sure the Florida and Tennessee coaches weren't too pleased to have to jump out of their seats for a second only to see him drop their hats on TV as well.

After his announcement, Logan-El hear chants of "traitor" coming from the Maryland faithful and his family responded with "hater." Things could have gotten very ugly had it not been for security and plenty of confused TV folks and reporters between the mob and family. What began as a quiet commitment to Maryland ended with an ugly scene that should have never happened and will reflect poorly on some people who don't deserve it. Logan-El's high school coach, Charles Harley, is a classy guy, as is Penn State recruiting coach Larry Johnson. The same can be said for Friedgen and Paterno and all the other folks who were just doing their jobs.

But what should have been a joyous moment for Logan-El and a minor disappointment to Maryland fans turned into a self-righteous puppet show and a near-brawl. Logan-El simply should have rescinded his commitment from Maryland when he began to take other visits, or, at the very least, he should have told Maryland's coaches about Penn State, as it seems he made his decision about a month ago. Logan-El and his family should have thought ahead and realized that spurning Maryland in such a fashion was not a wise move.

All of this could have been handled much better, and the level of secrecy and self-importance does not reflect well on Logan-El. After the segment ended, ESPN anchor Brian Kenny jokingly said on the air that he blamed me for the downfall of our youth and society. For the rest of the day at ESPN, even though I had nothing to do with the Logan-El setup or announcement, I was kiddingly called Doctor Frankenstein for the monsters I help create. I'm sure the attention websites like Rivals.com heap upon these players can sometimes add to the issues described above, and maybe I'm being too hard on a 17-year-old kid. But I think in this case this was a nice kid who got caught up in the process and developed a seriously skewed value system, and it all led him to handle something in the wrong manner.

Here's hoping the first two-a-day practice in August will bring Logan-El back to reality.

Widescreen
1/30/2006, 01:47 PM
Without knowing any more about the kid, Logan-El + Family = *********s.

NormanPride
1/30/2006, 02:22 PM
Penn $tate'$ Value $y$tem mu$t kick lot$ of a$$...

The Consumate Showman
1/30/2006, 04:16 PM
Penn $tate'$ Value $y$tem mu$t kick lot$ of a$$...


I gue$$ we could $ay the $ame thing about Texa$$ A $ M with Mr. Good$on and hi$ $o called "family"......tho$e aggie$ are de$perate.......:texan: