I don't know Hale personally, but I do know he has been wrong plenty of times in recruiting. Sadly, I've been an avid recruitnik for a long time, and I think James Hale knows as much about recruiting as the average person does. For what it's worth, anyone can talk to the families/players, and most of the time they (players/families) hate dealing with the recruiting services. There are some exceptions out there (guys that are very respectful, and put in the work to develop relationships), but in all the time I've followed recruiting, James Hale hasn't been mentioned as one of those guys. Like I said in my initial post, he should stick with covering the team that's already in Norman.
There are plenty of players that would jump on an early signing period, but there are probably just as many that would still wait. There are kids that keep the media/services at bay (Steven Parker is a good example). They just don't talk to them. Anyway, there has been talk over the past year of an early signing period. We'll see if it happens.
This is my public apology to James Hale for the OP. I didn't realize the situation and though he was publishing the articles about Mixon leaving. I wasn't aware of how the 247 site worked. And I'm guessing there are others that have the same misunderstanding that I did. My bad. I apologize.
I don't use 247, but I know Hale does write for that site, so I just assumed he was the one reporting. Honest mistake. I'm going to add something that will back 247 just a little: Mixon did, in fact, make a visit to UCLA this past weekend. Apparently, he started considering UCLA, so he met with his family and decided OU was where he wanted to be, so I didn't believe there was any truth to the rumor, and apparently there was.
