Lake not going to OU? Surprise to everyone
Signing Day 2010 brought more surprises and drama than anyone expected as several local players committed to state schools went off script and signed elsewhere.
None was more out-of-leftfield than Jarrett Lake.
While Calvin Barnett’s switch from Oklahoma State to Arkansas had emerged as a possibility, no one thought Lake would sign with anyone other than Oklahoma. That’s what the recruiting gurus thought. That’s what the recruitniks thought. That’s even what the interim football coach at Lake’s high school thought. He told me so when I talked to him earlier this week for a column that appeared Wednesday talking about Lake returning to football after being ruled ineligible for his senior season by the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association.
(There were questions of residency after Lake transferred to Jenks High School a couple years back.)
But then on Wednesday, of course, Lake signed with Arkansas.
The reasons behind the switch aren’t exactly clear. OU coach Bob Stoops said Wednesday afternoon that the school and the recruit parted ways amicably after Christmas. He indicated that there were questions about Lake’s eligibility, paperwork that was missing and holes that were gaping. And yet, Tyrone Lynn, the man who’s been Lake’s guardian since he moved to Oklahoma, said earlier on Wednesday that there was no question that Lake would be eligible.
So, what really happened? We may never know.
This is about the only thing we do know — the whole thing took everyone by surprise.
I know some people had a good time treating me like a punching bag because I wrote about Lake going to OU the morning that he committed to Arkansas, but I didn’t have any reason to believe he wouldn’t sign with OU. In addition to all the information that was out there linking him to the Sooners, there was his Facebook page. On it was a picture of Lake wearing an OU jersey, standing next to Sooner defensive coordinator Brent Venables and flashing the down Hook ‘Em Horns sign. Facebook pictures aren’t a tell-all, but that seemed to be a pretty good sign of his allegiance.
Lake and I were supposed to talk on Monday evening, but he sent me a text saying that he was in a tutoring session. No problem, I told him. I expected he’d call when he was finished.
He never did.
I just figured it was a teenage boy being squirrelly. Never in a million years would I think that not getting a call back from a high school athlete is reason to believe that he was wavering on his college commitment. Never in a million years would anyone think that.
So, if folks want to take punches at me for not knowing Lake was going to Arkansas instead of OU, that’s fine. I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know. I had company. This was a signing-day surprise that no one saw coming.
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Jenni,
I wouldn’t take the criticism too seriously when one considers the source. I re-read the article and you could have replaced Oklahoma with Arkansas and Sooners with Razorbacks and that wouldn’t have changed the focus of the story. I understood your focus to be on the re-emergence of a football player and not on the recruiting coup of a university. Keep up the good work and ignore those with journalist-envy!
Peace,
Jacob