Spent a cold and rainy night in Logan, Iowa. And y'all... I think this one is finally close to over.
After a conversation tonight with Grant Brix, I'm feeling even more confident in my June FutureCast for Oklahoma. With my background knowledge of this recruitment, I frankly would not have imagined that the Sooners' play on the field would make a major impact here, but the 6-0 start has resonated with Brix and his family. They've watched several of Oklahoma's games, including the Sooners' epic Red River upset of Texas, and they've been thoroughly impressed with the direction of the program under Brent Venables. Put another way, OU is showing Brix something that Nebraska and Kansas State haven't shown him — and that's made all the difference. One well-placed source on the Oklahoma side actually told me that Brix was very close to committing to Nebraska before the season, but thought better of it and decided to wait a little longer. Now the Sooners are undefeated and ranked fifth in the nation, and the Huskers have scuffled to a 3-3 start.
Brix and his family have been painstakingly deliberate with this process, and I'm told the conversations in the household have involved plenty of spreadsheets and pros/cons charts. No one in the kid's circle had the expectation that he'd be a nationally coveted football prospect, and none of them were all too familiar with the recruitment process at the outset. All the involved parties have been learning in real time, and that's contributed to the delay here. And on Brix's part, he's the type of person that doesn't want to let people down. He admitted to me that he's been dreading the day he has to make calls to college coaches to let them know he won't be committing to them. But he also acknowledged another thing: from every angle in his evaluation process, Oklahoma appears to be the best option amongst the three schools.
I'll close with this: I would not be surprised if we got a decision within the next week or two. Do not interpret that as an indication that a firm timetable is set, because it isn't. But in speaking with Brix and his folks, I was given reason to believe this recruitment could end very soon. The Sooner staff has another conversation scheduled with Brix tomorrow. And if they can slam the door on this thing, the month of October on the Oklahoma recruiting trail would go from big to huge.
