The Okies are Coming!

Signing Day. Ugh. It’s a sad day… Okay, not exactly sad for everyone. For guys like Blake Bell, Geneo Grissom, etc it’s the realization of a lifelong dream, the culmination of years of hard work, blah blah blah, etc.

No, it’s sad for the rest of us who will be watching them in “hunter safety orange” or “crimson and cream” for the next four or five years. Joseph Randle? Devon Hedgepeth? You’re dead to us. You’re the enemy now!

It’s a sad day for major college football in the state of Kansas. The cream of the recruiting crop was pillaged by our neighbors to the south.

Consider the top high school recruits from Kansas (according to Rivals, at least):
1. Justin McCay – ATH – Bishop Miege – Oklahoma
2. Blake Bell – QB – Bishop Carroll – Oklahoma
3. Geneo Grissom – DE – Hutchinson – Oklahoma
4. DeMarcus Robinson – RB – Northwest – Kansas State
5. Joseph Randle – RB – Southeast – Oklahoma State

These are the only four star athletes in what typically is a shallow pool to pick from. Props to Bill Snyder for landing Robinson – who’s as good a kid as he is a runner – but seeing the Sooner State snap up four of the top five football players in Kansas is disappointing. No… Infuriating!

Grissom was supposed to be a Jayhawk, but when Mark Mangino was bumped, Grissom decided to re-open the recruiting process. In stepped Brent Venables and out the window went Grissom – one of the most talented defensive lineman to come through here in a while.

Go down the list a little further. Lucas Vincent – a 3-star defensive tackle from Olathe North – slipped across the border to Missouri. Ouch.

Derby’s Devon Hedgepeth – who Brandon Clark compares favorably to former K-State all-american Terence Newman – won’t be reprising the role in Manhattan. He’s headed to Oklahoma State.

K-State and KU did step in and nab the next best three on the list with Tre Walker, Laton Dowling and Pat Lewandowski (numbers 8-10). But still!

Justin McCay has a 42-inch vertical. Forget "Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader."
McCay could probably jump over a fifth grader. But if he ever decides to try it, it’ll be one from the Norman, Oklahoma school system.

Both programs (KU and K-State) rely heavily on table scraps from the schmorgasbord that is Texas, but it’s hard to build sustainable success if you can’t protect your own back yard.

See: Bryce Brown, Chris Harper (the first time through), Arthur Brown, Blake Lawrence… It’s been four years since a Kansas school has actually been able to land the state’s top prospect. Those are just a few of the ones that got away.

I suspect Bill Snyder won’t be fully caught up in the recruiting game until this time next year. If Turner Gill is the silver tongued pied-piper he’s billed to be, he’ll also make some inroads in 2011. For the sake of college football in Kansas let’s hope so.

In the meantime it might be wise to start drawing up blueprints for a big wall across the Oklahoma border.