Best Thing I Could Possibly Do
Just over a week ago Weatherford, Texas defensive lineman Zack McKinney seemed destined to end up at Texas. The 6-foot-5, 280-pound three-star prospect will even tell you as much. However, in something of a sign of the times in Austin and Norman McKinney saw his interest pick up from North of the Red River and had trouble saying 'no'.
In fact he committed, sort of, before he was offered.
"The Houston staff is the new Texas, when they were there, if you would have talked to me a week ago, that was the school I wanted to go to," McKinney said. "Me and coach Thibs [Calvin Thibodeaux] we (have talked) off and on but a few days ago we started back talking and everything. I had to come down and make a decision.
"I got my Texas offer last night, they were going to offer me on my official but somehow they knew that Oklahoma was coming so they offered me right there and then. Coach Thibs and I were talking yesterday and he said ‘Zack if you want to be a Sooner, you tell me right here and now and I’ll offer you’. So you know me, just being a 17-year old boy I was thinking these are two good schools, they are, University of Texas and University of Oklahoma. I sit down with my father and (we talked). Then me and coach Thibs I said ‘I’m ready to be a part of this’ and he offered me right there on the spot.
"(When) I talked to my father who was like ‘look one school is established and the other is not'. Going to Texas, (their staff) is from a smaller conference, it’s a new staff. If they don’t come in and don’t do what people think they are going to do, they are going to get fired just like Charlie Strong did. On OU’s side Bob Stoops has been there for 17 years, just won his 10th Big 12 championship, it’s established, it’s The University of Oklahoma. It says itself right there.
"It’s just a true statement, it’s an established program."
It's not that McKinney is suddenly down on Texas it's just the matter of the thing that he saw as important early in his recruitment are the things he feels the Oklahoma program embodies.
"It’s priorities, the whole picture of the school from academics to the sports – I want to major in communications and Oklahoma has a great communication program. It all just goes. Football and education it all comes together," he continued.
"I thought look ‘go join something, get in and, great opportunity.
"I went with the school that is established, in all aspects. In all aspects Oklahoma is the better option.
"I made a big decision today, I had to make sure I knew what I wanted. The two schools, I looked at everything."
Part of that look was, undoubtedly, based on Oklahoma's needs along the defensive line with a group in need of some talented youth. And though Oklahoma's first-year assistant made no promises of playing time to come McKinney says that it's playing time he'll earn.
"He said there is a good opportunity but at the end of the day, me playing, it’s up to me. He can want me to play but if I’m not producing like he wanted, he won’t play me. He never said I’m going to play because that can not a true statement. Now me, I’m going to play because I know me, I’m going to produce. But from his standpoint when it’s said and done is when anything is final (and he'll decide who to play)," he said.
"He asked me what position did I feel most comfortable at and my school runs a 3-4 so I play end, 4i, 3i, shade, 5. I told him I’m not a true noseguard. I don’t think I’m a noseguard. So we agree on that and he asked me where I want to play and I said ‘coach, you’re the coach, you’ve been doing this, you know. Wherever you think I’m going to be most successful is where I want to play’."
Another big part of his affinity for Oklahoma was a recent trip to Norman, for the Sooners 56-3 drubbing of Kansas. Somewhat surprisingly it was the atmosphere of the game that truly caught the nation's No. 40 defensive tackle's attention.
"I was there for the Kansas game. That stadium is absolutely ridiculous, the fans are, I’ve never seen anything like that. It got crazy, that environment is amazing. Just with that environment I know it will make me want to play better for sure. It’s a nice campus, nice program, nice facilities, good coaches, strong coaches that have been there. Oklahoma has been on top of the Big 12. It’s a perfect opportunity, it’s just a good move," McKinney gushed.
"There is nothing else to say besides than it’s the best thing I could possibly do."
Nine other Texans felt the same of the Sooners and though two-thirds of Oklahoma's current 23-man recruiting class is from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex McKinney doesn't yet know any of his future classmates. However, unlike his previous commitment to Kansas, he plans to take the time to get to know them as soon as possible.
For those unfamiliar with McKinney's process he committed to Kansas in mid-November before rescinding that commitment roughly a week later.
He took some time to explain why this time will be different for him.
"That’s simple, the University of Kansas, the coaching staff, it’s a great staff – I love those guys, even to this day. My brother previously went to Kansas. The first thing was I don’t want to walk in my brother’s shadow as I’ve done my whole life. The second thing, when my brother was at Kansas he had an issue with Charlie Weis – who isn’t still there any more but (it had an effect).
"It’s the same thing as Kansas and Texas, they are new staffs, why settle for that? I want to go somewhere new, after 17 years the chances of Bob Stoops being fired is pretty small, you know what I mean?"
McKinney will begin to set up that future in Norman with an official visit next month, though the date has not yet been finalized, but is there any reason to think that history could repeat itself with a decommitment?
"(I am) done. When I see recruits say ‘the recruiting process has been fun’ the recruiting process has not been fun. It has been a very frustrating thing, to have that lifted off my shoulders – I am extremely happy and do not want to go through that again. I don’t care who calls, I am done," McKinney said definitively.
"It feels good, you’ve got a place to go – not only a place to go, a home. Good program, all I’m going to do is grow there, get developed. I’m extremely happy, extremely blessed."