Nance Considered Heading to Norman

Since bursting onto the scene at Oklahoma's camp in July of 2010 Sooner fans have had their eyes fixed on adding Rivals100 linebacker Brian Nance to their 2012 class. Since then a pair of Euless (Texas) Trinity Trojans have joined the Sooners ranks as Nila Kasitati is currently on the Sooner roster and Polo Manukainiu made his pledge to the Sooners last week.

Interestingly the 6-foot-3, 210-pound prospect considered joining Manukainiu on the Sooner commitment list on the same night the big defensive end made his choice.

"Actually, when Polo told me he was committing I was really excited because they were high on my list and I was thinking I wasn't the only one going over there," Nance said. "Because I've got a couple of friends going there for some other sports as well.

"I couldn't reach them that night or the next day and I kind of thought about it and maybe I don't want to commit early, but they are high on my board."

Many will wonder how it was that Oklahoma couldn't pick up the phone with the nation's No. 86 overall player was thinking of committing but there have been some conversations that the talented linebacker has some work to do in the classroom. He admits that there are still some hills to climb but says to date he is doing everything in his power to get things right.

"I went to summer school to make up for some earlier issues but right now it's going good, it's all working out and I try and keep that in mind from beginning to end. I'm just trying to get my grades straight, it was a factor at first for a lot of recruiters- I had a low GPA. But now, I'm going right and think I'm in good shape," he said.

Whatever went wrong about Nance's potential commitment he says he was excited for his teammate and now the Sooners are among a top three along with Baylor and USC. He seems now set on taking all five of his official visits and the Sooners, Trojans, and Bears seem set to receiver three of them. But what about the other two?

"I was happy that Polo committed, it just made me change my mind about a lot of other schools. I haven't been to a lot of places and I want to see some other schools," he said.

"I'm going to go to - well I've still got my three - OU, Baylor, and USC. Then Tennessee, Arizona, and Nebraska. I'm going to visit two of those three as well. I'm going to try and figure it out and have it worked out in October."

The Dallas-Fort Worth native has an idea of what he is looking for at the various schools he will visit and says that it's going to be a social decision as much as a football one.

"My thing with on choosing schools is I like me being in a city area, I don't want to feel like I'm out in the country, you know just a dead area, and that's going to be a factor," Nance said. "Academic wise will they help me? Football won't last forever, and I've got to have a plan and I also want to look at the depth chart."

The depth chart isn't something Nance has had to worry about at Trinity for some time due in part not only to his talent but also an injury suffered in the spring. He, along with Manukainiu, has missed Trinity's first three games of the year but both are set to return this weekend as the Trojans start to gear up for another massive season.

"I started practicing last week and I play Friday night against Irving. We are going to get out there on the same weekend, we're getting all our players back," he explained.

"Yeah, it feels good, everybody wants to go back to state, that's our main goal but we aren't thinking about that right now. We've got to earn that right to get back to state."