I wrote an email about this to the recruiting team, if you feel like it post in the rumor mill, but here's the scoop with this kid:
Barksdale wanted to commit to
OSU prior to the February 2006 signing day.
OSU told him they wanted to see him get into better shape and they'll offer him at the NIKE combine (they ended up sooner due to the Michigan commitment). The kid worked his ass off, and got himself into pretty decent shape. He went to the Army All American Junior combine and blew up, Michigan started to show him love, (they offered him during the summer the year before, but as an OG and really didn't push him too hard) and he committed to them at a UM basketball game in February.
Now JT loves to steal a recruit or two from Michigan, so
OSU kept recruiting Joe like nothing happened, and offered him soon afterward, and he committed on the spot. Michigan hears this and drops him, that's a policy of theirs if a kid changes his mind they drop them (So many to think of but Justin King, Nic Harris, Thad Gibson, Dionte Allen), no going back, their feeling is they can't trust you so goodbye, I love
OSU and the way the handle business on the field compared to Michigan, but I wish we took this policy from them, especially with our elite status in CFB.
Fast forward to his trip to Austin in July and he commits to Texas, in which they throw a quick party for him and his dad when he commits. Right there JT should have dropped him, I remember saying to him that this is one of those kids who believes he's above the program, but JT claimed that the bottom line is that it makes sense for him to come to
OSU at the end of the day especially since Michigan dropped him. The only true worry was ND. Joe committed to
OSU 3 times folks. once after the Michigan commitment, once after the Texas commitment, and once after the ND commitment, before settling on LSU two weeks prior to christmas. It was a debacle.
01-12-2007, 04:51 PM
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