National signing day in college football has come and gone, but the story of how one of the top linebackers in the country ended up going to Oklahoma is a cautionary tale of just how much stress can weigh down the decision-making process for top-rated high school players. Caleb Kelly announced his decision to go to Oklahoma on National Signing Day, but he was very close to heading to Notre Dame until making his decision final.
For Kelly, the decision to join Bob Stoops and the Sooners was a late decision. He was set on going to Notre Dame but opted to wait until he heard everything Oklahoma’s coaches had to say to him during an in-home visit.
“It was crazy. I even remember I was sitting in the car (on the way to the visit with Oklahoma), my mom was driving, I remember I cried [to] tears; it was crazy I was so stressed out,” Kelly explained, recalling his emotional state coming home from an official visit to Oklahoma. “That was the only time it hit me because I was so set I was going to go to Notre Dame.”
Kelly was torn on his college choice, and signing day was coming quickly. Still determined to lean toward heading to Notre Dame, Oklahoma assistant Mike stoops was scheduled to visit Kelly and his family in his home in California. It was then a family member found a way to cut through and open Kelly’s ears to something he needed to hear before making his decision. Via Sooner Scoop:
“After that my aunt asked him a question, ‘what puts you ahead of everyone else?’
“He said ‘I do, my people do. The people (at Oklahoma) do. Because Caleb knows that no one wants him as bad as we do, and we love Caleb and we’ve already created such a strong bond with him, why would he want to break that?’ I was like ‘wow, that is so true’,” he recalled.
“I remember just sitting in the car just fighting the tears. Two of them rolling down my cheek, my mom was all sad and everything.”
So now Kelly was torn even more. Notre Dame or Oklahoma? Signing day would be here soon enough, and the pressure to make a choice was escalating at a rapid rate. Rather than hold off on his commitment decision, which is allowed of course (you don’t HAVE to sign on National Signing Day), Kelly opted to let fate and chance decide his future.
“I don’t know if you heard the ‘hat’ story. I got a piece of paper and wrote Oklahoma and Notre Dame and split in half. My mom was in the other room, I called her in – or I crinkled the paper up before – and then called my mom in and said ‘mom I’m going to get two hats, you’re going to put the balls of paper into the hat, and when I pick that’s the school I’m going to go to,” he explained.
“I went away, gave her the hats, she put the balls under the hat and then I remember I picked up the hat and picked up the ball of paper and I thought ‘damn this is Notre Dame’ because I felt the size of it. I said ‘I guess we’re going to Notre Dame’ but I didn’t say it (aloud) I just said it in my head.”
The paper read Oklahoma, and the choice was made. He called Bob Stoops days later to inform his new coach of his intentions, and made the decision public on signing day.
Kelly’s tale is likely not unique in many ways. There is a tremendous amount of pressure for top-rated recruits to make their decisions. Not only do fans from multiple schools’ fanbases want to know where they are heading, but recruiting pitches continue to come in from all angles in addition to media and recruiting analysts asking and asking about their thinking. It is a stressful time for the elite on the recruiting trail, and every recruit will handle the pressure differently. For Kelly, resorting to pulling a name out of a hat was needed to relieve the stress from the process.
Notre Dame was that close to landing a five-star linebacker. There was no luck in this game of chance for the Irish.
