Bob Stoops isn't telling why, exactly, but one cat let out of the bag Wednesday on national signing day was his proclamation that Jenks' Jarrett Lake and the Sooners had parted ways some time ago.
"We had a mutual decision between the two of us that we weren't going to proceed any longer," Stoops said, though he still believed Lake "a wonderful kid."
Of course, one wonders what the whole story might be.
As many may recall, Lake was the player at the center of the scandal that left Jenks without head coach Allan Trimble for most of last season and Lake without a team for all of last season.
Of course, it's very possible Lake was a pawn in the whole thing, really is a thoughtful and great a kid and really will be a model student athlete at Arkansas, where he signed Wednesday.
Still, the whole mess underlines a truth about athletics that occasionally gets short amid so many tape measures, stop watches, scales and weights.
Character really does matter.
A lot.
Every once in a while, you'll run across a certifiably bad kid who couldn't be more virtuous when the lights come on. But not very often.
It caught up to Oklahoma on the offensive line last season, when injuries the likes of which nobody'd ever seen plagued a group that was already breaking in four new starters. By the end, a result of those injuries and horribly thin numbers to begin with, an All-American left tackle was starting out of position at center and an infrequently used tight end had been plugged in at right tackle.
At the time, the question was asked, what happened? The answer was something along the lines of the offensive line being a very demanding position, not everybody's cut out for it at the level the Sooners demand and the squad was simply trapped with low personnel. Miss on a few kids who leave the program, and it can happen.
One option mentioned was relaxing standards and expectations, of athleticism and citizenship, allowing the cupboard to remain forever full.
Stoops made clear at the time OU would never go that route.
On the offensive line and everywhere else, character is a haunting question for coaches. Forty times don't lie, nor do vertical leaps and wingspans. Toughness, desire and a willingness to be coached are far harder to judge. But it must be done.
"I love to watch how competitive they are in other sports," Stoops said. "You know, when we recruit an athlete, the first question out of my mouth is 'What else does he play.'
"I want to watch him."
Because competitors compete. They can't not compete. For the very best of them, the sport may be inconsequential, the need to compete so universal and encompassing.
Wednesday, the Sooners put the wraps on what many believe to be a top 5 national class, and yet the only thing everybody can be sure about is the sum of the class' athletic parts.
Whether the class pans out or underachieves has almost nothing to do with the "measurables" everybody can agree upon, but intangibles that remain a crapshoot.
"You do the best you can. You make mistakes. We've made plenty," Stoops said. "And then we've made some where (people say) he's just an average recruit, and he ends up an All-American, like Marc Klayton, and I could go on and on ... It's a very inexact science to be sure."
But the Sooner staff keeps plugging away.
They've hit a lot more than they've missed, and still the misses leave you scratching your head.
Everybody says you never know about a recruiting class until two or three years down the road. They're right about that, but less mentioned is why.
Maturity, hunger, humility and toughness will always be a roll of the dice.
Clay Horning 366-3526 cfhorning@normantranscript.com
