Long story short, he blames the mom.
I’ve got this scheduled to post regardless of whether Nwaneri picks Oklahoma or Missouri today. So it’ll read the same way regardless. Hopefully this sheds some light on why I reported the things I did throughout this process. Let me start by simply quoting a portion of my update from last Tuesday.
“Within the Switzer Center, there’s a relatively low amount of worry, especially given how much buzz there is about Mizzou right now. I believe that in part, that’s due to the fact that OU is willing to play the long game if necessary. One thing of which I can assure you all is that if Nwaneri commits to Missouri next week, Oklahoma isn’t going to surrender until ink is dry on paper in December. And for a variety of reasons, if that hypothetical scenario comes to fruition come Monday, I don’t think it’s a given that Nwaneri follows through and signs with Missouri.
“In the end, I’ve got to trust the word of a myriad of sources who have reiterated that Nwaneri himself is (and has been) the highest on Oklahoma by far. It's going to be exceedingly difficult for him to say no to Miguel Chavis and Brent Venables. And regardless of what the parents’ preference may be here, I feel — FEEL — that the eventual decision will be made by Nwaneri himself (shades of Peyton Bowen, anyone?). If that’s the case, I believe he’s a Sooner on signing day. But there’s also a world in which this becomes a flat-out bidding war. If that is the case, I’m of the opinion that Nwaneri is no longer in ultimate control of the process. And if a bidding war is indeed what arises, that’s not a battle Oklahoma is going to fight. They’ll engage in that melee with a pitch that includes NIL, not a pitch that is NIL.”
I arrived at Lee’s Summit North about four hours prior to Nwaneri’s decision to speak with a few program sources and gather some more background information. I’d previously reported that the family cut Jamar Mozee and all other external influences out of this recruitment a couple of weeks back, but there were still plenty of folks who had gotten some insight into the decision because of their proximity to Nwaneri himself. He’s been at the school for practices and meetings the last several weeks, so it hasn’t been a total lockdown. Throughout the final days of the process, Nwaneri had also continued to pick up the phone for me, so I’d been able to maintain a certain level of firsthand perspective in conversations with the kid.
One thing that became apparent to me is that as time went on, Nwaneri progressively became less and less enthusiastic about the recruiting process. The last time I spoke to him via phone on Sunday, he sounded completely drained. And when I checked in with folks at LSN on Monday morning, the consensus message lined up with everything I’d come to understand about the tail end of the recruitment: the increased input from Nwaneri’s family had complicated the process immensely.
“They’re tearing him up,” said one source. “That family is tearing him up.”
Nwaneri isn’t an NIL-oriented kid. But one thing that several sources have corroborated is that his family is enraptured by the promise of substantial dollar figures. In fact, I’m told that Nwaneri’s family didn’t take particular interest in the recruiting process until he picked up his fifth star and began to crop up in the debate regarding the overall No. 1 prospect in the cycle. It was Nwaneri’s mother that pushed the hardest for a huge NIL payout, from everything I’ve gleaned.
“Mom was hardly present in the process until two months ago,” one source remarked. “His mom’s only ever been to a couple of his games [at LSN].”
To put it bluntly, this wasn’t a recruitment in which NIL was a substantial factor… until the power shift occurred.
Brandon and I independently learned from multiple sources that Nwaneri has been in the Oklahoma commits’ group chat for quite some time. We’d both been told, from sources on the OU end and elsewhere, that the kid favored Oklahoma above the rest. There’s a reason we believed so strongly that he would end up in Norman, and that the rest of the industry long held to that same notion. Even in the wake of a slew of Missouri predictions yesterday, he was on the phone with Oklahoma in the hours leading up to the decision. A kid who’s shut himself off to the idea of playing at a particular school typically isn’t conversing with that school mere hours before announcing his commitment. Moreover, there was a lot of behind-the-scenes confidence back on Wednesday that Oklahoma had quashed Missouri’s momentum and was closing in on his official pledge. However, as I noted at the time, the window was still open for the Tigers to make a late charge, which obviously happened… and suddenly things were full of intrigue once again.
I’m finishing this mere minutes before Nwaneri is set to announce. And if I could close with one final (albeit editorial) sentiment, I fully believe that Oklahoma is where Nwaneri wants to be in his heart of hearts. I’m not sure there is much that could change my mind with respect to that belief.
I’ve got this scheduled to post regardless of whether Nwaneri picks Oklahoma or Missouri today. So it’ll read the same way regardless. Hopefully this sheds some light on why I reported the things I did throughout this process. Let me start by simply quoting a portion of my update from last Tuesday.
“Within the Switzer Center, there’s a relatively low amount of worry, especially given how much buzz there is about Mizzou right now. I believe that in part, that’s due to the fact that OU is willing to play the long game if necessary. One thing of which I can assure you all is that if Nwaneri commits to Missouri next week, Oklahoma isn’t going to surrender until ink is dry on paper in December. And for a variety of reasons, if that hypothetical scenario comes to fruition come Monday, I don’t think it’s a given that Nwaneri follows through and signs with Missouri.
“In the end, I’ve got to trust the word of a myriad of sources who have reiterated that Nwaneri himself is (and has been) the highest on Oklahoma by far. It's going to be exceedingly difficult for him to say no to Miguel Chavis and Brent Venables. And regardless of what the parents’ preference may be here, I feel — FEEL — that the eventual decision will be made by Nwaneri himself (shades of Peyton Bowen, anyone?). If that’s the case, I believe he’s a Sooner on signing day. But there’s also a world in which this becomes a flat-out bidding war. If that is the case, I’m of the opinion that Nwaneri is no longer in ultimate control of the process. And if a bidding war is indeed what arises, that’s not a battle Oklahoma is going to fight. They’ll engage in that melee with a pitch that includes NIL, not a pitch that is NIL.”
I arrived at Lee’s Summit North about four hours prior to Nwaneri’s decision to speak with a few program sources and gather some more background information. I’d previously reported that the family cut Jamar Mozee and all other external influences out of this recruitment a couple of weeks back, but there were still plenty of folks who had gotten some insight into the decision because of their proximity to Nwaneri himself. He’s been at the school for practices and meetings the last several weeks, so it hasn’t been a total lockdown. Throughout the final days of the process, Nwaneri had also continued to pick up the phone for me, so I’d been able to maintain a certain level of firsthand perspective in conversations with the kid.
One thing that became apparent to me is that as time went on, Nwaneri progressively became less and less enthusiastic about the recruiting process. The last time I spoke to him via phone on Sunday, he sounded completely drained. And when I checked in with folks at LSN on Monday morning, the consensus message lined up with everything I’d come to understand about the tail end of the recruitment: the increased input from Nwaneri’s family had complicated the process immensely.
“They’re tearing him up,” said one source. “That family is tearing him up.”
Nwaneri isn’t an NIL-oriented kid. But one thing that several sources have corroborated is that his family is enraptured by the promise of substantial dollar figures. In fact, I’m told that Nwaneri’s family didn’t take particular interest in the recruiting process until he picked up his fifth star and began to crop up in the debate regarding the overall No. 1 prospect in the cycle. It was Nwaneri’s mother that pushed the hardest for a huge NIL payout, from everything I’ve gleaned.
“Mom was hardly present in the process until two months ago,” one source remarked. “His mom’s only ever been to a couple of his games [at LSN].”
To put it bluntly, this wasn’t a recruitment in which NIL was a substantial factor… until the power shift occurred.
Brandon and I independently learned from multiple sources that Nwaneri has been in the Oklahoma commits’ group chat for quite some time. We’d both been told, from sources on the OU end and elsewhere, that the kid favored Oklahoma above the rest. There’s a reason we believed so strongly that he would end up in Norman, and that the rest of the industry long held to that same notion. Even in the wake of a slew of Missouri predictions yesterday, he was on the phone with Oklahoma in the hours leading up to the decision. A kid who’s shut himself off to the idea of playing at a particular school typically isn’t conversing with that school mere hours before announcing his commitment. Moreover, there was a lot of behind-the-scenes confidence back on Wednesday that Oklahoma had quashed Missouri’s momentum and was closing in on his official pledge. However, as I noted at the time, the window was still open for the Tigers to make a late charge, which obviously happened… and suddenly things were full of intrigue once again.
I’m finishing this mere minutes before Nwaneri is set to announce. And if I could close with one final (albeit editorial) sentiment, I fully believe that Oklahoma is where Nwaneri wants to be in his heart of hearts. I’m not sure there is much that could change my mind with respect to that belief.
