Kansas University football coach Turner Gill may have just won his biggest recruiting battle to date.
Bryan Peters, a 6-foot-5, 305-pound offensive tackle from La Miranda (Calif.) High, orally committed to Gill’s Jayhawks on Friday, choosing Kansas over a handful of other schools, including Florida State.
Once again, it was KU’s coaching staff that made a powerful impression.
Peters, Rivals.com’s 57th-ranked offensive tackle in the nation, told the website on Friday that KU’s coaches, specifically offensive coordinator Chuck Long, offensive line coach J.B. Grimes and Gill, impressed him from Day One.
“They have an awesome staff,” Peters told Rivals. “They have been coaching at a lot of great schools before they got to Kansas. They are from winning programs. I loved the town of Lawrence. It is a college town. The campus is nice and everything was unbelievable. I loved the atmosphere.”
Several of Peters’ high school teammates already have orally committed to major programs, including Alabama, Nebraska and Nevada.
Peters earned a three-star ranking from the Rivals network, largely because of his ability to play all three positions on the offensive line.
In addition to his prowess in the trenches, Peters has impressed in the classroom as well.
He’s a 4.0 student and hasn’t missed a day of practice.
Peters’ high school coach, Mike Moschetti, a former quarterback at Colorado, told Rivals that if Peters had waited to commit until the end of his senior season, he would’ve had at least 20-25 offers. Instead, the senior-to-be, chose Kansas and canceled all other visits.
Peters joins running back Dreamius Smith, offensive lineman Travis Bodenstein, quarterback Michael Cummings, linebacker Jake Love and defensive backs Alex Matlock, Chris Robinson and Victor Simmons on KU’s 2011 commitment list so far.
