Back in January, as the Kansas football coaching staff was racing to finalize its 2016 recruiting class, David Beaty and company picked up a couple of commitments from 2017 offensive linemen within hours of one another.
Today, neither lineman remains committed to Kansas.
Grant Polley (6-5, 275, Denton (Texas) High) de-committed almost exactly a month ago, and, on Tuesday, Jared Hocker (6-5, 290, North Richland Hills, Texas) followed Polley’s lead. The two situations are unrelated other than the fact that both committed very early and soon found that interest from other schools with winning pedigrees was headed their way.
Hocker explained via Twitter on Tuesday.
> “After a long period of deliberation,
> I have decided to de-commit from the
> Jayhawks and reopen my recruiting.
> When I received my offer from KU, I
> wasn’t familiar with the recruiting
> process and, in hindsight, I made a
> premature decision. There is a great
> deal I like, even love, about KU not
> the least of which is the coaching
> staff. Coaches Beaty, (Zach) Yenser
> and (Kenny) Perry have all been
> wonderful to me and it is with the
> deepest regret that I feel I must
> re-examine my options. Please respect
> my privacy with no interviews due to
> my decision. Thank you.”
Although the loss of both linemen certainly qualifies as a disappointment for the Jayhawks, it also comes as no surprise. Any time players of their caliber — or, really, any caliber — commit as early as they did to a place like KU, it’s always a challenge for the Jayhawks to hang on to them.
That’s not to say it can’t be done, but when bigger and better programs come calling, it often can be tough for these players to stick with Kansas. That’s human nature in many ways and understandable, as well.
With Hocker specifically, recent visits to Texas A&M and Texas Tech illustrate the point perfectly.
So it’s back to the drawing board for Kansas, which will continue to seek offensive linemen in the 2017 class and is in on some pretty solid secondary options, including a couple of in-state linemen.
With Hocker now off the list, KU has oral commitments from six players in the Class of 2017 and room to add somewhere in the range of 15 more, depending on how many additions to the current roster wind up counting forward to the 2017 class via the blue shirt rule.
