Matt Brown, from Allen, Texas decommitted from the University of Arizona on Monday, and will sign with TCU, the Arizona Daily Star reports. Mark this down as the first casualty of the Dykes-to-La. Tech move.
Brown was the only quarterback to sign with Arizona's fall 2010 recruiting class, and his decommitment likely leaves Stoops and company scrambling to fill the scholarship spot. But did it have to end up this way?
The Star reported that the day before Brown's decommittment, soon-to- be former offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes, and head coach Mike Stoops visited Brown at his home, and gave no indication that Dykes was about to jump ship.
"Brown was solidly committed to the UA as recently as a week ago, when UA coach Mike Stoops and Dykes visited his family for an in-home visit. Dykes left for Louisiana Tech the next day, offering little explanation to the recruits he was pursuing for Arizona.
Brown said he initially tried to talk to Stoops about the direction of the UA's offense but was unsuccessful.
"I was like, shoot, were they hiding something?" he said. "I wasn't going to sit there and wait, and then be stuck somewhere where they were going to run the triple-option. I just didn't know where they were going to go."
Stoops eventually told Brown that Arizona would stay with the spread attack that has become its trademark. Dykes even called the quarterback from Louisiana to encourage him to stay with the Wildcats.
By then, however, Brown had changed his mind." - Arizona Daily Star
From that quote, at worst, it seems there was some clear deception on the parts of Stoops and Dykes. At best, the future of Arizona's offense was not clearly communicated at the time of the meeting, or in enough time to convince Brown to maintain his commitment to Arizona. The reality is likely somewhere in between.
The problem going forward, is Arizona no longer has Dykes to sell to recruits, and other recruits will take notice of Brown's decommittment. The coaching staff needs to get it together, and work hard to get another signal-caller signed to the upcoming class.