When San Antonio (Texas) Roosevelt cornerback Arrion Springs spoke with SB Nation Recruiting last summer, he was still looking for his first offer and was set on heading out of state for college, with Florida and childhood favorite USC the two teams he mentioned early.
Arrion Springs has Miami and Oregon as his leaders
After a slow start, the Central Texas product has seen his offer list explode.
He was also intent on showing off his skills as a cornerback after spending most of his time as a sophomore playing safety. Some impressive testing results and his work at 7-on-7 and in camps was enough at the time to convince Florida coach Will Muschamp that he could play the position.
Fast forward 11 months and Springs now has 23 offers. And even though offers from the Gators and Trojans are not among that large group, he is still primarily looking out of state after there was a time during the spring when he was showing significant interest in Texas Tech and Oklahoma.
Currently the 5'11, 192-pounder has two favorites atop his list -- the Miami Hurricanes, who have a slight lead after extending an offer in late April, and the Oregon Ducks, who have yet to extend one, but are expected to do so after an in-person evaluation some time during the spring evaluation period.
And Springs is now listed at the cornerback position he likes to play, performing well enough there to earn an invite to The Opening, the prestigious camp featuring 150 of the top players in the country and held at the Nike facility in Beaverton, Oregon.
Is there anything that could keep him from ending up in either Coral Gables or right up down the road from Beaverton in Eugene, both schools he plans on visiting this summer?
The consensus four-star prospect and no. 10 cornerback nationally by 247Sports told Jeff Howe last weekend that only heavy sanctions levied by the NCAA against Miami or Oregon could keep him from attending one of those schools ($).
What then?
Springs said that Texas and Oklahoma are the back ups.
The former school is interesting in its inclusion high on his list. The childhood Trojan fan still looked visibly upset about the national championship defeat in the early moments of 2006 at the hands of the Longhorns when asked about it last summer and added, point blank, “I don’t like Texas.”
At that point, it seemed like a recruitment of Springs by Texas would be a non-starter, but that has turned out not to be the case, in large part because of the efforts of defensive back coach Duane Akina, who has given Springs the hard sell on his ability to put players in the NFL and given the ‘Horns a chance with the prospect who ran a 4.37 40 last summer at an NUC combine. An unofficial visit last weekend gave Akina another opportunity to attempt to woo the Roosevelt product.
In the end, though, it may matter as fans of the Hurricanes and Ducks pay close attention to what the NCAA decides to do in terms of the sanctions because of the impact it could have on scholarship numbers and the next several postseasons.
The talented Springs gives both fanbases a little more incentive to hope that the NCAA is lenient.
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