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Rocky road of recruiting
A prospect decribes the perils of picking OU.
  
By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
Published: 1/25/2009  2:29 AM
Last Modified: 2/3/2009  7:59 PM

 The spotlight is bright on high school football's best players as they try to decide where to go to college. But few have endured anything like Jamarkus McFarland.

McFarland, a top defensive tackle at Lufkin, Texas, has given a non-binding verbal commitment to Oklahoma. McFarland also visited Texas, LSU and USC. Details of his recruitment — some graphic and lurid — were recounted in a Christmas Day story in the New York Times. McFarland thought things would ease up after he committed to OU, but the glare has only intensified.

McFarland and his mother, Kashemeyia Adams, gave New York Times freelance reporter Thayer Evans almost unprecedented access to family meetings, details of recruiting trips, private conversations and even an English paper McFarland wrote for school.

McFarland is a 6-foot-3, 280-pound senior who on Feb. 4 will sign a binding letter of intent to play at OU. Recruiting Web site Rivals.com ranks McFarland as the sixth-best high school defensive tackle in the nation. He was Rivals' preseason pick as the top player in Texas, but his postseason ranking slipped to seventh.

According to the Times article, McFarland grew up in a single-parent home, raised by his mother and grandmother. He has a brother in prison for conspiracy to commit murder and for tampering with evidence in a 2006 fatal shooting. He also has three uncles who have been imprisoned. His mother is deeply involved in his life, but, a devout Pentecostal, she does not attend his football games.

McFarland played in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl on Jan. 3, nine days after his tale was recounted in the Times.

In the story, McFarland's English paper — called "Red River Rivals Recruit" — provides details of his recruiting trips. McFarland wrote about his attendance at a party hosted by Texas fans at an upscale Dallas hotel after the Longhorns' 45-35 victory over OU on Oct. 11.

"Alcohol was all you can drink, money was not an option," McFarland wrote. "Girls were acting wild by taking off their tops, and pulling down their pants. Girls were also romancing each other. Some guys loved every minute of the freakiness some girls demonstrated. I have never attended a party of this magnitude."

He continued, "The attitude of the people at the party was that everyone should drink or not come to the party. Drugs were prevalent with no price attached."

McFarland also described a house party hosted by an OU sorority at which "drinks were plentiful, but not to the extent they were" at the event in Dallas, and described everyone as "in control."

McFarland told reporters covering the All-American Bowl in San Antonio that after the story was published, he received insults on his Facebook page and in text messages from angry Texas fans. He also admitted to Rivals.com reporter David Fox that his English paper "spiced up" details of the Dallas party, though he declined to clarify which parts were embellished. McFarland told Fox that "a majority of it was correct."

On Jan. 17, Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt wrote that Evans, a Houston-based freelance writer and a former Tulsa World intern, "could have done more to get independent corroboration of the party." McFarland said if he had known Evans was writing about his English paper, he could have told him what was true and what wasn't. Hoyt wrote that McFarland, in a text message reply, said he wrote the paper "to capture and inform my audiences," and "I stand by this story and I have moved on."

McFarland's mother, who has since refused interview requests, said she knew Evans had seen the paper and had discussed it with her son. Adams defended Evans' story. She told Hoyt, "an article was written, and I was very well pleased with it, and that's that."

Wild parties weren't the only allegations of improprieties in the original story. Adams told the Times she had received numerous offers of gifts if her son went to Texas. She clarified — as did McFarland about the party — that neither Texas coach Mack Brown nor any representatives of the university, including players, were involved with or had any knowledge of such improprieties.

In San Antonio, McFarland told reporters, "It's not something I regret but what I don't like is how people have responded to the story."

A year ago, Evans similarly chronicled the recruitment of California high school running back Darrell Scott, who signed with Colorado after considering Texas. When Texas arrived in Phoenix for the Fiesta Bowl, Brown decried Evans' reporting tactics by stating the reporter has an agenda against Texas.

Evans, who grew up in Oklahoma, denies such an agenda. McFarland calls Evans "a good guy" and said he's glad he let his recruitment be covered the way he did. McFarland also said he is eager to just play football again.

"The article is all anybody wants to talk about right now, and I'm sick of it," McFarland told reporters in San Antonio. "I'm through with it. I don't care what anybody thinks about me anymore.

"I'm ready to move on to Oklahoma."



John E. Hoover 581-8384
john.hoover@tulsaworld.com
By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer

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3 comments have been made for this team so far. Tell us what you think below!
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Rhymeister, Tulsa (1/26/2009 8:02:44 AM)
Hopefully this article and incident w/ the UT supporters does not make most OU and OSU fans think that their fan base and alumni are not immune to improprities such as offers of gifts. It goes on and there's little the NCAA can do to stop it if everyone keeps their mouths shut.

I somehow don't see how OU and OSU and TU for that matter could have parties w/ lesbians undressing each other and what-not...
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MaintenanceMan, Tulsa (1/26/2009 3:51:42 PM)
Where's the next one? Oh wait i used all my eligibility.
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WHY?, (1/26/2009 8:40:18 PM)
why would someone believe what a high school boy says??? embelishing is part of their chemical make up at this point...been on both ends of recruiting as a player...as a parent...as a recruit host...as a school official....it is never that blatant. Not that bad things don't go on because they have in the past, but i think this young man has seen "johnny b good" too many times.
 

 
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