There's No Place Like Home

NORMAN - Ryan Broyles finally made up his mind. Again. In what Broyles called a week of wavering, the All-State, heavily recruited Norman standout ended seven days of waffling and ended more than two years of speculation about his college future with a wild, last-minute change of mind, heart and attitude. "At the beginning of the recruiting process it was fun,'' said Broyles. "Then it got serious.'' The process was serious enough that in the week heading up to the Feb. 6 Signing Day, Broyles committed to Oklahoma State twice and Oklahoma twice before making his commitment to the Sooners permanent with an early-morning fax to the Oklahoma football office. "It was all worth it,'' Broyles said. "I just needed as much time as I did. I needed it all up to signing day.'' As late as the day before Signing Day, Broyles had reconfirmed and recommitted his allegiance to the Cowboys - the team that originally offered Broyles a scholarship. But as late as 2 a.m. the morning before he made his decision final, after a number of phone calls to coaches in Norman and Stillwater, Broyles pulled off another surprise. And the saga turned itself into "the" story of the recruiting season as more than 35 members of media from across the state crammed into a small classroom next to Norman's football stadium for a chance to ask Broyles one more time exactly what it was that made him change his mind over and over. "I've just never seen anything like it,'' said Norman coach Butch Peters, who was just as confused about where Broyles would go as everyone else who followed the week-long wavering process. Meanwhile, Peters seemed as relieved to be done with the ordeal as did Broyles. "A lot of this is just too much for an 18 year-old kid to handle,'' Peters said. "It was a circus.'' It was exactly a year ago before Broyles headed into his senior season with the Tigers that the Cowboys made a scholarship offer. And while Oklahoma offered Broyles significantly later in the recruiting process, most felt Broyles would stick with his original commitment to play at Oklahoma State. "Definitely wild,'' said Broyles, amid a tangle of cameras, recorders and notepads. "But the clouds went away. OU is where I wanted to go. At first, OSU was right. In the end, OU was the place for me.'' Norman High announced that Broyles would be available to visit with the media on signing day, despite no one really knowing what he would do. And while Broyles certainly didn't have to make his decision on the first day of the signing period, the media crush and attention surrounding him was so much that everyone involved just wanted to get it over with. "It's his decision,'' said mother Stephanie Moore. "But this was hard on me, too.''