Prestonwood defensive lineman Pierce DeVaughn spent most of the past few months with a pretty clear path: he would sign to play college football at Montana State.
But a few weeks ago, other colleges started talking to him. Then on Jan. 30, Connecticut offered him a scholarship. He'd talked with UConn over the previous few weeks, but hadn't done much research. He primarily knew it as the school with the good basketball team.
DeVaughn's father always told him picking a college was a 40-year decision, not a four-year one. Now he had eight days to research the school, set up a visit and decide if this was the 40-year decision he wanted to make.
"It was like drinking water out of a fire hydrant," DeVaughn said. "It was a lot of information all at once that I had to take in."
DeVaughn isn't the only one. Prestonwood quarterback Wylie Green received a late scholarship offer from Rice. South Oak Cliff co-recruiting coordinator Michael Traylor said some of his kids were still getting scholarship offers a few days before Wednesday's signing day, which marks the beginning of the regular-signing period for football.
After receiving the scholarship offer on last Tuesday, DeVaughn took a visit to Connecticut this weekend, the final opportunity to visit before signing day. He said he had the entire coaching staff to almost exclusively himself as he was one of the only players taking an official visit this past weekend.
The Montana State staff talked with DeVaughn about how long they've been recruiting him, about how Connecticut jumped in late likely because they missed out on someone else. But the opportunity to play at an FBS school that he liked academically was one DeVaughn couldn't pass up.
"If you were to go to any school, whether it's a big school or a small school, you're going to have to put in the work if you want to get on the field," DeVaughn said. "I had to push the fact back to I'm doing this not just for football, so I wasn't really as concerned about it being a late offer."
DeVaughn will sign with UConn on Wednesday, less than a week after visiting the campus for the first time. It's not always that easy.
