Both had scholarship offers from the Texas Longhorns.
But Wednesday, they will spurn their home state and sign across the Red River with rival Oklahoma.
In all, OU should land at least 10 — and maybe 11 — recruits from the Lone Star State on signing day.
The reason?
Several of these OU commitments said they preferred the recruiting method of the Sooner coaches compared with the Texas coaches.
"Texas was like, you live in Texas, you should want to come to Texas,” said Washington, a defensive end from Keller who was the top-rated overall player in the state. "I was like, what? Uh, good luck with that one. Texas seemed kind of stuck up, snooty.”
For years, the biggest difference in how OU and Texas have approached recruiting is that the Longhorns prefer to have all their recruits verbally committed by the end of the summer.
The Sooners, meanwhile, typically take the entire recruiting season to put together a class.
"That's the contrast in how they attack the process,” said Jeremy Crabtree, national recruiting editor for Rivals.com. "Texas likes to go after it early. It's more of a reality for Texas to recruit earlier because of all the talent in the state.”
Washington, however, said he didn't like that the Longhorns expected an immediate commitment from him.
"They offer you and you have a couple of weeks to commit or they take your scholarship away,” he said. "It's only the biggest decision in your life, but hey, you can make it in a couple of weeks.”
Washington didn't feel that same pressure from the Sooner coaches, which is one of the principal reasons he chose OU.
"OU was pretty straightforward, no sweet talking,” he said. "They said, ‘We're going to push you and you're going to get better or you're going to quit.' ”
Ironically, Washington ended up committing to OU before any other Sooner recruit.
"Bob Stoops has never been one to say, ‘Hey, I need your commitment right now — commit this week or it's over with,' ” Crabtree said. "OU has the reputation of saying, we like you, here's the offer, we'd love to have you. If you don't come our way, we'll beat you with somebody else.”
Good, an offensive tackle who is the No. 3 overall recruit from Texas, committed to OU in part because of the relationship the Sooner coaches had built with him over his high school career.
Good's high school coach, Travis Smith, called Kevin Wilson, then OU's offensive line coach, four years ago to tell him about Good, then a freshman at Paris High School
Smith phoned the Texas staff on the same day, too.
Wilson and quarterbacks coach Josh Heupel arrived in Paris to see Good much sooner than any Longhorn coach.
"I told them, whoever gets here first is going to get him,” Smith said. "OU got here first.”
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It is really sad that you cannot speak proudly of your own school on National Signing Day. Instead of running an article regarding a great class, you end up writing about UT. Texas just says we are going to sign 2 WR's, and if they get verbals from people they want, they tell the rest there is no more room. Yes, there is competition, but not pressure.
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