J.W. Walsh transferring? “Heck no,” says his father
Whenever a quarterback competition is settled by naming a starter, speculation immediately starts swirling about the other contenders transferring. There’s (usually) only one guy who gets to throw the football, after all.
That’s already happened with J.W. Walsh–and to a lesser extent, Clint Chelf–after OSU announced Thursday that true freshman early enrollee Wes Lunt had earned the starting job.
But Walsh’s father, John, who is also the head coach at Guyer High School in Denton, Texas, told the Denton Record-Chronicle that Walsh is not considering transferring right now.
“Heck no,” John said.
“Just talking to him, he’s disappointed but he still loves Oklahoma State football and he’s fired up about going to work. Knowing J.W., this will probably turn his work ethic up a couple of notches.
“I know how he’ll respond. I feel bad for him because of how he’s feeling, but I’m still excited about what’s in store for 2012.”
John said he spoke to J.W. shortly after the announcement was made Thursday and that coaches told his son he would still have an opportunity to play. I’ve said before that I fully expect a package to be built for J.W. with both running plays and passing plays. The coaches think too highly of J.W.’s athleticism to leave him on the sideline.
“His initial feeling was disappointment, and probably a little ticked off,” John said. “But in the same breath, he was talking really logically. There’s going to be lots of disappointments before he graduates and it’s how you react that determines your success.”
What’s most interesting to me is to see how this decision affects the Guyer-OSU pipeline that has been developed over the past couple years.
J.W., wide receiver Josh Stewart and defensive end Jimmy Bean are all from the school, and “athlete” Dominic Ramacher is a 2012 signee that will arrive in Stillwater in the fall. On display in John’s office at Dention High School are framed 8×10 photos of J.W., Stewart and Bean in orange OSU jerseys.
Guyer has two 2013 recruits rated three-star prospects by Rivals in offensive lineman Patrick Morris (committed to TCU) and wide receiver Ellis Jefferson. Oklahoma State is not listed as a school Jefferson is interested in or that has offered him.
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