Kelly: I Was Going to Notre Dame

Throughout his recruitment Fresno (Calif.) Clovis West five-star linebacker Caleb Kelly has handled the stresses that wear many out with considerable ease. However as the final weeks wound down toward Feb. 3, 2016 the pressures of recruiting finally started to take their toll on the ever-jovial Kelly.

Though after announcing his commitment to Oklahoma on Wednesday night the nation’s No. 14 overall player is enjoying his return to normalcy.

“Now I don’t have a worry in the world. I’m just waiting for my workout book to come, my playbook to come in, I’m just a signee hanging out,” Kelly chuckled. “Oh yeah, I just feel so great, nothing could make me happier right now.”

For a player who has had the time, and opportunity, to think out so many aspects of his decision it should come as no surprise that the answer to ‘when was the moment you knew you were going to Oklahoma’ was not easily come to.

It’s also interesting that it came on a night in which he knew he wanted to go elsewhere.

“It was, I would say it was the night of the in-home, the second to last one. I was so stressed on the ride home, my mom was hitting me with all of these questions and I didn’t want to talk about it or anything. She knew that I needed to make a decision and talk about it and I wanted to go to Notre Dame but I couldn’t say no to coach Mike (Stoops).

“It was crazy. I even remember I was sitting in the car (on the way to the visit with Oklahoma), my mom was driving, I remember I cried two tears; it was crazy I was so stressed out. That was the only time it hit me because I was so set I was going to go to Notre Dame.”

But then a family member asked a question that, apparently Stoops answered in a way that Kelly just couldn’t refuse.

“After that my aunt asked him a question, ‘what puts you ahead of everyone else?’

“He said ‘I do, my people do. The people (at Oklahoma) do. Because Caleb knows that no one wants him as bad as we do, and we love Caleb and we’ve already created such a strong bond with him, why would he want to break that?’ I was like ‘wow, that is so true’,” he recalled.

“I remember just sitting in the car just fighting the tears. Two of them rolling down my cheek, my mom was all sad and everything.”

That’s when Kelly decided to leave his decision up to chance, sort of.

“I don’t know if you heard the ‘hat’ story. I got a piece of paper and wrote Oklahoma and Notre Dame and split in half. My mom was in the other room, I called her in - or I crinkled the paper up before - and then called my mom in and said ‘mom I’m going to get two hats, you’re going to put the balls of paper into the hat, and when I pick that’s the school I’m going to go to,” he explained.

“I went away, gave her the hats, she put the balls under the hat and then I remember I picked up the hat and picked up the ball of paper and I thought ‘damn this is Notre Dame’ because I felt the size of it. I said ‘I guess we’re going to Notre Dame’ but I didn’t say it (aloud) I just said it in my head.”

But that internal conversation led him to his final choice, even though that choice wasn’t located in South Bend.

“I opened up the piece of paper and it was OU and I just felt a weight get lifted off of my shoulders. I was like ‘that’s it mama, that’s where I’m going’. I knew just by my reaction when I thought it was Notre Dame that I didn’t want to go there and I really wanted to go to Oklahoma, and that’s what I did.”

In fact, for Kelly, there was a distinct chance that the second to last Oklahoma visit, as well as the one on the final weekend could have been pointless.

“I was going to commit on Wednesday after Notre Dame came, like silently, but I said I have to wait for Oklahoma. I don’t know why I said that but I just said I have to wait one more time for Oklahoma and I waited,” Kelly recalled.

“And (after all of that) that next Friday I called him and committed. Coach Bob Stoops was going crazy, he was breathing (gasp), saying ‘I’m completely elated right now, I can’t believe this, I’m so happy right now. You’re going to let me sleep so much better tonight. I don’t know how I’m going to be quiet on signing day.

“Mike Stoops was like ‘are you serious, you’re not messing with me right now? Please tell me you aren’t messing with me.” I was like ‘coach I’m serious, we’re going to Oklahoma.”

“He said “We’re going to make a lot of music together, I’m so proud of you. We wanted you so bad, we’re so happy’.”

With his decision now out of the way the nation’s No. 3 outside linebacker has a chance to think about where he may fit into Oklahoma’s plans going forward. And without question he has already given thought to the game that will take place six months, to the day, from his announcement.

“Well in San Antonio I don’t think everybody declared for the draft yet, so I know five out of six guys (are gone), right? I know Dominique (Alexander) wasn’t supposed to go so they are even shorter on numbers. I know they are planning on me being ready physically and mentally,” he admitted.

“That puts more pressure on me but that’s what I like anyway. That’s my goal; I want to go play. I think the first game there is a good chance, at Houston, Sept. 3, I’ll be suiting up and I could be either second string or starting.

“I haven’t even thought about (the game being on an NFL field), that’s going to be something. I haven’t even thought that far ahead, I don’t even think I knew that.

“The day after (J.J. Watt) will be playing there, that’s crazy. That will be emotional.”

On the same day as his announcement it was announced that Fresno native, and former Oklahoma graduate assistant Chip Viney would be staying in Norman as a special teams assistant.

Viney had heard of the news prior to the announcement and had made sure to let California’s No. 2 prospect know of his future plans as well as where he felt his fellow Californian need to be.

“That flipped the switch on him, and he was like ‘bro, I’m staying’. And he hit me with the biggest guilt trip,” Kelly laughed. “I think that’s what made the two tears. I was like sitting there in the car and this man sends me a picture of all four No. 19 jerseys. He said ‘bro I just got a special teams job so I’m staying so I don’t want to have to give these to someone else and he was like ‘I love you man, you know what it is’. I was like ‘damn’.”