Do you know the way to Lubbock? Here’s a hint: if you’re coming from the Houston area, you aren’t supposed to pass through Nacogdoches, as four high school football players learned the hard way when they tried to take in the March 24 Red-Black Game.
As Will McKay of RedRaiderSports.com reported:
Houston (Texas) Bellaire wide receiver Devin Lauderdale — a Texas Tech commit — and three other Houston-area players were planning on making the roughly 550-mile drive to Lubbock, Texas, to take in the school’s Spring Game.
“(We) didn’t use a GPS, and we didn’t even know we were going the wrong way,” Lauderdale said. “So we were driving (and we ended up) in East Texas.”
Once in Nacodoches, the quartet realized their mistake and that they no longer had time to make the trip to the correct destination, so they just headed back to Houston.
The other players who accompanied Lauderdale were Manvel cornerback Tavares Garner (who is also reportedly bound for Tech), Sharpstown inside linebacker Reggie Chevis, and Yates running back Arthur Lockett. Upon hearing the news, Texas A&M head football coach Kevin Sumlin offered all four players scholarships.*
“Is giving a kid a GPS a recruiting violation?,” asked Sports Illustrated‘s Jimmy Traina, knowing full well that it is.
At the Big Lead, Jason McIntyre added in a shot at Lubbock: “You can look at it from the Texas Tech point of view: ‘Kids can’t read a map? Probably can’t read a playboook,'” he wrote. “Or you can look at it from the recruits point of view: ‘Who wants to spend four years in some small town in the middle of nowhere?’”
Lauderale told McKay that he’d get back to Lubbock soon enough. “We’re [still going to] go down there this spring,” he said.
(By which he presumably means “up there”).
*(Editor’s Note: It’s an Aggie joke, people.)
