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When former Cardinals head coach Charlie Strong resigned to accept the Texas job, Poona Ford's commitment to Louisville kept coming up as a potential casualty of the coaching change. That finally happened on Friday morning, the day after Bobby Petrino became Louisville's new head coach.
Poona Ford has decommitted from Louisville. He will take his official visits to Oregon, Texas and Mizzou.
— Chris Cox (@IPBG_Chris) January 10, 2014
More surprising than the news of Ford's decommitment is the fact that he has apparently eliminated South Carolina from consideration for an official visit. As recently as Dec. 30, Ford appeared to have a renewed interest in the Gamecocks.
"I might set up an official visit with USC," Ford said. "It depends on how my official visit with Louisville goes." Ford said he's continuing to get a strong push from the Gamecocks. "I talk to coach Sands pretty much every day," he said. "He's been asking when I'm going to take my visit. I like Louisville but South Carolina is my hometown team. Everything is based off my visit to Louisville. At the Shrine Bowl, I was chilling with some of the South Carolina commitments (Shaq Davidson, Kevin Crosby Jr.) and we kind of bonded. But as of right now, I'm committed to Louisville." And a third school in the mix, according to Ford, is Missouri. He'll make the final call on Signing Day.
While it's certainly not a good sign for Carolina that the 6'0, 285 lineman hasn't set up an official visit to Columbia, it doesn't necessarily mean that he isn't still looking at the Gamecocks. Especially with in-state prospects, it's not terribly uncommon for recruits to evaluate a program before--or, in some cases, without--taking an official visit. In those situations, however, the players have usually visited campus several times in an unofficial capacity. Ford, though, has only checked out the Gamecocks once. And that was more than a year ago.
