Wandale Robinson made it official on Thursday. He's going to the University of Kentucky. In front of a packed gymnasium, the all-purpose back played a video that showed what school he had chosen. It ended with the camera panning into him wearing a Wildcats' shirt and saying "go cats" followed by his friends, who had all been wearing different team shirts, mobbing and celebrating with him.
The announcement ends what had been a whirlwind of rumors surrounding the 4-star prospect.
Nebraska football couldn't overcome the home team
The Huskers had looked as though they were in the driver's seat as late as Tuesday. Recruiting experts all over the country were pushing the idea he was going to be a Husker. That in itself seemed to have been a relatively late change. Rumblings that something might be changing did start this week, as Wandale Robinson talked about what he saw in each school. When he was talking about the positives of each program, he mentioned it would be hard to pick someone other than his home-state team.
At the same time, he said enough glowing things about Nebraska it seemed like there was a chance he was still going to be coming to Lincoln.
Hope that the Huskers were still the leaders was only fueled when he responded to a current Nebraska commit that he "might have to join you," in a Twitter thread. That got several other commits excited about the possibility he had just foreshadowed his plans. It's possible that, when he sent that tweet, he really thought he was still going to be a part of the Nebraska football program. It's also rather obvious that he knew his plans since at least Halloween when a video was shot of him walking down the street with those same college team shirt wearing friends as a precursor to the announcement.
The video showing the team he picked was a continuation of that first video.
Wandale Robinson makes the Huskers go three out of four
While fans of the Nebraska football team are likely a bit disappointed, the announcement comes at the end of a week that saw the Cornhuskers pick up three commitments. Bryce Benhart, Darien Chase and Javin Wright are about the best consolation prizes a team can receive. One also has to wonder if the recruitment for this particular player is really over. It's still going to be pretty hard to pull him away from Kentucky, but it appears there was a legitimate concern, from Wildcat fans, before Wednesday night. Perhaps the Nebraska football team can continue to put on the full-court press and pull a rabbit out of the hat come signing day.