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Eboh reflects on Stanford decision

When Cardinal Sports Report last chatted with standout Texas defensive back Obi Eboh, the Southlake Carroll High School star was a few days removed from earning admission into Stanford University and a few days away from taking his official visit to The Farm. He was also still committed to the University of Texas.

Eboh would end up decommitting from the Longhorns about a week after taking his trip to Palo Alto. He then committed to the Cardinal a few days later.

The official visit was a key step in that process.

"The official was very fun," Eboh said. "I hung out with all of the commits and got to be with the Texas guys like Mike and Kaden. Then we got to hang back with K.J., Simi, and Curtis from The Opening. So I was very familiar with them. It was cool to be able to hang out wih those guys and hang out with Solly (Thomas), from Coppell, that I knew. My host was Frank Buncom so I learned a lot from him too."

The trip proved informative on several levels. Eboh had a chance to sit down with Duane Akina, his future position coach, to discuss the details of Eboh's role in the secondary.

"Right now Coach Akina wants me to start out playing corer and then as I learn the defense a little bit more I can transition to maybe a little bit more of a nickel role, kind of wherever I'm needed," Eboh said.

It also provided clarity about the academic path Eboh will take at Stanford.

"Academically I figured out that I'm most likely going to be doing MS&E - Management, Science and Engineering with a financial focus," Eboh said. "So that was probably the biggest thing I took away academically. Before I was kind of set on mathematics and computational science, but once I got to sit down with some of the professors, and actually Coach Shaw was sitting with us at breakfast, so we got to hang out with him during breakfast as well as the professors from the MS&E department, that was really informative. That's what I took away from that side."

If Eboh has any additional questions about the Cardinal before enrolling, he could have a chance to get them answered this spring; members of the Cardinal's 2016 signing class are trying to coordinate a return trip to The Farm during spring ball.

After Eboh returned home from Stanford, he set the wheels in motion on a series of events that would lead to his Cardinal commitment. First, he cancelled his official trip to the University of Texas, which was originally set for the following weekend. Then he announced his decommittment from the Longhorns.

"Honestly, it was very difficult," Eboh said of parting ways with Texas. "Because I honestly had no problems with Texas. And obviously being a Texas guy, that was one of the places I would really look forward to playing for, just because you kind of get to carry on the legacy, coming from Southlake and then going on to play down in Austin. The academics are second to none there as well. The business school was everything I was looking for, and football-wise it has great tradition."

"There really weren't many negatives. So I have great respect for them and what they're trying to do and what they are doing. It was difficult trying to get through that process with cancelling my visit an then telling Coach Strong, who had given me an opportunity, that I wasn't going to attend their school."

If there was a silver lining, it was in the form of a very supportive reaction from the Texas fanbase to Eboh's choice.

That's not always the case, of course. Some of Eboh's friends received angry messages from fans when announced their decommitments on Twitter, and Eboh wasn't entirely sure what he would experience after publicizing his decision.

"Going into it I didn't really know what to expect, because a bunch of my friends decommitted and they got a bunch of hate for it, and it was just bad," Eboh said. "My friend Nick Starkel, who decommited from Oklahoma State, he got a bunch of hate for it.

"And then when I did it, I mean, there were almost zero negative comments. If there was any negativity, it wasn't even relatively that bad. There was really nothing that they said - the people that were actually commenting on my Tweet were saying, 'Can't blame you,' or 'Good luck, that's a great school. You're getting your education, it's the best of both worlds.' So, I mean, it was positive.

"And also the fact that I wasn't really sly about it, per se - I didn't really hide it from Texas. The fans, I kind of gave them a heads up. And I also kind of knew what they were getting - I knew that Eric Cuffee was going to commit, Brandon Jones and a few of the other guys were going to commit... I kind of knew that they were going to get a bunch of those guys and finish really, really strong."

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