RECRUITING: Obi Eboh Ready for Texas

2016 Southlake Carroll cornerback Obi Eboh is a physical specimen for defensive back coaches everywhere. One look at his lean, long-armed 6’1, 180 lb. frame tells you he is perfectly built to develop into a shutdown cornerback. Last Friday against Midland Lee in their home opener, Eboh was rarely challenged. Strike that. He was never challenged. As each Midland Lee play ran primarily to the other side of the field, Eboh had to make the most of his opportunities when they presented themselves. First, Lee tried to run a bubble screen to his side and Eboh neutralized the blocker, laying out the receiver out separating him from the ball. Eboh blew up the play. The Southlake sideline exploded, while the receiver, who never saw the train coming, crawled on his hands and knees to the sideline for help.

That was Eboh summed up in one play; awareness, quickness, strength, aggression, and big play ability.

For Eboh, he was just glad to be back inside the friendly confines of Dragon Stadium.

“It’s awesome. It’s always nice to play at home, and this is one of four home games for the seniors. It’s always good to come back and have the support of everybody in Southlake.”

The Dragons have already logged more miles than a touring road show, as they opened the season in the state capitol against Austin Westlake. Then they traveled to Tulsa last week to play state of Oklahoma powerhouse Union High School.

The Midland Lee matchup pitted two traditional powerhouses against one another, although Lee has lost a lot of the winning prowess it held in the late 90’s and early part of this century. Southlake set a goal early on and accomplished it as they raced out to a huge halftime lead.

“Our defense in the first half played pretty physical. We set a goal of coming out strong in the first half, and finishing even stronger and I think we accomplished that goal.”

After months into the recruiting process without an offer from Texas, Eboh received an offer from Charlie Strong and committed almost immediately. While some recruits are turned off to schools that don’t offer them early enough, Eboh remained patient within the process.

“I remained in contact with Coach Strong, Coach Vaughn, and Coach Bedford throughout the recruiting process so it wasn’t too surprising. Texas is the basically all I’ve looked for both academically and athletically in a school. They have a great business school in McCombs, and that’s what I looked for along with fan support and great tradition.”

Eboh committed hours before Texas was soundly defeated 38-3 by Notre Dame in South Bend. Most would expect a prospect to regret their decision under the circumstances, but as with everything else, Eboh shows a patient and rational thought process.

“Coach Strong is going to regroup and come out even stronger against Rice,” Eboh said. “Notre Dame is a good football team, there are just some things that need to get fixed maybe offensively or defensively but it wasn’t a concern for me.”

Now that Eboh is committed, he’s focused on getting to Austin for a game and doing some recruiting.

“I’m going down with Lil’Jordan (Humphrey) and maybe Shane Buechele for the Cal game”. Eboh says he is doing his best to work on his teammate, Humphrey, who also holds a Texas offer. “We’re trying to get him down there so we’ll see what happens.”

Not satisfied with only Humphrey, Eboh also has his sights set on 2017 safety Robert Barnes who committed to Oklahoma last week.

“I know Robert Barnes is committed to Oklahoma, but I’m working on him too. We are just trying to establish this class and get it going.”

Besides recruiting current Southlake players, Eboh tells us he just wants to build a stronger relationship with the rest of the commits in his class.

“I’m friends with Shane. I know DeMarco Boyd and Reggie Hemphill followed me on twitter. We’re just kind of getting that relationship going and seeing where it goes from there”.