Four-star recruit Dakyus Brinkley talks about commitment to Kansas

Dakyus Brinkley said he wanted to be patient with recruiting. After his official visits he said did not know if he would decide during the summer or take his recruiting into the season.

He spoke with his parents and discussed his options. There were several phone calls with Kansas cornerbacks coach Jordan Peterson.

After going over all the information, he concluded he was ready to commit.

“I was talking to Coach Peterson for I want to say a week,” he said. “I was talking to him for the whole week leading up to my commitment, and we were discussing things. We went over some things, and he was giving me great advice. He was just like, ‘At the end of the day, I just want you to go where you feel where you are needed. Somewhere you think that is home.’ I was telling him, ‘At Kansas, you all got the best opportunity to give me right now.’”

There were several factors that led to Brinkley’s decision to end his recruiting. It came down to talking with his parents and looking back at the information he had on the Jayhawks.

When did he know he was ready to commit?

“All I know is discussing it with my parents, as well with Coach Peterson and some outside sources,” he said. “And what I really noticed is that there's not a bunch of programs that's like KU. So, once you take a trip to KU, everybody has a thought of KU being boring, and this and that, but it's really the opposite. It's a great college town where on game day tickets are going to be sold out and people are going to show up.”

Brinkley said it came down to the people. He had a long-standing relationship with Peterson. He built a good bond with defensive ends coach Taiwo Onatolu. And there were his talks with head coach Lance Leipold.

“Ever since the recruiting really started and my relationship with Coach Peterson started, I want to say Kansas has always been there,” Brinkley said. “Kansas has always been the school that showed me love. Jayhawk fans are crazy.

“Ever since we had a connection, we just clicked, and they've been on me ever since then. It's been a real genuine situation. And I see what Coach Leipold is doing with the program, and I just want to be a part of that.”

The four-star outside linebacker communicated to the coaching staff and told them he wanted to join the KU program. It started with text messages and ended with a phone call to Leipold.

“I texted Coach Leipold, Coach Pete, and Coach O,” he said. “And I called Coach Leipold. I had to call the head man and let him know. He let me know everything, and he was so excited. And once I called Coach Peterson, I think he was on the beach at the time, and when I broke the news to him, he was excited. He didn't even expect that I was going to call him with that type of news. I called Coach O and I got the same reaction. They were very excited, and I told him I was ready to make history. Let's just go out there and make it happen.”

Brinkley had offers from Texas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Penn State, Texas A&M and several other programs. He was one of the standouts at the Rivals Camp Series in Dallas. After making his decision he is ready to focus on his senior season at Katy High.

“It feels awesome,” Brinkley said. “Actually, it feels amazing to know that I can go out there my senior year and just ball out. But I'm really, really excited to go back to KU to visit for a game. That's what I was telling Coach Pete, I'm ready to come back on a visit for sure.”