Luke not showing his hand

Four-star cornerback Cole Luke has gone from totally undecided to intentionally obstructive. The Chandler (Ariz.) High School senior has the grin to match his new persona.

Following his team's blowout victory over Mesa (Ariz.) Dobson on Friday night, the star defensive back wore his smile as he deflected question about his recruitment. Turns out, Luke has a frontrunner. It also turns out that he's keeping it to himself. And so the question is asked pointblank:

Is Cole Luke, as some think, leaning toward Texas?

"I can't say," he says.

"You can't say or you won't say," he's asked.

"I won't say," he replies. His grin stretches to an almost cartoon-like level.

The high school senior is as versed in coach-speak as anyone his age. He describes his official visit to Texas simply as "good." He says the usual cordial things about Mack Brown and outlines the on-campus activities.

"I got situated in Austin, put my stuff in my hotel room, met for team meetings before the game, talked to Coach Mack a little bit, talked to Coach (Duane) Akina, ate and went over to the game," he said.

He describes everything that took place, all the while being careful not to discuss his reaction or feelings. Ask him about the trip he took to Notre Dame just weeks earlier, and his response is just as vanilla.

"It was pretty much the same," Luke says. "The trips were scheduled pretty much the same. Both of them were comfortable. They were both about me being able to see myself there for four years."

The most interesting thing Luke has to say on this night concerns a loose timetable for a verbal commitment. But even that has an odd aura. He's set to take an official visit to Oklahoma on Oct. 27 and would like to take one to Arizona State sometime after that. If that happens, though, Luke will likely arrive on the Sun Devils' campus as a committed player.

Attempting to make sense of the logic at work there is a monumental task.

"I want to have a decision sometime after OU but before ASU, most likely," he says. "I keep in contact with Arizona State a lot. They invite me to practices now and then. I don't know how to put it. It's just one of those relationships that happen with the home-state school."

Asked if the strange timetable he's created for his decision means anything, good or bad, for the Sun Devils, he answers in traditional Cole Luke fashion.

"I can't say," he says again. "I just have to wait and play it out."