Payton Makes Surprise Decision

For the second time in a week, a player we thought was ear marked for Arizona State has committed to Oregon State instead. A week ago, it was Western (Calif.) linebacker Will Price and now the Beavs have landed an even bigger fish in Covina (Calif.) South Hills defensive back Bryan Payton.

Payton, a 6-1, 185 pound corner said just a week ago he was a huge Sun Devil and after a home visit by the coaches last Thursday, came close to canceling his visit to Corvallis. The only reason he gave for taking the visit to OSU at the time was because he felt he owed it to the coaches for how hard they had been recruiting him all season. By Saturday night, he knew he wanted to be a Beaver.

“Saturday night, Bryan called Jeremy (twin brother-ASU commit) and asked him if he would be OK with it if he went to Oregon State,” Saul Payton, the twins father said. “Jeremy said he was fine with it and told Bryan he has to do what’s best for him. Sunday when he came home, we sat down and started comparing the two schools. He said, ‘dad, I think I want to go to Oregon State.’ I asked him if he was sure about it and he said he was. To be honest, I was totally floored myself because I thought he was just taking the visit as a courtesy as well.

“Bryan really liked it there and one of the big selling points for him was how many corners Oregon State has put in to the League (NFL) the last few years. They’ve had something like six or seven defensive backs go to the NFL in the last few years and that’s Bryan’s ultimate goal. He loves all the coaches there and feels he’ll be able to learn from some pretty good corners already there. Brandon Browner is an incredible player and their other corner was All Pac 10 last year too.

“The coaches told us that if Bryan can be the No. 3 corner next year, he’ll play a lot of nickel because of how many multiple sets you see in the Pac 10. If not, he’ll red-shirt and then have a chance to start for four straight years and he’s fine with that. It’s definitely been a wild ride for us from the time he committed to UCLA way back in the summer. I was glad to see UCLA pick up a couple of good corner prospects in the last week and we know they’ll be fine. This is a business though and we all understand that. Hopefully things work out good for everyone.”