Linebacker's Wait Pays Big Dividends

Denton Guyer senior passed up smaller offers for big one

Imagine being a high school graduate who loves playing football -- and has the talent to play at the college level -- and wondering if you'd blown your chance of doing so.

That's what Denton Guyer middle linebacker Cody Marley was wondering after national signing day came and went on Feb. 4.

The 6-foot, 235-pounder with a healthy nasty disposition on the football field and a knack for the football, was a sought-after player early on in his senior season. After an injury slowed him midway through the year, the potential offers slowed as well.

He thought he was a BCS conference-caliber player and didn't want to settle for one of the three offers he had received from Texas-El Paso, Utah State and Tulane. But that decision appeared to have backfired on him as no other offers came, despite the fact he was in serious discussions with schools such as Oklahoma State, South Carolina and most recently Pittsburgh, which actually wanted him to come and gray-shirt.

Then Kansas State legend Bill Snyder came calling.

Apparently, Marley had been to Manhattan, Kan., a couple of times, and it turns out it was one of his favorite towns that he visited in the recruiting process. The Wildcats were near the top of his list from the get-go, but they just never really got in on him.

Then Snyder came out of retirement in November when Kansas State brought back their legendary coach, and Marley sent him his film. Snyder liked what he saw.

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Marley is the second member of Guyer's front seven to sign with a Division I school (tackle Spencer Wilson is going to Navy), and Guyer also has one of the top defensive line recruits in the country for 2010 in Taylor Bible, who's committed to Texas.

We might look back in a few years and see just how good that front seven was this past season as they led the previously 1-19 team to the state semifinals in the program's third year of existence.

Adam Boedeker is a sports writer/blogger for the Denton Record-Chronicle.

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