Oklahoma just landed a former Texas A&M committed quarterback in Trevor Knight. Missouri just landed highly rated QB prospect in Maty Mauk. These two commitments, more than likely, cut down the competition of the originally cited top four schools of Gunner Kiel down to two. Indiana and Alabama are the only two left if we are to assume that the commitments of Knight and Mauk mean that neither school is still interested.
Oklahoma’s Trevor Knight is a dual threat quarterback that seemingly fits the Oklahoma program slightly better than what Kiel would have. For one, the distance seems to have an effect on Kiel’s decision and secondly Knight sitting his freshman year to learn the system would be an easier pill to swallow for an already solid depth chart. Gunner Kiel sitting his first year would be tough to imagine. Instead, of going to Oklahoma and potentially sitting the first year, Kiel has the options of Missouri, Alabama and Indiana where he can start immediately.
The situation with Missouri is similar to Oklahoma. Maty Mauk is a hell of a prospect in his own right and to add Kiel to the same recruiting class would cause a major logjam at the position. Neither Mauk nor Kiel would benefit from the situation there. One would have to sit for four years behind the other. I’d imagine that with the commitment of Mauk we can also hypothetically rule out the Kiel to Missouri possibility. So that narrows us down to Indiana or Alabama.
Alabama and Indiana are allegedly the final two left in the competition for top quarterback Gunner Kiel and through some twisted logic that will follow you can see that it is inevitable that Kiel will be a Hoosier in 2012. The biggest influence in Kiel’s recruitment is not the coaches or fans but another player. Jameis Winston (an Alabama native) is also looking very interested in Alabama. Kiel is the consensus top rated pro-style quarterback. Winston is the consensus top rated dual threat quarterback. Neither is going to be competing at the same school and it would appear Alabama is in a win-win situation with a great chance of landing one of them.
Another major factor is what I call the Kevin Wilson effect. Kevin Wilson has been brilliant in helping to develop pro-style quarterbacks in his time at Oklahoma. Much like Tom Crean has his shining superstar in Dwyane Wade, Wilson has his own young superstar in Sam Bradford. If you want to be a successful quarterback at the next level, going to play for Kevin Wilson would seemingly be one of your best options. So that is definitely a point to Indiana since Alabama is a run first offense. They haven’t, in the Nick Saban era, had any QB that was over the top fantastic.
I think these two points add up for the Hoosiers. I believe it is pretty certain that Kiel will wind up at Indiana and play for his "hometown" team. He has the opportunity to be an impact recruit/player for the program and lead them out of terrible and at least into mediocrity. As another side note, by choosing Indiana, if Kiel pans out and is as good as advertised he’ll be looking to go pro in 4 or 5 years. Hypothetically, if he does as well as expected in his college career he’ll be a highly touted draft pick. Peyton Manning will be 39-40 years old at the time Kiel will be looking to go pro. The Colts are really going to need a replacement. I’m not saying, I’m just saying. Just food for thought.