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football Edit

Loyalist flips to Mountain West

For months linebacker Dakota Cox was actively touting the praises of the University of Cincinnati. His passion for the program ran deep.
Sunday night he became another recruiting casualty of the coaching transition. Last week Isaiah Gourdine, Robert Davis, and A.J. Branisel decommitted. This week Kyle Kempt and Dylan Wiesman followed suit.
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Throughout the change Cox maintained his allegiance.
He was ectatic with the coaching hire and looked forward to being recruited by Tommy Tuberville and the new staff.
Admittedly the new staff is still being cobbled together and the first hires of Eddie Gran and Darin Hinshaw were homerun selections. Both have fantastic recruiting credentials, particularly in Florida.
Regardless Tuberville and his recruiters never reached out to Cox in the eight days after being hired.
A week ago Cox and his family felt enough time had passed for Coach Tuberville to reach out, but they remained nervously patient.
"Talk soon," messaged BearcatReport.com on Facebook. "I am hopeful to hear from Cincinnati new coaches soon!"
Last Thursday Cox texted BearcatReport.com another update.
"I still haven't heard anything from Cincinnati, but I'm hoping to hear from them soon!"
Without any assurances that his offer still stood Cox embraced the idea of University of New Mexico football.
"I took an unofficial to the University of New Mexico this weekend," said Cox Sunday evening on his Facebook page. "I have committed tonight! They offered a few months ago! Its going to be great opportunity to play for Coach Bob Davie!"
It is completely possible UC did not want to sign Dakota Cox. Maybe Cox doesn't fit the profile of a recruit that Coach Tuberville would like to bring in.
For frame of reference QB Kyle Kempt, who has also decommitted, got a phone call the day before Coach Tuberville added Eddie Gran to his staff.
It would have been easy to share this information with the dangling recruit and that alone appears to be the worst ethical infringement in this scenario.
Cox told the Salt Lake Tribune he was unsettled with the silence.
"We're going into this quiet period and, I thought, 'If I don't hear from them now, I probably won't hear from them at all until January.' My dad called the AD at Cincinnati twice and he didn't return his call. It didn't feel right anymore, so we started looking around," Cox explained.
Dakota has recently been upgraded to a 3-star football prospect by Rivals.com.
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