Chaska's Matt Kegel woke up Wednesday and signed his national letter of intent at 7:01 a.m.
When it went through the fax machine at 7:03, Kegel was officially an Oklahoma State Cowboy, completing what seemed like destiny from the time he walked onto a football field.
Kegel said he was in third grade when his grandfather took him to his first practice. Kegel — now a 6-6, 300-pound offensive lineman — joked he was 100 pounds heavier than everyone.
Parents on the sideline started clapping and laughing as Kegel approached.
A few years later, his football career will take him more than 750 miles from Chaska to Stillwater, Okla.
"It's like a birthday," Kegel said of signing day. "It's the day you don't sleep before because you're so excited for the morning."
Kegel originally committed to Minnesota but changed his mind in December, not long after Jerry Kill retired as Minnesota's coach.
The three-star recruit previously had an offer from Oklahoma State, and he had plenty of connections there. His mother, Leslie, is from Enid, Okla., and attended school at OSU as did several family members before her. Kegel will become at least a fourth-generation Cowboy (the family isn't positive whether a great-great-grandfather actually attended the school). OSU even briefly recruited his father, Chris, in high school.
