Max Olson, ESPN Staff Writer 12y

Tavares Gardner now open to UT, others

Cornerback Tavares Garner (Manvel, Texas/Manvel) has decommitted from Texas Tech, and he’s setting his sights on another Big 12 school.

The three-star prospect ended his pledge to Texas Tech on Friday and told HornsNation he plans to attend Texas' camp on Sunday.

“If Texas offered me, I would commit to Texas and shut my recruiting down,” Garner said.

The 5-foot-10, 165-pound corner said his breakup with Tech was due in large part to a misunderstanding. Garner said an LSU recruiting website took comments of his out of context and reported that Garner was preparing to decommit.

When Texas Tech coaches received word that Garner was looking to back out, they reached out to him.

“They were mad because they saw in an article I said I was looking forward to decommitting,” Garner said. “But the things that were said during the interview were misunderstood. I was going to be loyal to Texas Tech.”

Why, then, did he decide to end his relationship with the Red Raiders? Garner said he was offended by how his recruiter at Texas Tech responded to the rumors.

“I decommitted because words were said in a message he sent to me that were kind of rude and hurt my feelings,” Garner said. “He messaged me and said be a man about it and decommit now and I’ll go find another cornerback. So I gave him a call and told him I was decommitting. He was OK with that.”

Immediately after news broke of Garner’s decommitment, he began hearing rumors that he was preparing to commit to LSU. Not true, he said.

Garner attended LSU’s camp on Monday, but he said he does not hold an LSU offer and could not see himself playing for the program.

“It’s not my type of school,” Garner said. “I did real good out there, and coach [Les] Miles was there and their defensive coordinator was, too. But my cornerback coach, [Corey] Raymond, he was not nice. I guess he didn’t like what he saw.”

Instead, Garner is reopening his recruitment and focusing primarily on Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State and Baylor.

He’s looking forward to finding out if his performance at the Longhorns’ camp on Sunday will merit a scholarship offer.

“I know Texas and coach [Duane] Akina and the staff are looking for another DB,” Garner said. “I should be that DB. I hope they offer me when I get there and they see me.”

Texas Tech now has seven pledges for its 2013 recruiting class. Garner is the second defensive back to decommit from the class after safety Jordan Sterns (Cibolo, Texas/Steele) switched his commitment from Tech to Oklahoma State last month.

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