Tight end recruit Reese Leitao will be allowed to keep his scholarship and join the Texas football program, athletic director Mike Perrin announced in a statement Monday afternoon.
Leitao entered a guilty plea on May 23 in Tulsa to a reduced charge of misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance. He also received a four-year deferred sentence. Leitao had originally been charged with felony possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a school. The police report indicated that Leitao had been arrested with 19 Xanax pills.
"We've reviewed and discussed at length the circumstances surrounding our football signee Reese Leitao," Perrin said in a statement. "After considerable reflection, I have decided to allow him to be a part of our program. Based on several discussions with people who know Reese well as a person both on and off the field, he's been a good student, highly-regarded teammate and leader among his peers. All indications are that he's a young man with a history of good character and behavior who made a poor decision."
A product of Jenks High School, Leitao (6-4, 234) was rated as the eighth best recruit in Oklahoma by the 247Sports composite.
Perrin said Leitao was "contrite, sincere and accountable" when the recruit and his parents met with Perrin recently.
With the decision, Perrin and new coach Tom Herman are taking a gamble that the arrest was just an isolated incident and a case of incredibly bad judgment.
The scrutiny will be high on both Leitao and the program, especially after former coach Charlie Strong took a hard line on player discipline.
"He understands that he will, strongly, be held to a very high standard of behavior at the University of Texas," Perrin said. "He committed to me that he will take this negative action and turn it into a positive outcome. Reese is determined to make this situation a turning point in his life and not an event that defines his character."
