Posts tagged Recruiting at FanHouse

An early signing period may be coming to college football. In fact, in a recent American Football Coaches Association poll, 73% of coaches favored an AFCA recommendation for an early signing period. Signing Day would then shift from February to December. The AFCA sent those findings to coaches, and Pete Carroll flipped.

Carroll is especially upset - he faxed back his response with "this is a terrible change!!" scrawled across the bottom

Exclamation point exclamation point (!!). Nice.

I'm with Carroll on this one, the proposal would be ridiculously unfair to the athletes. It also likely furthers Carroll's opinion that other coaches are "lazy". Coaches are still being hired and fired after December, the season's not over, and not all players have been able to make recruiting visits or would rather make them once the high school and college football seasons have ended.

There's no reason to lock players into commitments especially when recruiting is a two-way, usually lengthy information gathering process. The greater amount of time given to it, the more all parties are able to gather about the other and make the best possible decision.

This is bad policy.

I've got a forum here at FanHouse to make my opinion known, but I admire Carroll's less nuanced Fax Machine Diplomacy. Maybe he's onto something.

Here's hoping your school isn't using whiskey as mouthwash thinking about who it woke up next to this morning

Themes

USC Soars Late, Pulls Shocker

Tallahassee Lincoln kids love to flirt, and they're never lacking for suitors. But when push comes to shove, the vast majority of them break hearts and stick with the hometown Seminoles. So it came as a complete shock to many people when highly regarded cornerback T.J. Bryant cast his lot with Pete Carroll and USC.

USC lost out on Alabama linebacker Jerrell Harris, but did pull in Bryant, Michigan linebacker Nick Perry and Los Angeles linebacker Uona Kavienga throughout the second half of the day to slide into 7th place in the Rivals.com rankings. It's been a great month of recruiting overall as USC recently got a pledge from the nation's top player for 2009 in quarterback Matt Barkley along with several other preliminary top 100 recruits. Damn.

Back To The Future

As expertly stated by EDSBS, the top of the recruiting rankings have a certain 1985 feel. Alabama, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Miami ... thank heaven for moth balls.

Miscellany

Notre Dame has a great deal to prove on the field after last year's disaster and two consecutive BCS flops. However, the Irish were magnificent in holding together their recruiting class and finding some decent guys in the trenches (at least on defense, anyway). The same can be said for UCLA after the departure of coach Karl Dorrell.

Jumpin' Sam McGuffie briefly flirted with California, but he's come home now and will stick with Michigan.

Puuuuuuuuuuuuure fiction.

Refresher: a high school football recruit out of Nevada named Kevin Hart made a commitment to California several days ago. Problem was, Cal hadn't recruited him. Neither had any other schools. That prompted an investigation and the involvement of law enforcement.

The story soon centered around a mysterious recruiter who allegedly duped the poor high school senior.

Turns out we were all duped. SportsByBrooks is reporting (via the Reno Gazette-Journal) that Kevin Hart has admitted making it all up.

"I wanted to play D-I ball more than anything. When I realized that wasn't going to happen, I made up what I wanted to be reality. I am sorry for disappointing and embarrassing my family, coaches, Fernley High School, the involved universities and reporters covering the story."

Now the school district "continues to conduct its internal investigation into how so many people were duped by the high school senior."

I betcha that'll look good on his transcripts.

Previously at FanHouse
Football Recruit Commits to Cal, Law Enforcement Gets Involved

"At heart, I'm a 'Cane"

Is Miami back? The 'Canes sure aren't hurting for having signed Harris in assembling the nation's #4 recruiting class. Now about that offense . . .

Good debate here between ESPN's Robert Smith and Jesse Palmer.

Palmer says Terrelle Pryor is raw as a passer, and would be better suited with his skills at spread schools Oregon and Michigan (welcome to the modern age, fellas). Ohio State's pro-style offense involves a fullback and tight ends and might be overwhelming for a guy that raw.

Smith makes it known Pryor simply won't redshirt and if he went to Ohio State, its offense would most certainly change. Lost in all that discussion: Penn State, the presumed favorite of Pryor's father. Good stuff.

Much-hyped Notre Dame was overshadowed for once today, but here's guessing their fans don't mind. As a rule Notre Dame players seem to be a bit overrated by the recruiting services but across the nation there seems to be a vibe that Notre Dame's Signing Day haul was commendable. Rivals currently gives the Irish the #2 signing class, not far behind Alabama despite only 23 commitments to the Tide's 32.

So what gives? Was it luck of the Irish or simply a shrewd recruiting season for beleaguered coach Charlie Weis?

Here's guessing playing time was a major factor. Notre Dame played an army of young players last year. They looked terrible for it, posting the team's worst record in seemingly forever. Somehow that bad record and little hope for next year could be overlooked by many.

Among the best gets for Notre Dame: Ohio tight end Kyle Rudolph (nation's #20 player), California Quarterback Dayne Crist the nation's #25 player, tallish Minnesota receiver Michael Floyd (#27), Oregon defensive end Ethan Johnson (#32), Nebraska offensive lineman Trevor Robinson (#37), Michigan tailback Jonas Gray (#72) and Chicago linebacker Darius Fleming (#89).

Notre Dame also managed to steal defensive end Kapron Lewis-Moore at the last minute from Texas A&M. Wednesday's big story was the retention of 6'-4" Virginia receiver Deion Walker who appeared ready to freak out and head to Penn State before sticking with the Irish.

Nick Saban is not a likable guy. Sometimes he drives his car into trees. He may have even inspired an NCAA recruiting rule. But hoo boy, can the $32 million dollar man recruit.

It helps that their signing class is 32 strong (the NCAA permits a maximum of 25 recruits to sign in any given class - there will be some creative accounting at work to make this class happen), but just the same the 'Tide signed an impressive class.

Among the notables are the nation's #4 player, wide receiver Julio Jones, the nation's #30 player offensive tackle Tyler Love, the nation's #38 player linebacker Jerrell Harris and the nation's #55 player, athlete Mark Barron. The 'Tide also signed Florida quarterback Star Jackson.

Reflecting the athlete first, football player second mentality so prevalent in the SEC, Alabama signed four four-star "athletes" as well as a fifth designated with a fifth star. It was a class loaded with quantity and quality, giving a major boost to second-year coach Nick Saban. For comparison's sake, in-state rival Auburn stands at 20th in the most recent rankings while Saban's former employer LSU registers the nation's 11th-best signing class.

Alabama was just 7-6 last year, but Saban and staff were able to sign players from nine state, as well as Alabama. Overall 14 of Alabama's 32 commits are from out of state, reflecting the program's sudden national pull under Saban.
Sorry, No Photos

Few things in life are as heartwarming as a lifelong bond between father and son. Playing catch in the backyard. Going fishing. Hell, getting a little homework help. But then young men eventually grow up and gain independence and make decisions that take them away from their fathers.

Nowhere is that more public than in the recruiting game. Many times a player will stick with his father (see Luke Bellotti playing at Oregon for his father Mike Bellotti or quarterback Cody Hawkins heading to Colorado to play for his old man). But while blood may be thicker than water, sometimes blood doesn't have the pull it should.

Last year, Georgia coach Mark Richt's son Jon Richt pledged to play quarterback for Clemson over his fathers' Dawgs. No doubt a tough decision for a closeknit family like that. The separation continues this year as it is rumored UCLA defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker's son Kevan, a receiver prospect, will not stick with dear old dad at UCLA but instead play for the Oregon State Beavers.

The upshot to all of this is that while recruiting is a competitive, sometimes nasty business, coaches recruiting a fellow coaches' son must tone down his pitch which can only help but improve relations between coaches.

Here's the headlines

The Terrelle Pryor saga continues . . .

With Pryor holding a big announcement to apparently make it clear that he's delaying his announcement decision. Whenever the nation's top recruit does decide, it will likely come down to Michigan, Ohio State or Penn State. Pryor has drawn comparisons to former Texas legend Vince Young

Florida is having a rough morning

The Gators nearly lost big-time defensive tackle Omar Hunter, but after a slight freak-out he held to his commitment. However, two other pledges shook at that last minute, losing defensive back Ramon Buchanan to Miami and offensive lineman Ricky Barnum to Michigan. Speaking of Michigan . . .

Great morning for the Wolverines

Not only did Michigan steal center Ricky Barnum from Florida, they also plucked receiver Roy Roundtree from a previous pledge to Purdue. Now, the Wolverines did lose in-state defensive end Nick Perry to USC, but overall it's been a fine morning as they may also add Ohio running back Michael Shaw.

The Day Isn't Over

A decent handful of at-large recruits have yet to announce, among them Rivals 5-star recruits Alabama receiver Julio Jones and California running back Darrell Scott (choosing between Texas or Colorado).

Coming up later we'll have a brief look at what schools appear to have signed the best recruiting classes. Given the state of recruiting the last few years, some of them are a bit of a surprise.

Top of the mornin'!

For the college football recruiting nuts, today is Christmas as players can officially sign and commit to the schools of their choice and the handful of remaining uncommitted players not named Terrelle Pryor tend to finally announce where they're going. Be sure to bang this link and hit refresh every few minutes to get your fix on that.

In the meantime, enjoy the following list of 10 Things Signees Never Say on Signing Day, reproduced from the Atlanta Journal Constitution's PrepZone Blog:

10: "I knew I was going to State U. after my visit; I just strung everybody else along."

9: "I really wanted to go to USC, but when they didn't offer I figured State U. would have to do."

8: "Honestly, the only reason I chose State U. was because they had the hottest girls."

7: "Their first-string running back really isn't very good, so I know I should be able to start the first game."

6: "Did you see the size of the jet State U. sent to pick me up for my visit?"

5: "It didn't really matter which school I chose because I'll be in the NFL the first chance I get, anyway."

4: "I just signed with them to give me some leverage in the baseball draft. I won't be going anywhere near campus once I get drafted."

3: "Academics was important to Mama, but I really liked the club scene in Tallahassee."

2: "Awwwww... I wasn't seriously gonna go to Michigan. Do you know how cold it is up there in January?"

1: "I'm glad they don't know that I tore my ACL last week in a pickup basketball game."