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Snake-Oil That Wasn't: Alabama's Roster

Pete HolidayPosted Aug 19th 2008 12:52PM by Pete Holiday (author feed)
Filed under: Alabama, SEC, NCAA FB Coaching, NCAA FB Recruiting

Back in February FanHouse's Brian Cook went on a bit of a tear, criticizing Nick Saban for signing too many recruits. This came at time when his team's coach was being lambasted in the media and blogs for his attempt to get out of his West Virginia buy-out. This timing was, I'm sure, pure coincidence.

He started with some guess-work by a beat reporter in Alabama, assumed it as fact, and then concluded that "Around six guys who are playing for Alabama now or expect to be in the fall are going to be told to get bent by the time fall practice rolls around." Let's take a look and see how that shook out, shall we?
Continue Reading Snake-Oil That Wasn't: Alabama's Roster

Pete Carroll Faxes in His Anger (!!)

Brian GrummellPosted Aug 10th 2008 6:52PM by Brian Grummell (author feed)
Filed under: USC, NCAA FB Recruiting, General CFB Insanity

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.

Mothers, Don't Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Five Star Recruits in 2005

Brian CookPosted Aug 1st 2008 1:40PM by Brian Cook (author feed)
Filed under: NCAA FB Recruiting, NCAA FB Scandal

Not that you've got much of a choice anymore, but whatever. At right: Fred Rouse, who didn't last long at Florida State.

Recruiting rankings are no guarantee of onfield success even for the elite few bestowed the precious fifth star by recruiting services. Scout hands out but 50. Rivals is even stingier, awarding the fifth star to between 20 and 30 players. These guys are the cream of the crop athletically, but recruiting services can't predict academic issues or general knuckleheadedness or explosive back injuries. These guys flame out sometimes.

But that doesn't explain the trainwreck that is the 2005 recruiting class. Rivals broke down how these guys are doing and found that the best thing that could be said for most of them is they're not in jai-
DE Melvin Alaeze, the fourth-ranked player in the class, currently is in prison for eight years after pleading guilty to a first-degree assault charge.
Uh. Not dead?

...

Okay. Not dead. Full details on the carnage after the jump.
Continue Reading Mothers, Don't Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Five Star Recruits in 2005

At Iowa, One Recruit Leaves Citing Troubles; One Signs, Says "I'm Not Going to Do That"

Mark HastyPosted Jul 30th 2008 1:19PM by Mark Hasty (author feed)
Filed under: Iowa, NCAA FB Recruiting

One day after David Barrent, the top prospect in all of Iowa, decommitted from Iowa to sign on with Michigan State, Kirk Ferentz's beleaguered staff added a Hawkeye legacy. Running back Jordan Cotton, son of former Iowa fullback Marshall Cotton, announced today he'll become a Hawkeye.

Barrent apparently had cold feet from the get-go about his commitment to Iowa, and the team's off-the-field drama had something to do with his decision:

"The fact that it was in the press so much brought up thoughts of other schools even more," Barrent said. "I kept thinking about what I can have elsewhere."

Cotton, on the other hand, isn't so concerned:

"I'm not looking at Iowa like it's a bad place," Jordan said. "What happened is that some of their players put themselves in bad situations. I'm not going to do that."

You can't fault either player for their decision, really. As much as Iowa fans love Cotton's determined attitude and see him as the sort of player who can turn things around on and off the field, Barrent isn't wrong in wanting to distance himself from the zero-ring circus Iowa football is right now.

Still, at least part of Cotton's play-it-straight attitude has to come from his father, who now works at an Iowa correctional facility. No, it's not on the university campus.

Huskies Finally Grab First Verbal Commit

Sean HawkinsPosted Jul 24th 2008 10:35AM by Sean Hawkins (author feed)
Filed under: Washington, Pac 10, NCAA FB Recruiting

It has been a slow off-season in the Husky recruiting circles. How slow? Up until yesterday, Washington was the only PAC-10 school to not have a single verbal commitment for the class of 2009. But today is a new day, and right on the eve of PAC-10 media day, the Huskies have joined the crowd. Keith Price, a 6-2, 180 lb. dual-threat quarterback prospect, gave his pledge to Tyrone Willingham and company last night.

Price is a decent get for UW, a three-star prospect out of Bellflower, CA, and has been compared somewhat to former Oregon star Dennis Dixon. Maybe that's a stretch, as Price only started at quarterback last year and didn't exactly dominate, throwing for 955 yards and running for over 300 yards. Price chose UW over offers from Utah and Nevada, so it's not as if he's left the likes of Pete Carroll out in the cold. But according to Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times, Price is also viewed as a bit of a late-bloomer, and impressed UW coaches considerably at their summer camp. He wanted to stay close to his western roots, and with UW, he got what he was after:


"I wanted to stay on the West Coast and I wanted to stay in the PAC-10," he said. "I got some looks from Louisville and they really liked me, but I didn't really want to go back East. I wanted to stay on the West Coast - Washington, I'm already used to the offense. It's the same kind of offense my high school is running, so I thought it would be a perfect fit."

Most of all, Price believes he's a great fit to eventually follow in Jake Locker's footsteps and into the UW version of the spread offense, with a real shot to compete for the starting gig once Jake has left Montlake. But Price's commitment raises a good question, in what took so long for this to happen? Why is UW the last to join the PAC-10 recruiting crowd?

Continue Reading Huskies Finally Grab First Verbal Commit

Future Trojan Barkley Wins Gatorade Honor

Scott Olin SchmidtPosted Jul 17th 2008 12:12PM by Scott Olin Schmidt (author feed)
Filed under: USC, Pac 10, NCAA FB Recruiting, NCAA FB Prospects

Future USC Trojan Matt Barkley made history yesterday when he became the first high school junior to take home top honors at the Gatorade High School athlete of the year awards.

Barkley received the award from former USC Trojan and Gatorade Award winner Matt Leinart at a pre-ESPY reception at West Hollywood's swank Sofitel Hotel.

"I'm amazed," Barkley insightfully told the Los Angeles Times. "It's awesome."

Unlike last year's winner, the one-and-done Kevin Love, Barkley will take his award back to high school for another year--and he was spared a grilling by FanHouse's own Miss Gossip and yours truly. I can only imagine what questions I would have had for Mister Leinart.

Ohio State Hopes Duron Carter Equals Cris Carter, Jr.

Adam JacobiPosted Jul 9th 2008 12:35AM by Adam Jacobi (author feed)
Filed under: Ohio State Football, Big 10, NCAA FB Recruiting

Buckeye fans may remember an OSU receiver by the name of Cris Carter, who went on to have a rather nondescript career in the NFL. Carter was an All-American receiver at OSU in the early 80's before he caught a paltry 1,101 passes in the NFL, 130 for touchdowns.

Weak, right? Right. It appears, then, that his son Duron is ready to continue the Buckeye legacy (for some reason!), as he recently committed to the Buckeyes:
"I felt very comfortable with the coaching staff," Carter said. "I like the way that Ohio State as a whole and the city of Columbus treats their players on and off the field and I felt like it was the right place for me."
Carter is a 6'3", 185 pound wideout (of course), and he stands to create a devastating combination with superrecruit Terrelle Pryor. Wait, what's that sound? Never mind, it's just Michigan fans throwing themselves off the top of the Big House.

The Reggie Bush Scandal Is Clearly Not Affecting USC's Recruiting Efforts

Brian GrummellPosted Jul 7th 2008 4:03PM by Brian Grummell (author feed)
Filed under: Penn State Football, USC Football, NCAA FB Recruiting, Heisman, NCAA FB Scandal

For over two years now, a cloud has hung over USC's head through the stalemate of the NCAA's investigation into allegations that former star tailback and Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush accepted cash and gifts against NCAA rules. Obviously some sort of punishment against USC would be leveled if the NCAA found truth in the allegations.

Future unrest is usually trouble on the recruiting trail, just ask Penn State how much it has to answer to endless talk of Joe Paterno's retirement or dismissal. In spite of that, and of little surprise given Pete Carroll's ability to pitch, USC keeps smoking along on the recruiting trail.

They added Rivals.com's top player, quarterback Matt Barkley, this spring. Since then they've assembled a class of 15 players solid enough to rank second on Rivals.com's initial recruiting rankings and just behind Ohio State which already had 20+ commitments. If form holds it's another top five, maybe even No. 1 class.

Everyone knows USC is going to take some kind of hit from the NCAA, but the way high profile recruits keep arriving sends the message they're not worried about those pending sanctions.

All Hail Your New Rutgers Recruiting Overlords

Adam JacobiPosted Jun 30th 2008 11:55PM by Adam Jacobi (author feed)
Filed under: Big East, NCAA FB Recruiting, Rutgers Football

Not pictured: Schiano crashing the trophy down on losing coach Brady Hoke's head. Hoke was 49.

How many high school commitments does your favorite football team have for 2009? Odds are not many, especially if you're a Niners fan. Sure, there's USC with 15 future All-Americans, about whom Pete Carroll is feeling jacked. And there's Texas, loaded as ever, here at the dusk of June. Oh, and also with 19 commitments, of course, is Greg Schiano and Rutgers.

That's right, Rutgers.

No, this story didn't take a sharp detour into Crazyland, where the marching band plays kazoos and the yards are marked with cake frosting; this is actually happening. Rutgers, out there in the Big East and with negative infinity football tradition, is absolutely cleaning up. Their latest success is wideout Shawney Kersey, a lanky, three-star prospect with a four-and-a-half-star name (it's not Barkevious Mingo, but that's all right) who was destined for West Virginia last week.

Kersey's commitment will make it 13 such in June alone, which is more than most teams have, um, at all so far. Most of them hail from New Jersey, which means that recruiting goldmine (see Moreno, Knowshon) may well be drying up for outside teams.

If Rutgers continues to lock up their home state, Big East teams will probably wish--if they don't already--that Schiano had actually accepted one of his rumored offers. For now, though, all your Big East are belong to Greg Schiano.

Recruiting Is Just Another Word For Bending The Rules

John RadcliffPosted Jun 23rd 2008 5:40PM by John Radcliff (author feed)
Filed under: Oregon Football, West Virginia Football, NCAA FB Recruiting, South Carolina Football

If you think you know every dirty creative trick schools use to recruit athletes, you may be right. But I'm willing to guess that you don't. I think I learned at an early age about the sneaky ways of recruiting from reading "That's My Story and I'm Sticking To It", by Alex Hawkins.
When Hawkins, then a South Charleston high school senior, was being sought after by football and basketball college coaches, he chose football because it paid more money. "I was offered a farm to sign with the University of Kentucky but I was offered $1,500 a semester, a complete men's wardrobe and a new automobile to play football for coach Rex Enright at South Carolina.
Depending on how you look at it, those days are sadly over. Too bad I couldn't find the bit about the men West Virginia paid to make sure no other coaches talked to Hawkins. Because the South Carolina coaches had to sneak in the back door to make that offer. Undoubtedly, WVU's men were looking for new jobs that fall.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Recruiting always has been and always will be about getting access to the player, and what you can sell them in that time. Despite the NCAA's best efforts to control the contact coaches have with recruits, it seems there's always a loophole.
So when Oregon coaches identified their top 20 prospects for the class of 2005, Gilmore and his staff designed custom comic books starring each recruit as the hero who leads the Ducks to a national title. Because NCAA rules at the time only allowed programs to send letter-sized, black-and-white pages to recruits, Gilmore sent each prospect one page a week. After a few months, the recruit had the full comic book.
The practice of sending a recruit a comic book about themselves was nixed when the NCAA passed a rule that only material that was created by a coach could be sent to recruits. I would not be at all surprised to learn that Oregon offered a spot on the coaching staff to Stan Lee.
Continue Reading Recruiting Is Just Another Word For Bending The Rules
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