West Virginia RB Jason Gwaltney (official thread)

[PlanoBuckeye]

Congratulations. You made the right decision because that is the decision you made. We would have loved to have seen you line up against UT in that Scarlet jersey with those Silver Bullet pants but now, we'll both move on. Good luck to you. This was probably the most difficult decision you've had to make. It is entirely up to you to now make the best of it without regret and without ever looking back and wondering "what if".

[LightningRod]

I don't know what is so wrong about wishing Jason good luck and best wishes. I did the same for Fred Davis - good luck and best wishes. Now, after this class is finished and the rosters are finalized, I will know who to cheer for. This isn't rocket science.

[ysubuck]

I also don't think that Gwaltney played this one straight.

He was so torn, but based on what nevadabuck has said the Ohio State staff thought the kid was coming to Ohio State. The USC staff thought he was coming to USC. There must have been a reason that both staffs thought that they had the kid.

This kid is now a big fish in a little pond and I have a feeling that that's the attraction to WVU. He is a high profile kid at a low profile school. He immediately becomes the big man on campus which he wouldn't be at Ohio State or USC.

He is going to play in games against East Carolina and Wofford and Ohio State is going to play Texas and Michigan (and hopefully USC).

Oh well. Or should I say OH WELLLLLSSSSS!!! (Maurice, that is!!)

[Tresselbeliever]

Maybe lesser exposure at WVU will ultimately help the kid. Can you imagine the national attention that he would get if he achieves success early at OSU? Could he handle that? Ultimately, both USC and OSU has to realize that he's not on their roster and just move on.

[scooter1369]

Apparently the desire to play in big games was all a front.

Sorry you chose WVU, Gwaltney. Good luck.

[blufftonbuck]

He was so torn, but based on what nevadabuck has said the Ohio State staff thought the kid was coming to Ohio State. The USC staff thought he was coming to USC. There must have been a reason that both staffs thought that they had the kid.

This happens a lot to these kids. They are truly torn between schools and coaches and have a really difficult time telling schools no so it looks like they are not being completely honest and playing games when actually they are just having a killer time making one of the toughest decisions of their young lives...

[LordJeffBuck]

Okay, I think that we've all had plenty of time to speak our peace on Mr. Gwaltney, so I'm closing this thread for the moment. If you'd like to continue discussing this topic, then try the thread in the Open Discussion forum. Let's concentrate on the future Buckeyes for the next day or so....

[LordJeffBuck]

Fire away....

[jlb1705]

I personally don't care if Gwaltney was completely forthcoming with all of the coaches or not. First of all, many coaches (and apparently reporters who cover this stuff as well) probably aren't completely forthcoming with the recruits (not saying Tressel in company are included in that group). Second of all, nobody here would be complaining about a percieved lack of forthrightness if he had chose to come to Columbus. This complaint looks like sour grapes to me.

[methomps]

Don't get me wrong. I don't fault the kid for choosing the best school for him. How can I? I can't know a tenth of the stuff he does from visits and stuff, plus I don't know what is important to him. But if he got a school to agree to exclusivity with him, that harms things beyond just not getting Jason. We'll probably never know what happened this last week, so good luck to Jason and work your ass off to get those 1500 yards.

[MililaniBuckeye]

Originally Posted by Tresselbeliever

Maybe lesser exposure at WVU will ultimately help the kid. Can you imagine the national attention that he would get if he achieves success early at OSU? Could he handle that?...

Well, the way he played the media and three major coaching staffs tells me he's totally comfortable in the spotlight...

[Desertbuckfan]

I find it odd that he's on the Rivals board at 1:22am, the kid sure does his homework late. I think he might just like playing with the Buckeye fans heads a bit.

[gost8]

Originally Posted by wstripes

I wish JG well......but he played SC and OSU so bad.....he even let PC know last night he was still going to SC......He was having fun with the sites, fine...but to do that to coaches is wrong.....

BTW, the comment where PC said he was making a mistake....he was making a mistake.....WVU did some serious negative recruiting toward SC and OSU....He said he was making a mistake because he told PC he was coming yesterday....He chose a school that is terrible when it comes to the books and a 2nd rate program......WHY, because WVU made him think USC and OSU weren't good schools ect......

Just my opinion, it's not sour grapes, it's just the negative recruiting is getting old.

Like Pete didn't do any "negative recruiting." Maybe like bringing up what may or may not happen to tOSU in the future or saying things like "WVU is a school that is terrible when it comes to the books and a 2nd rate program." He made his decision... he said it was a tough one and he picked a place he thought was best for him. Furthermore, I don't believe "WVU (could make) him think USC and OSU weren't good schools."

[MistriBuck]

I think the staff does everything they can to get these kids .The one thing we have to remember is in the end the kids are going to go were they want.The staff can't make these kids come to tOSU.All they can do is show them what a great place tOSU is to play football .After that it is up to the recruits themselves to choose tOSU.Some will and some will go elsewhere that just the way it is.

there is MUCH more to selling than showing how great your product is, PARTICULARLY when you have heavy competition, and that's what the coaches are doing, selling our university to these recruits

This kid is now a big fish in a little pond and I have a feeling that that's the attraction to WVU. He is a high profile kid at a low profile school. He immediately becomes the big man on campus which he wouldn't be at Ohio State or USC.

YSU.......that's a great point that you make, and i think along with the Long Island-WVU connections this was his biggest reason for choosing WVU.........i posted something very similar on BN as well........i came to this conclusion after reading his comments about wanting to rush for 1,500 yds his freshman season, wanting to be the only back in his class, and that he was upset over his rivals rankings..........there is nothing wrong with this attitude, but usually you see kids say that these things don't matter, that they just want to win, etc........i think he prefers to be the big fish in a little pond, with the potential to be a legendary player, if not the most legendary player at WVU, as opposed to sharing the spotlight with players like Teddy Ginn, and living up to the legends like Archie and Eddie at OSU (same with USC)........he made the comment that WVU fans are the best in the nation, and they were chanting his name at the BB game........i believe he prefers to be revered as the big fish in the small pond............but strange he would make the comments about playing in big games, winning championships, etc., when those were apparently not driving factors

[LordJeffBuck]

i came to this conclusion after reading his comments about wanting to rush for 1,500 yds his freshman season, wanting to be the only back in his class

And Fred Davis was going to break Mike Williams' freshman receiving record; he fell only about 80 catches short of the mark.

For the record, WVU has six RB's in its 2005 class; by my count (and I was not a math major), that is twice as many as Ohio State has on its roster. Go figure....