Article from Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Last update: January 30, 2005 at 6:29 AM
The Burden of Choice
Chip Scoggins January 30, 2005
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</td></tr></tbody> </table> Walker Ashley cannot escape the questions. They follow him wherever he goes these days.
School is certainly no refuge. Eager minds want to know, right? Public places can be iffy, too. He isn't even safe at home, not with all the college coaches and Internet recruiting services wanting to know his answer to
the question.
"I'm getting pretty exhausted," Ashley said. "I don't have to wait too much longer."
If Ashley holds true to his word, he will announce his college choice at a news conference on Wednesday, the first day of the two-month signing period for college football. Ashley, Eden Prairie's star defensive lineman and the state's top recruit, has narrowed his list to the Gophers, Southern California, Ohio State and Penn State. He also considered Oklahoma.
Sometimes the whole recruiting process became a big blur for Eden Prairie defensive lineman Walker Ashley, the Star Tribune Metro Player of the Year.
Jim Gehrz
Star Tribune
For the record, Ashley's final five are the two teams that played for the national championship in the Orange Bowl earlier this month; his hometown university; the school where his father starred before playing in the NFL; and a tradition-rich program that was the first to offer him a scholarship.
It's no wonder his recruitment has fueled intense interest and speculation. He is the only player still uncommitted in this year's seventh annual Super Preps class picked by the Star Tribune. Ashley admits he didn't mind the attention when the process first began. Actually, he enjoyed parts of it and even fed the beast by writing an online diary for a Gophers fan Web site. But he is ready for it to be over.
"It's a lot more than what I expected," he said. "I expected to take my five visits and have a really good time. But the thought process takes so much out of you. You get so exhausted at the end. You have so many thoughts going through your head. It's just really hard to keep up with everything."
Ahead of his peers
Ashley's combination of size (6-4, 285 pounds), skill and athleticism makes him a bona fide blue-chip prospect.
Rivals.com rates him as the 11th-best defensive tackle in the nation, and SuperPrep magazine lists him 23rd overall among defensive line prospects.
He was the Star Tribune's Metro Player of the Year, and he is a finalist for the state's inaugural Mr. Football award.
What's more, he excels at a position that is arguably the most difficult to cultivate at the high school level, thus triggering the supply-and-demand theory in recruiting.
"A lot of schools recruit the 245-pound kid that can run," Eden Prairie coach Mike Grant said. "They will build them to 280 or 290. But when you got a kid that can run and is already [that big], that's unique."
Which is why recruiting letters from around the country began arriving at Ashley's home in his sophomore year. Interest multiplied after his junior year, forcing Ashley to whittle his list before his senior season.
Ashley settled on five schools, all of them offering certain advantages. Southern California and Oklahoma offer maximum exposure and a chance to compete for national championships on a regular basis. The Gophers provide a chance to stay home and make an immediate impact. His father, Walker Lee Ashley, played at Penn State, and the family still has close ties to coach Joe Paterno. And Ohio State was the first school to offer him a scholarship.
Looking for best fit
As signing day approaches, Ashley is believed to be leaning toward USC, although it's unclear if he's made a final decision. Four schools made a late push. Gophers coach Glen Mason, USC's Pete Carroll, Ohio State's Jim Tressel and Paterno all visited the Ashley home in the past two weeks.
Ultimately, Ashley, who visited Minnesota's campus unofficially this weekend, said he must decide what's the best fit for him.
"When I pick a school it's going to be where I'm most comfortable, where I can get a good degree and can come in and possibly get some playing time," he said.
Some call that pressure, others see it as opportunity.
"I don't know if there is pressure," national recruiting analyst Tom Lemming said. "Normally, there's more pressure for kids that don't have any offers. [Ashley] can call his own shots."
Said SuperPrep publisher Allan Wallace, sarcastically: "I think it's a bunch of hogwash when people think there's so much pressure on some guy when he has to decide between some of the most fantastic schools in the country. That's the kind of pressure I would like. It's really so sad for him. It's like choosing between IBM, Microsoft and Xerox. Oh, my heart is just bleeding for the guy."
True, having options is never a bad thing. But Ashley did refer to the recruiting process as a "job," something that requires tough decisions. Grant, who has had several high-profile prospects come through his program, understands the strain it puts on kids and their families. He joked that he advises a kid in that situation to "destroy your computer" to avoid speculation in Internet chat rooms and recruiting sites.
Feeling honored
To that end, Ashley has taken a different path in his recruitment than did former Eden Prairie star Mark LeVoir, who committed to Notre Dame in the spring of his junior year during an unofficial visit.
Grant said he sees benefits in both scenarios, but he said it becomes harder to say no to schools the longer the process goes.
"You have a lot of great people who have recruited you, and you have to say no to them," Grant said. "You get a personal relationship, and you have to say no to three head coaches and three assistants that have worked their butt off to develop a relationship with you."
Ashley said he expects that will be the toughest part of the entire process. But he's also looking forward to it, too.
"There hasn't been any pressure to pick one school over another," he said. "But to get an offer from the USC Trojans or Oklahoma, it's just a great honor. That a school like that would spend their money on you and want you to play for them, it's an honor. There's really not any pressure, but through the whole process you just don't want to disappoint anyone. But there comes a time when you do have to disappoint whatever schools you're not going to attend."
Chip Scoggins is at ascoggins@startribune.com.
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