Chicago Tribune
7/21
Scout's rocky road to success
Teddy Greenstein
ON SPORTS MEDIA AND COLLEGES
July 21, 2005
After his latest road trip, Tom Lemming can tell you all about the capture of Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president who succumbed to Union troops on May 10, 1865, in Irwinville, Ga.
"I watched an 18-minute film about it," Lemming says.
Lemming loves American history, but that wasn't the purpose of his journey, during which he covered 46 states, drove 40,000 miles and hopped on 15 planes.
The college football recruiting guru interviewed and photographed hundreds of prospects for his 2005 Prep Report, a 272-plus page magazine that will be published Friday.
The only states Lemming didn't visit were Alaska, Hawaii, Montana and North Dakota. That means that in between his Taco Bell lunches and Holiday Inn stays he managed to find a scholarship-worthy player in Vermont.
But Lemming, who lives in Schaumburg, went even more out of his way when he visited a 335-pound offensive lineman in Pasco, Wash. That was six hours round-trip.
"I once traveled 1,350 (miles) in one day," says Lemming, who makes car-rental companies regret offering unlimited miles. "I went from Tucson just south of Dallas with a stop in Lubbock to have dinner with the Texas Tech coaches."
Lemming, 50, has working relationships with dozens of college coaches, and some of those have been brought into question recently.
Colorado coach Gary Barnett charged in the Denver Post that Lemming had encouraged recruits to take visits to Nebraska, where Bill Callahan is the head coach.
Lemming denies that but can't deny he and Callahan, who grew up two years apart on Chicago's South Side, are friends.
Callahan was the featured speaker last year at Lemming's annual Prep Football Banquet, and Lemming ranked Callahan's 2005 recruiting class the nation's best. (Rivals.com ranked Nebraska fifth; SuperPrep had the Cornhuskers 10th.)
Lemming says his banquet speakers are unpaid and adds, "This year we're probably going to have Ron Zook. If Illinois has the No. 1 recruiting class in the country next year, you'll have quite a story."
Lemming can't help but chuckle at those who insist his relationships with coaches affect his rankings.
"If I say something nice about Ohio State, the Michigan people get mad at me," he says. "For the last eight years, I've been saying negative things about Notre Dame, but now I'm not and people take exception to it. Part of my job, as one of the only national guys in the country, is to take a lot of shots."
Lemming has taken a bunch since the July 4 edition of ESPN the Magazine, in which Myron Rolle, a top cornerback recruit from New Jersey, said, "Tom Lemming is a huge Notre Dame guy. He kept saying to me, 'You know they have a great coaching staff. You know Charlie Weis is Mr. NFL. You're an academic guy. That place is for you.' Then he killed Florida State. He said, 'You're stupid if you go there.' Um, OK. Thanks."
Lemming has a different recollection of his conversation with Rolle, which occurred during a high school scouting combine.
"I never said he'd be stupid to go to Florida State," Lemming says. "He's a 4.0 student and wants to be a doctor. I said, 'Do yourself a favor: Look at how many kids have gone on from there to become doctors.' I do that with all kids. I ask them questions that make them think.
"I say, 'Forget football. Go to a school where you can get a worthwhile degree.' People might think that means I'm pushing kids to go to schools like Duke, Notre Dame, Northwestern and Vanderbilt. I can see where some schools could get upset by that, and I have to watch myself. I'm very careful about mentioning names of schools now."
Lemming says he has known Weis for just seven months and was teasing Rolle when the two spotted him: "I said, 'There goes Charlie Weis, the great coach of Notre Dame.'"
In February Lemming predicted Weis could have a top-five recruiting class in 2006, and the Notre Dame coach already has received commitments from nine players. He and his staff beat Michigan last week on Robby Paris, a wide receiver from Cleveland.
"I try to be as honest as possible," Lemming says. "I was critical of (Bob) Davie and Tyrone (Willingham), and Notre Dame fans canceled subscriptions (to Lemming's Prep Report) left and right. Now I'm saying they're doing great, and I'm back to being a Notre Dame fan."
Lemming recently ended his freelance association with ESPN, saying the network didn't like that he also wrote columns for USA Today and selected players for NBC's All-American Bowl.
By the time ESPNEWS asked him to contribute to its coverage of football signing day, Lemming had agreed to do a show for CSTV.
Lemming, meanwhile, was miffed that people had to pay a premium to read his rankings and on-line chats on ESPN.com.
Lemming calls his decision to leave the network "mutual," and ESPN.com's executive editor, Patrick Stiegman, says, "I have nothing negative to say about Tom."
Stiegman says the Web site wanted to "take greater ownership" of its recruiting content and will feature material from partner Scouts, Inc., which is made up of former coaches who evaluate prospects in person.
Lemming, meanwhile, takes his 26 years of experience to CSTV, where he will host TV shows, serve as an on-air analyst and contribute to its Web site.
"It's more exposure," Lemming says. "And I'll still be able to work with USA Today and NBC."
tgreenstein@tribune.com
