Daily News
8/10
ox commits to BC
By Adam Kurkjian / Daily News Staff
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
When you hear some stories about college football recruiting, it sounds as if it is a sport unto itself, complete with Internet rumors on message boards, coaches and reporters filling up an entire night of a recruit's time on the phone, and camps and combine appearances by the athlete in the hopes of catching the eye of his dream school.
For all of its ups and downs, the process is finally over for Westwood native and Xaverian Brothers High School wide receiver/cornerback/return man Chris Fox, who ended the suspense he committed to Boston College this weekend.
Fox, who is rated a three-star prospect (on a scale of one-to-five, five being the highest) according to recruiting service Rivals.com, was somewhat of a surprise get for the hometown Eagles. After all, Chris' father Tim, who played with the Patriots, and cousin Dustin, who was recently drafted by the Minnesota Vikings, both attended Ohio State. However, the Buckeyes never came through with an offer. Chris was left to choose between BC, Duke, Oregon, Wisconsin and Colorado. He ended up going with the first school to offer him a scholarship.
"I got my offer from BC way back in April, which surprised me," said Fox. "Actually, in the beginning, I did want to make (my decision) before the season. But after the camps and with the situation I was in I was then looking to make some visits. But BC expressed to me their need for cornerbacks was pretty dire and their intent was to get me to stay home. So I took the tour so I could get a complete and utter view of what BC was like, and once I did that there was no reason to look around. Technically, it was a smart move. It's a great school and it's been my No. 1 the whole time. I regret a little missing the chance to see other schools, but I'm still happy with my decision."
Although Dustin's advice to Chris the whole process was simply, "Go to Ohio," according to Chris, when defensive backs coach Mel Tucker left to coach the same position for the Browns, the Buckeyes dropped down on his list.
"A good reason it didn't work out for me is that their defensive back coach left the school and went to the Browns," said Fox. "He loved my cousin and he loved me. If he was there I would have easily got an offer. The new guy created a little bit of a problem with me, they came in and recruited their own guys. Ohio especially has been keeping up with me. They're aware that I committed but they're not going to stop recruiting me. I think they just wanted to see me a little bit more. I'm pretty sure that I'm pretty solid, though. It's BC right now."
Did that mean Ohio State is still in the picture?
"I'm solid to BC," he said.
Fox becomes one of many recent Xaverian players to make a pledge to BC. Former Hawks to go on to Chestnut Hill include Derrick Knight, Peter Shean, J.P. Comella, and Scott Bradley, among others. Off the top of his head, Xaverian coach Charlie Stevenson estimates that nearly a dozen Hawks have suited up for Boston College in recent years.
"Certainly, BC has been more than fair to Xaverian players," said Stevenson. "We are one of the local schools that obviously they are going to come and recruit when we have a player. If we didn't have a player, they wouldn't recruit. They're not there every year. They've been more than fair to us and, the other side is, our kids have been good contributors to their team."
Fox, who racked up 548 receiving yards and six touchdowns last year on 31 receptions, did not seem overwhelmed with the recruiting process at all. He said he has a subscription to Rivals and would check out the articles on him to make sure everything was accurate and that he didn't insult a school that was recruiting him.
"I tried stay away from demoting a school. I would try to just promote everyone," said Fox. "I have an account on Rivals, and I would check out my profile. A lot of the stuff is false. At one point it had me running a 4.5 (in the 40-yard dash) when I run a 4.4. They also had my shuttle as 4.42 when I run a 4.1. A lot of colleges look at that stuff, so I like to make sure everything looks all right."
A recent ESPN the Magazine article uncovered how a good number of the reporters for sites like Rivals and Scout.com come off more like recruiters for the different schools they cover. Fox didn't see too much of that in his experience, though, and could even use them to his advantage at times.
"I would say most of them were just like plain writers calling for an interview," said Fox. "Even about a week ago I got a call from a Notre Dame guy and provided with me some information about them that I didn't know. He said that their safety prospects had all decided to go elsewhere. I thought, 'Hey, that's kind of interesting. I might give them a call.'"
That leaves Fox with just the football season to concentrate on now, and he looks to have an even bigger year than last year.
"Beyond anything else he's a great kid, a good player," said Stevenson. "He has an opportunity to go to a great school, and hopefully he will be able to have a great year for us this year and have great years for them in the future. Certainly, he's going to be playing against the top talent in the country, so it's going to be exciting for him to see who he is going to be playing against."
FILE PHOTO BY SEAN BROWNE
Xaverian standout Chris Fox made a verbal commitment to Boston College this weekend
