Recruiting Issues (Merged)

[osugrad21]

I enjoyed this article...a good reminder of what we are dealing with as NLOID approaches...

Pitt Gazette

1/24

High School Views: Recruits have a right to change their minds

Tuesday, January 24, 2006
By Colin Dunlap
So much for the early bird getting the worm.
In this instance, Michigan State was more like a vulture swooping in and cleaning up the last scraps of meat attached to this year's Western Pennsylvania football recruiting bone.
Sunday, Gateway senior receiver David Williams accepted a scholarship from Michigan State that had been offered earlier last week. A 5-foot-10, 180-pound speedtsre, Williams did so after visiting Michigan State's East Lansing campus this past weekend.
Along with Duquesne receiver Elijah Fields and Woodland Hills receiver Wes Lyons -- who is slated to announce his college choice Thursday at a news conference -- Williams was one of the few remaining blue-chippers in this year's graduating class whose college future was still in doubt.
In making the commitment to Michigan State, Williams spurned Kent State, a school to which he had given a verbal commitment in December. There had been a ton of speculation in recent weeks that Williams' recruiting was opened back up and his commitment to Kent State wasn't iron-clad.
National letter of intent day is Feb. 1, the first day when recruits can sign a binding commitment letter. Williams' reversal wasn't a major surprise.
For the record, that doesn't bother me.
There are those people out there who, every time a kid changes his mind and "de-commits" somewhere and chooses another school, well, some people start with this whole, "A verbal commitment is your word" and "How can you trust a kid who backs out on a program?"
There have been more than a few e-mails that have found their way into my inbox from the people of this belief over the past 24 hours. The e-mails have pertained to the Williams situation and his choice of flip-flopping from Kent State to Michigan State.
Well, you know what, save it for someone else.
When Anthony Morelli and Andrew Johnson reneged on their pledges to attend Pitt and settled on Penn State and Miami, respectively, I didn't have any problem with it. To that end, I don't have a problem with it here. In this instance, how in the world could you ever fault Williams for choosing the Spartans over Kent State?
It doesn't take Pythagorus to do the math.
Michigan State is in the Big Ten Conference; Kent State in the Mid-American Conference.
That's like choosing between a Hummer H2 and a five-year old Dodge Neon.
Kent State had a total of 33,292 fans at its five home games this past season. Michigan State had more than two times that ... at its opener against none other than Kent State.
And, um, Kent State was 1-10 with its only win coming against Division I-AA Southeast Missouri State while the Spartans were just 5-6, but beat Notre Dame and played Michigan to three points.
Again ... H2 versus Neon.
This past season, I covered Gateway's 37-16 playoff victory against Bethel Park a few days before Halloween and Williams was, unequivocally and without an iota of a question, the best player on the field.
Williams rushed for 180 yards on 14 carries and scored four rushing touchdowns -- of 31, 3, 5 and 51 yards. He came into the postseason game and led Gateway's option attack when Gators quarterback Aaron Smith was injured in the second quarter.
But, more than that, Williams was an articulate, bright and polite kid .
In short, get off his back and all the others who choose to renege on initial verbal commitments. Coaches from various schools pull scholarship offers away from kids all the time (see: Eugene Jarvis and Desmond Brentley).
These are 17- and 18-year-old kids faced with momentous decisions that will change the scope of the rest of their lives.
They don't need to be taken to task for wavering on a decision.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

These are 17- and 18-year-old kids faced with momentous decisions that will change the scope of the rest of their lives.
They don't need to be taken to task for wavering on a decision.

I think we all need to keep this in mind in the next week or so. Excellent article.

 

[crazybuckfan40]

That was a great article and it kind of puts all things in perspective.

 

[OSUBuckeye4Life]

Great read.

 

[osugrad21]

Another good one..

Canton Rep

1/31

Comment on this story.
[FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Recruiting calls that never came[/FONT]
Tuesday, January 31, 2006 [FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]By Joe Frollo Jr. Repository assistant sports editor[/FONT]
<table style="margin: 10px -3px 15px 5px; position: relative;" align="right" border="0" width="300"> <tbody><tr valign="top"> <td>

Repository Bob Rossiter Stark County High School Football Player of the Year Drew Kuhn of Louisville has not received a scholarship offer from a Division I college as national signing day approaches Wednesday. But he is not alone, as other Stark standouts (left, from top) Scott Weber and John Bertsch of Northwest, James Craven and Lambert Budzinski of Jackson and Austin Power, also of Louisville, find themselves in the same situations.
​

</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Drew Kuhn is going to college for free.
An All-Ohioan, Kuhn did as much as anyone could ask during his Louisville High School football career.
With 4.4 speed and big-play ability, the wide receiver-turned-quarterback accounted for 60 touchdowns and more than 5,000 yards during his final two seasons. He wowed coaches with his athletic ability and stood out at every camp.
But unless a Division I head coach changes his mind soon and offers Kuhn a scholarship, the reigning Stark County Player of the Year’s full ride will come at Mount Union College, where his mom works.
It’s not how he envisioned it.
“It’s frustrating,” said Kuhn, who was contacted in the past year by Ohio State, Minnesota, Vanderbilt and most Mid-American Conference schools. At 5-foot-11, 185 pounds, he doesn’t possess what is considered a Division I football body.
“I can’t let it bother me. When people say you can’t do something because you are too small, you want to prove them wrong.
“I like Mount Union. If nothing comes through, I’ll go there and be happy.”
FIRST IMPRESSION
Kuhn’s story is unfortunate but not uncommon for players judged 2 inches too short, 20 pounds too light or a step too slow. Most coaches can tell in five seconds whether a player is Division I material. That’s how long it takes for a quick once-over and a 40-yard dash.
“It’s called an eyeball test,” Northwest head coach Vic Whiting said. “The things they are looking for is size and speed. A lot of coaches believe that they can develop skills if a player already brings the size and speed they want.”
Even if a player passes that test, however, timing comes into play. A program only recruits so many players at each position, and with more and more teams turning to spread offenses, the need for fullbacks and tight ends may be heavy one year and sparse the next.
Players can’t choose what recruiting class they join, McKinley head coach Brian Cross said. Being No. 2 on a list one year may mean something different the next season.
“Some schools may be recruiting one for a position this year and three the next year,” Cross said. “You have to be very realistic with kids from the start. I try to give them the knowledge I have from the recruiting process. You never want to destroy a young man’s dream, but you know where they fit in from year to year.”
WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME
Whiting said that scenario is part of what’s happening to two of his seniors, Scott Weber and John Bertsch.
Weber is a two-time All-Ohio tailback, who at 6-2, 225 pounds is projected as a fullback in college. Bertsch is a 6-2, 235-pound All-Ohio tight end. Weber landed at Division II Ashland University, while Bertsch likely will turn down an offer from Air Force to walk on at a different Division I program, possibly Houston.
Whiting doesn’t blame coaches. He has been around long enough to know the ins and outs of recruiting.
“This is a business,” Whiting said. “These coaches only have so many scholarships. If they make mistakes, they lose their jobs.
“These guys are putting their jobs on the line with a bunch of 18-year-old kids. You can’t get upset with them. If you are good enough, somebody is going to take you.”
And with the MAC’s recent success of producing NFL-ready players, those coaches are working overtime to find every player.
“Division I guys don’t make a lot of mistakes,” Mount Union Coach Larry Kehres said. “Some go through the cracks, but those lists are pretty accurate.”
EARLY DETECTION
Lowell Klinefelter has been head coach at Central Catholic for 32 years. His teams are known for tough, undersized kids who get everything out of their abilities.
In other words, the Perry Township campus is not exactly a stomping ground for recruiters. Klinefelter has sent 11players to Division I-A programs on scholarship.
“If you’re going to be undersized, you’d better jump off the film at them,” Klinefelter said. “Even that is no guarantee.”
The reason so few programs take chances on those players is recruiters are identifying and ranking prospects so early in their high school careers.
“People know by their junior year if they are going to be Division I,” Klinefelter said. “It’s very rare someone pops up their senior year. By September, most players already have all the offers they’ll get.
“A lot of kids go Division III, and that’s great football. Division I is for a rare group of kids who have the physical attributes to even be looked at.”
LOOKING FOR a little MORE
The danger of targeting raw ability, though, is missing out on that one player whose work ethic can bring a team together.
Lee Owens was head coach at Massillon before joining Ohio State as an assistant. He then became head coach at Akron before taking over at Ashland, so he has seen recruiting at nearly every level.
The key for him is looking at everything Division I coaches pass on.
“You have to believe what you see on film,” Owens said. “Sometimes there are players that don’t pass the infamous eye test. ... Bobby Hendry of Hoover was like that. Jay Rohr from Jackson was another.
“You look at them standing there, and you can’t believe they can help. Then you look at them with pads on, and you see how effective they are.”
Hendry, a 5-10 tailback, was 1,000-yard rusher at Akron, while Rohr led the Zips in tackles this season.
“I really can’t express how hard it was to have just one school interested in me, so I went after it as hard as I could,” said Rohr, a 5-11 linebacker who was a four-year starter at Jackson and Akron. He led the Zips to their first bowl game.
“If you have a dream and people try to put it down, it’s still there. You have to believe anything can happen at any time.”
THE BAR KEEPS RISING
Phil Mauro was “stunned” by the lack of interest in Rohr. This year, the Jackson head coach has two linebackers who mirror Rohr but also are not drawing any interest from the NCAA’s highest level.
James Craven (6-0, 195) and Lambert Budzinski (6-2, 210) have room to grow and solid quickness, but neither possess the explosive speed sought by recruiters, which likely means a future in Division II.
“You try to explain off the bat that this is one of the more frustrating processes,” Mauro said. “There’s no science to it. A kid a lot of times is playing euchre with 9s, 10s and no trump. Schools have all the trump. They make all the decisions.”
Louisville head coach Paul Farrah said recruiters need to find a way to measure heart and effort along with height, weight and speed. Like Kuhn, teammate Austin Power is a two-time all-state selection. At 5-10, though, Power must look to Division II or the NAIA for scholarship money.
“Stark County has some great high school football players,” Farrah said. “Some schools who take these local kids often end up cashing in.
“Drew is the most athletic player I’ve ever coached. It’s a shame the kid doesn’t get a chance to play in the MAC or somewhere else. If they want him, they’ll take him. If not, he’ll go on with his life.”
Reach Repository Assistant Sports Editor Joe Frollo Jr. at (330) 580-8564 or e-mail: [email protected]

ON THE DOTTED LINE
The following are the Division I or Division II football players who are expected to sign national letters of intent Wednesday, the first day allowed by the NCAA:
Name, high school Pos. Ht. Wt. College
Bobby Coates, GlenOak OL 6-4 265 Youngstown St.
Dirk Dickerhoof, Massillon DL 6-4 250 Ashland
Brian Hartline, GlenOak QB 6-6 190 Kentucky
Brett Huffman, Massillon TE 6-4 240 Duke
Mark Jackson, McKinley DB 6-0 195 Toledo
Antonio James, Massillon DL 6-5 250 Illinois
Neil James, Massillon CB 6-0 170 Indiana (Pa.)
Harriel Moore, McKinley DB 6-2 200 Toledo
Joe Morgan, McKinley WR 6-2 175 Illinois
Troy Paiscley, Alliance WR 6-3 195 Louisville
Ryan Palmer, GlenOak OL 6-7 285 Illinois
Scott Weber, Northwest FB 6-1 225 Ashland
Brian Williams, McKinley DB 5-9 155 Findlay

 

[ol104]

I didnt realize that Illinios had 3 kids from Stark County (Morgan from McKinley, Palmer from Glenoak, and James from Massilion Wash.) Looks like the Zooker is trying to make some inroads....something to keep an eye in the future.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Bruschi, Flutie among late signees who thrived

espn.com

1/31/06

The zero hour approaches. You're ready. You've committed the lists to memory: your ESPN 150, your Super Southeast 120, your Hot 101, your Dream Team 100, Amazing 88, Fab 55, Top 40, and Marvelous Metro 11.

The only way your wife can get you to go to the grocery store is to ask you to scout the Dazzling Dozen. When you pull out the salsa, you eat only blue chips. As signing day arrives, and you agonize over whether your school has signed enough highly sought players, there's only one piece of advice we can give:

Read the bottom of your team's list as closely as the top.

It's possible that the last guy a team signs, the guy who didn't fit the mold, the guy who was too short/slow/skinny/fat, the guy the coaches fought over whether to give a scholarship or not, may be the guy who turns into an All-American.

Every coach has a player like that seared into his memory. They remember the players who climbed a long way to succeed. They remember the players who fooled them. Those guys speak to why coaches love coaching. It may be an age when Web sites and cable networks -- in our case, ESPNU -- deliver an unprecedented amount of recruiting coverage. Yet as exact sciences go, recruiting remains right up there with cold fusion.

In our random survey of late signees, we found a Heisman Trophy winner, a College Football Hall of Fame member, and some of the top players in the National Football League.

"Recruiters have to believe in what you see," said Jim Hofher, the longtime coach recently fired by the University of Buffalo. "Believe in your instincts. Don't care about whether anyone else is recruiting him."

Al Messerschmidt/Wire Image.com
Doug Flutie went from a late addition to BC's class to a Heisman winner.



Sometimes, it's an issue of size. Doug Flutie was too short. Jack Bicknell got hired late in the recruiting season by Boston College and took a chance on the 5-foot-9 quarterback/safety because he had some scholarships available. Flutie, of course, won the 1984 Heisman Trophy and is still playing in the NFL.

Russell Maryland was too fat. University of Miami coach Jimmy Johnson took a chance on the defensive tackle from the Chicago area.

"We were looking for a defensive lineman," said Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, recalling that decision in the winter of 1986 when he was a Miami assistant. "Very few people were on him. [Canes assistant] Hubbard Alexander stood up for him. He was oversized for the type we took. We were more of a speed defense. He made himself a player. He lost weight, lifted weights every day. He was by far the least impressive athletically out of the top 25."

By the time he left after the 1990 season, Maryland had a 6-foot-2, 273-pound body and an Outland Trophy.

"When he graduated, he was the first pick in the draft and drafted by the guy who signed him," Tuberville said, referring to Johnson. "His attitude was the big difference. If they've got the passion and the work ethic, they can be a factor."

Tedy Bruschi, the rock of the New England Patriots' defense, was too small some 15 years ago. Growing up in Roseville, Calif., at the base of the Sierra Nevada foothills, Bruschi couldn't attract attention from college coaches.
Except Dick Tomey at Arizona.

"Nobody wanted to give Tedy Bruschi a scholarship," recalled Gerald Carr, a member of that Arizona staff. "We sat around the table. He was a good player. He was undersized. Dick said, 'I love his motor. I'm taking the head coach prerogative. We're giving him a scholarship.'"

On some staffs, the coaches poll one another to determine who gets a scholarship. On others, as Carr put it, "There are nine thoughts. There's one vote."

Marc Piscotty/Allsport
It didn't take the New Mexico coaches long to realize Brian Urlacher was a gem.



Sometimes it's an issue of geography. Dennis Franchione's favorite last signee came from Lovington, N.M., a small town near the Texas border.

"You don't just go through Lovington," said Franchione, the former New Mexico coach now at Texas A&M. "You got to go to Lovington. … He is 6-3, 200, plays tight end, plays wide receiver, plays linebacker, does everything. He's pretty good."

When the player arrived for preseason practice in August, Franchione said, "We had him all of three days, and we looked at each other and said, 'This guy is good.' He was just the most valuable defensive player in the NFL: Brian Urlacher."

Hofher came up as a young assistant on Dick MacPherson's Syracuse staff in the mid-1980s. He drew a crude map of New York on his legal pad to show where Youngstown is located.

"It's basically on the corner of the country," he said. "You look across the Niagara River to Canada. There was a fort over there and a fort over here."

Syracuse found a fullback there named Daryl Johnston. The only other offer Johnston received to play Division I football came from I-AA Cornell in the Ivy League.

"We just didn't know if we should scholarship him. He's as tough as the day is long. He was as good a collegiate football player, probably the toughest football player, as I've ever been around," Hofher said of Johnston, who went on to play 11 years for the Dallas Cowboys and now serves as an NFL analyst for Fox Sports.

Sometimes, it's an issue of seeing a player that no one else saw. Former Colorado coach Gary Barnett signed Derek McCoy after a tip from Western (Colo.) State basketball coach Bobby Hoffman. McCoy had played high school football without attracting attention. Hoffman was recruiting him to play hoops, but McCoy kept saying he wanted a chance to play football.

"In May, I sent one of my coaches to watch him play basketball," Barnett said. "We just absolutely took a chance on him. He was 6-3, had good grades, seemed to be a good kid."

<!---------------------PULL-QUOTE TABLE (BEGIN)---------------------><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD width=4><SPACER type="block" width="3" height="1"></TD><TD>[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]“[/FONT]</TD><TD width=225>[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]When you get down to the last couple of recruits, you're saying, who's the best football player that can help us to be successful? You go more toward character. You're always recruiting character when making that last pick.[/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif] ”[/FONT]</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD width=4><SPACER type="block" width="3" height="1"></TD><TD></TD><TD width=225>[FONT=Times,serif]— [/FONT][FONT=Times,serif]Tulsa coach Steve Kragthorpe [/FONT]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!---------------------PULL-QUOTE TABLE (END)--------------------->From 2000 through '03, McCoy caught 134 passes for 2,038 yards and 20 touchdowns, including a school season record 11 in 2003.

"Until this year," Barnett said, smiling, "he played more games than anybody in the history of Colorado."

There's not much of a market for 5-11, 190-pound linebackers, but Tulsa signed local product Nick Bunting anyway.

"He was playing basketball at my son's school," coach Steve Kragthorpe said. "I couldn't watch him. My son wasn't playing, so I couldn't go. My wife and son went. When the game was over, I said, 'How did he do?' She said, 'Well, he fouled out in about the first 15 minutes and he got a technical. He's not much of a basketball player but I think he's going to be a pretty good football player. He's a bruiser.'"

Tulsa beat out I-AA Missouri State for Bunting. He has put on 40 pounds, was named freshman of the year in the Western Athletic Conference in 2003, and has started for three seasons.

"I just had a great feel for him as a person," Kragthorpe said. "When you get down to the last couple of recruits, you're saying, who's the best football player that can help us to be successful? You go more toward character. You're always recruiting character when making that last pick.

You take a Tom Brady in the sixth round [New England, 2000]: a good person, a good teammate, a good worker. It's the same thing in college football. You're trying to find a good team player who will contribute to the success of the team."

That's how Georgia coach Vince Dooley stumbled onto a defensive back from Huntsville, Texas, in 1980.

"When we signed Herschel [Walker], the number one recruited player in the country, we also signed Terry Hoage, who was the least recruited player in the country," Dooley said. "Nobody in Division I offered him. A professor at Georgia knew his daddy at Huntsville, Texas. He taught at a state college.

He contacted us. Terry was a quarterback who hurt his knee. We had one or two scholarships left. I told my coaches, 'Let's see if we can find a good student, a hard worker, who could hang around for four years and maybe help us.'"

Hoage became a two-time All-American safety and played for many years in the NFL. Hoage and Walker came into Georgia at opposite ends of the recruiting spectrum, but both made it to the College Football Hall of Fame.

Sometimes, assistants believe what their parents tell them. That's what happened at Clemson some 20 years ago. Every week, when the coaches met to discuss recruits, assistant Don Denning sang the praises of a Commerce (Ga.) High tailback Terry Allen. Head coach Danny Ford never committed to him.

"It went on and on for about three weeks," recalled Mississippi State offensive coordinator Woody McCorvey, a member of that staff. "Tommy West's [now the Memphis head coach] dad was the mayor of Gainesville, Georgia. His mom and dad went to watch Commerce and Gainesville. They get home and his dad calls Tommy and says, 'There's a really good running back over at Commerce.'

"Tommy said, 'That's the guy that Don has been talking about.' When it came up, Tommy says, 'My mom and dad watch the kid and think he's a heck of a player.' And we take him."

Allen lettered three years at Clemson, making All-ACC in 1988, and retired from the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens after the 2001 season. He is still 22nd all-time in career rushing in the NFL with 8,614 yards.

If Allen hadn't gone to Clemson, he might have ended up at South Carolina State. Sports in general, and college football in particular, are filled with might-have-beens. The last-minute recruits who succeed are the might-have-beens who did. They overcame being too short/slow/skinny/fat.

The players who succeeded did so in spite of the circumstances that happened to them at the outset. What they had inside -- and what some players today still have -- is the inner drive that can't be measured by a stopwatch. Remember that as you dive into the next bag of blue chips.

Ivan Maisel is a senior writer at ESPN.com. He can be reached at [email protected].

 

[BuckeyeBlitz04]

For the record, that doesn't bother me.
There are those people out there who, every time a kid changes his mind and "de-commits" somewhere and chooses another school, well, some people start with this whole, "A verbal commitment is your word" and "How can you trust a kid who backs out on a program?"

OK this is how I see it: If you give a program your verbal word that you are going to attend that university then do so. If you are not 100% sure then don't give that university your verbal "word"! That university is counting on you to come there, i.e. holding a scolly for you / managing scolly size, so be SURE when you tell a school that you want to go there! Yes, I know there is a great deal of pressure put on these kids during visits but they should never make a commitment unless they are sure. It bothers me, maybe not some of you.
When people in life tell me they are going to do something for me, I hold them to it. If not I get real upset with them for not being a man and living up to their "word"! :)

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

OK this is how I see it: If you give a program your verbal word that you are going to attend that university then do so. If you are not 100% sure then don't give that university your verbal "word"! That university is counting on you to come there, i.e. holding a scolly for you / managing scolly size, so be SURE when you tell a school that you want to go there! Yes, I know there is a great deal of pressure put on these kids during visits but they should never make a commitment unless they are sure. It bothers me, maybe not some of you.
When people in life tell me they are going to do something for me, I hold them to it. If not I get real upset with them for not being a man and living up to their "word"! :)

And what happens when you give that school your "word"! and they pull your offer a week before NLOID?

 

[BuckeyeBlitz04]

And what happens when you give that school your "word"! and they pull your offer a week before NLOID?

I think that is pretty crappy also! A school should live up to their word as well as the student!

 

[cincibuck]

Tuesday, January 31, 2006 [FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]By Joe Frollo Jr. Repository assistant sports editor[/FONT]
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.
​

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Drew Kuhn is going to college for free.

///////////////////////////////////

I hope I'm not thread jacking here, but this line always gets me. There's no free lunch involved in a scholarship. Those kids put in a minimum 20 hour work week most of the year. Off season is no piece of cake and in season is a bitch. Only someone who is gifted mentally and physically can take complete advantage of the package. You don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to figure out that many of the recipients have been sold into a dead end degree program in order to keep tham eligible once they arrive on campus. It's a tough way to go to school.

 

[bucknut11]

I hope I'm not thread jacking here, but this line always gets me. There's no free lunch involved in a scholarship. Those kids put in a minimum 20 hour work week most of the year. Off season is no piece of cake and in season is a bitch. Only someone who is gifted mentally and physically can take complete advantage of the package. You don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to figure out that many of the recipients have been sold into a dead end degree program in order to keep tham eligible once they arrive on campus. It's a tough way to go to school.

.... and they get an $80,000 education for FREE. I put in a 20+ hour work week every week. I'm paying my own way. Yeah, they've got it so tough...

 

[babybuck]

Tuesday, January 31, 2006 [FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]By Joe Frollo Jr. Repository assistant sports editor[/FONT]
<TABLE style="MARGIN: 10px -3px 15px 5px; POSITION: relative" width=300 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD>

.

​

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Drew Kuhn is going to college for free.

///////////////////////////////////

I hope I'm not thread jacking here, but this line always gets me. There's no free lunch involved in a scholarship. Those kids put in a minimum 20 hour work week most of the year. Off season is no piece of cake and in season is a bitch. Only someone who is gifted mentally and physically can take complete advantage of the package. You don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to figure out that many of the recipients have been sold into a dead end degree program in order to keep tham eligible once they arrive on campus. It's a tough way to go to school.

He is going to college for free (and to play football). Mount Union does not have athletic scholarships. He is going for free because his mom is an employee.

 

[BuckeyeRob]

OK this is how I see it: If you give a program your verbal word that you are going to attend that university then do so. If you are not 100% sure then don't give that university your verbal "word"! That university is counting on you to come there, i.e. holding a scolly for you / managing scolly size, so be SURE when you tell a school that you want to go there! Yes, I know there is a great deal of pressure put on these kids during visits but they should never make a commitment unless they are sure. It bothers me, maybe not some of you.
When people in life tell me they are going to do something for me, I hold them to it. If not I get real upset with them for not being a man and living up to their "word"! :)

I have to say I disagree. Im an old goat but when I was in HS, a couple of buddies of mine were recruited to play for several Div1 schools. Being from Columbus, the pressure from the student body was to become buckeyes. My buddy was also being recruited by ASU as well as Ohio State. You could tell from talking to him that he was very interested in going to ASU where he would have had a legit shot at being a starter. He ended up picking the buckeyes was on the team for 4 seasons got very little playing time ( he was never any better than 4th team TB) At ASU he would have been a likely starter.....

A lot of time kids get a LOT of pressure to go her or there based upon what there friends and family want.

You forget that a scholarship is a 1 year deal. The school is not "obligated" to give you 4,5 or 6(medical) years scholoarship. You say this and then you see all the time where a kid is promised a 'ship he committs and then suddenly within days of NLOI that a 'ship is now suddenly not availble... it happens every year to a few kids.

I dont think he is bound to anything until he signs.

 

[cincibuck]

.... and they get an $80,000 education for FREE. I put in a 20+ hour work week every week. I'm paying my own way. Yeah, they've got it so tough...

I feel your pain... but it's not a "FREE" scholarship... they have to work for it. You have to separate the notion of 'play' from athletics... they're not 'playing.' They're putting 100K+ butts in the stands for 6 or 7 Saturdays at, what, $40 a pop? Its a busniess, and they are held accountable.