A contingent contingency

You gotta love the semantics of recruiting.  An offer by a school isn’t binding.  A verbal commitment by a kid isn’t binding.  So I’m not exactly sure what is gained by this wrinkle:

Alabama’s scholarship offers at some positions, most notably quarterback, are non-committable and pending an evaluation at summer camp, reported al.com’s Mike Herndon. Alabama has non-committable “offers” out to two Georgia high school quarterbacks, Gainesville’s Deshaun Watson (committed to Clemson) and Pierce County’s Tyler Harris.

“It is our philosophy at certain positions that we really like to learn a lot about players and one of the best ways to learn about a player is when they come and visit you, because you’re limited in terms of the contact you can have with them off-campus,” Saban told the website.

So a high schooler gets an “offer”, but it’s an offer he can’t accept when it’s made.  That’s not an offer; it’s an invitation to come visit.

It’s common for colleges make non-committable scholarship “offers” to rising seniors that are pending an evaluation at summer camp – especially at the quarterback position. It’s just rare for a college coach, especially Saban, to publicly admit it because then it may cause confusion for other kids at other positions offered by the same college on whether or not they have a “true” or committable offer.

Jeez, ‘ya think?

But let’s not forget the real problem with recruiting is high school seniors who can’t make up their minds.

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UPDATE:  John Infante adds some pertinent thoughts.

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Hugh Freeze, master of space and time

Man, one good recruiting class and you start thinking you’re the shiznit.

Tuesday morning buffet

Indulge yourselves.

• Fun Bryan McClendon stat:  A true freshman has led the Bulldogs in rushing in three of his four seasons as the Bulldogs’ running backs coach.
• One of the O’Bannon defendants had licensing agreements with more than 80 former college athletes from 1995 to 2010.  Does the NCAA pay attention to anything it says is important to it?
• ACC Network?  Not with Raycom sitting out there holding rights that nobody seems to be in a big hurry to buy back.
• Only at Southern Cal – “Porn Star Attempts Recruiting DT to USC”
• Does Georgia have a shot at hosting College Game Day this season?
• “Why wouldn’t you want to make money?”:  helpful advice for Minnesota’s beer sales problem.
• Two signing periods, or just an earlier NLI signing date?

“I hope I’m on scholarship for four years.”

Hey, here’s a real shocker for you (h/t Players).

In the summer of 2011, the NCAA changed this rule. It passed legislation giving Division I universities the option to offer multiyear scholarships, guaranteeing an education as long as the athlete stays out of legal trouble, doesn’t violate school or NCAA rules, keeps playing the sport and maintains academic eligibility. The athlete is also free to leave, under the same transfer rules as always.

But nearly two years after that legislation, multiyear scholarships are rare, not publicized by universities and largely unknown by the athletes. According to data of 82 universities at the Division I-A level obtained by the Post-Gazette through open records requests, only 16 have offered more than 10 multiyear scholarships. Thirty-two of the universities have offered between one and 10, and thirty-four have not offered any.

You can read the whole thing, but it all boils down to this:

1. Coaches don’t like losing control.
2. The NCAA was covering its ass in its usual less than coherent way.  (“The great majority of athletic scholarships are still good for just one year, renewable on a coach’s decision, a procedure that flaunts the education-first narrative pitched by the NCAA and member schools, especially at a time when promising an education until graduation is possible.”)
3. Student-athletes don’t have a clue what they’re being offered.

Same old, same old, in other words…

How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm once they’ve seen the Flats?

Georgia Tech’s latest recruiting pitch looks like something that was beta tested at Dragon*Con.

I can’t wait to hear from the first recruit who says he was swayed by that.

“That kid made his choice, and now he has buyer’s remorse.”

I tell you what – it’s been a long time since I’ve read anything that reeks of as much hypocrisy as this Matt Hayes article about Matthew Thomas, the kid who wants out of his LOI with FSU.

I really do feel for Jimbo Fisher, who’s in a tough spot entirely not of his own making.  On the one hand, does he really want a disgruntled soul like Thomas hanging around his program?  It’s hard to see right now how he makes a positive contribution in Tallahassee this season.

But on the other, Fisher’s peers are closing ranks, and just in the way you might expect.

… Here’s something else Fisher has become: the test case for his coaching fraternity.

“I told him, if he lets (Thomas) go free, precedent is set and everything changes,” said one BCS coach.

… I’ve spoken to three different BCS coaches who have reached out to Fisher and advised him to play it strictly by the book. In other words, if Thomas wants to leave, he can leave—but not without paying the NCAA penalty of sitting out a season of eligibility.

Tough guys.  I wonder if one of the coaches who “reached out” to Fisher was Todd Graham.  Now there’s somebody who’s paid the price for serially jumping ship.

It’s not the attitude that a confused 18-year old should be held to a higher standard for doing the same thing that a grown-ass man who has access to legal representation does that gets me.  It’s that these selfish bastards expect us to share their attitude about it.  But at least they got Hayes to cheerlead for them.

Monday morning buffet

Step right up and start your week.

• ESPN looks at recruiting pitches for every SEC school and finds Georgia’s biggest problem with this year’s recruits is too much depth.
• Mike Bobo dishes up some Dawg porn on Justin Scott-Wesley.
• Kentucky outduels Spurrier for a four-star quarterback’s commitment.  Interesting.
• Doc Saturday’s most memorable hit in college football should be a crowd pleaser here.
• This is pretty funny.  It would be even better if it were true.
• Barrett Sallee takes a look at what makes Aaron Murray good, takes a shot at the decision not to spike at the end of the SECCG in passing.
• More big school separation talk here.
• Here’s something else Corch brought with him from the SEC that probably isn’t being welcomed in his newer surroundings.

Old wine in new bottles

This, I am sure, changes everything.

Georgia Tech has made a leap forward in its recruiting efforts. It is the hope of coach Paul Johnson that the Yellow Jackets now won’t be playing from behind.

The team has expanded the recruiting department from one person to four, a staff that includes Tech great Joe Hamilton.

Only thing is, the genius still has to seal the deal.

Johnson has come under criticism for perceived recruiting shortcomings, to which he has responded that Tech’s recruiting results are similar to what his predecessors have achieved, with the star-studded 2007 class standing as an outlier.

Yes, that, because Chan Gailey is the gold standard of Tech recruiting.

Johnson has charged the recruiting staff with a lot of the legwork that previously occupied the time of the assistant coaches, such as gathering transcripts. The team evaluates thousands of prospects each year, and Griffin’s staff will endeavor to streamline the process. For instance, if there are 100 offensive line prospects to look at, Griffin said, “we can go through the 100 to find the 10 that we think they’d like and then let them make the decisions from there.”

With as many as four coaches heading to Florida next week — assistants have been on the road evaluating prospects since the end of spring practice — Cassano surveyed high school coaching contacts in the state to check on who would be worth seeing. Griffin estimated Cassano’s 45 minutes of work saved the coaching staff two days of travel and evaluation time, hours that can be more devoted to more worthwhile prospects.

“Two phone calls, we can cover about four counties — who can play, who can’t,” Griffin said. “People we know and trust.”

I guess that means they’ll be able to find even more kids who’ll run afoul of the Johnson Doctrine.

Call their bluff.

I don’t know about you, but I’d love it to no end if this kid would accept one of his eight offers now, never grow another inch and hold the lucky winning coach to his promise of a scholarship.

Which is never going to happen, of course.  And which is why I’d love it even more if Andy Staples’ signing proposal became reality.

Fashion plate

I have no idea how talented a football player Preston Williams may turn out to be at the college level, but I’ve got to tell you from a blogging perspective, he’s a must-have in Athens.

… Williams wore blindingly bright yellow shoes, mismatched socks (one was a multi-colored, neon leopard print, while the other was decorated with cupcakes), cut-off camouflage sweat pants over black leggings and a Lovejoy t-shirt. The ensemble was topped off with a gray scarf that would look great on a 78-year-old retiree from Boca Raton but seemed out of place wrapped around Williams’ noggin as a headband.

“This is my look,” Williams said. “My jumping look — I am exotic.”

Ooh, baby.  Sign this kid!