Recruiting stories

[SnarkShark]

With all the recruiting talk on the other thread, I figured it deserved another one. This is one of the worst stories of that type this year. From what I understand, the Register and another local paper ran stories on this kid's made up commitment in December.

The question is, how would you handle it? Do you publish this story or handle it a different way?

http://www.ocvarsity.com/articles/crenshaw-71648-scholarship-state.html

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

I think I'd handle it like they did, just lay everything out there and let it go like that. Once the kid accuses ASU of revoking the offer, I think the school deserves the right to have their side of the story heard. I'm sorry if it makes the kid look bad.

There's a chance the kid was trying to pump himself up and look like a stud by announcing he was signing with ASU for a scholarship offer he didn't have. But I'd guess it's more likely the kid isn't the brightest kid in the world, isn't very worldly, has some other issues - however you want to put it - and made some tremendous leaps of faith. The way he's backtracking now, saying before that he had an offer, now saying he didn't but was just saying he wants to go there, seems to back up the latter possibility.

If the Register and other outlets wrote about him committing to ASU in the past, there's every reason to follow up on the story on why he didn't sign with them and the other stuff going on.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Hey, at least he had the good sense to say his offer got yanked.

A few years ago, a kid near Reno told everyone he was accepting a scholarship to Cal after taking numerous visits (Oklahoma State was one). School even threw him a big party in the gym.

http://www.rgj.com/article/20080207/PREPSPORTS/802070361/Fernley-s-Hart-admits-fabricating-story

 

[SnarkShark]

I remember that very well and I'll never forget the kid's name, especially now that Kevin Hart the comedian has blown up.

 

[HanSenSE]

In a lot early reporting, we're hamstrung because schools and coacges can't comment on a prospect until they get that NLOI in hand. Well done, OCR.

 

[SnarkShark]

Another publication's response to the OC Register's story.

http://www.dailypilot.com/sports/tn-dpt-sp-0209-oronde-crenshaw-register-virgen-20140208,0,1927921,full.story

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

At some point, does the high school coaching staff deserve any blame for letting things get to the point it got?

I would think they know if a scholarship offer has actually been made, and if the kid (who has been through so much, according to one of the HS coaches) really is so naive and has no father figure and has all this stuff going on at home, I would expect the coaches to step in and help him through the process.

 

[BDC99]

Another publication's response to the OC Register's story.

http://www.dailypilot.com/sports/tn-dpt-sp-0209-oronde-crenshaw-register-virgen-20140208,0,1927921,full.story

I'm having a hard time deciding what this story is actually saying. It starts off lamenting the fact that recruiting stories are news, which to me is asinine. I work in a pretty big football area with a fair amount of Division I signings, and it is still a big deal when a local kid gets a scholarship to a big school. Then the story goes on to say the Pilot first broke the news and will be there to report it when he does go to a big school out of junior college. They also got this information from the kid's Facebook page and it seemed like some of the kids comments got mixed up or he overstated ASU's interest. I guess the lesson is that you need to dig a little deeper, but my guess is that lesson will be forgotten shortly.
I thought the originally linked story was a bit much. No reason to write such a story to set the record straight. The kid is unfamiliar with the process and mis-stated ASU's interest. It doesn't seem like he was trying to be a big shot. It's not like the Hart kid, who called a news conference and had this big dog-and-pony show that turned out to be a hoax. OCR should have just mentioned it as a couple sentences in a roundup or something for the people who were expecting him to sign with ASU. I thought the story made him look bad.

 

[HanSenSE]

So, will the Press-Telegram now do a story reviewing the Daily Pilot's review of the ORC's coverage?

 

[MCbamr]

In a lot early reporting, we're hamstrung because schools and coacges can't comment on a prospect until they get that NLOI in hand. Well done, OCR.

A coach can confirm if a particular athlete is being recruited though.

 

[Steak Snabler]

In a lot early reporting, we're hamstrung because schools and coacges can't comment on a prospect until they get that NLOI in hand. Well done, OCR.

A coach can confirm if a particular athlete is being recruited though.

Yep. I remember back when I was covering Alabama, Mark Gottfried released a statement that they were no longer recruiting Walter Sharpe, a big-time forward from Birmingham.

Word around the campfire is that Sharpe's AAU coach/handler/uncle/whatever had requested $50,000 for Sharpe's signature. So it was in Gottfried's interest to officially distance himself from Sharpe and his camp.

Sharpe ultimately signed with Mississippi State, but eventually wound up at UAB. He never amounted to much, other than a couple of run-ins with the law.

 

[TheHacker]

In a lot early reporting, we're hamstrung because schools and coacges can't comment on a prospect until they get that NLOI in hand. Well done, OCR.

A coach can confirm if a particular athlete is being recruited though.

If not the college coach, then certainly the high school coach should be a key source on this. I was a prep SE in an area that produces a lot of college football and basketball players, and we never had a coach lead us astray on recruiting news. If they knew Big State U wasn't really recruiting Johnny All-County, they'd tell us. And we had kids tell us all sorts of stuff. We got out-and-out suckered once. That was embarrassing. We had another one where a basketball player told us he had name-brand schools after him, and we did a story that said so because the kid legitimately had one of those "overcoming adversity" back stories. He ended up at a very small D-I program.

That sort of leads to another point worth discussing. We do these recruiting stories, and even if the kid actually signs where he said, how often do we go back and cover it when it doesn't work out? Like, let's say the kid doesn't qualify academically, or any number of other circumstances arises and the season begins and lo and behold the kid isn't on the roster ... do we cover that? Most of the time we don't. I'm not going to say we never followed up on stuff like that at my place, but most of the time we didn't. And I suspect we're not alone.

I guess it depends on how significant the recruit and the school are, but if recruiting is news, shouldn't we feel compelled to stay on top of stuff like that no matter what?

 

[Steak Snabler]

The problem is, sometimes high school coaches are either (1) in the dark as to what "being recruited" really means, especially if they don't often have guys being recruited; or (2) willing to lie about it so that it makes them and their program look good.

 

[SnarkShark]

Of course, stupid Twitter sniping between the Register reporter and the Daily Pilot column writer.

https://twitter.com/jeremybalan/status/432337153700274176

 

[Steak Snabler]

You also sometimes get dragged into the middle of a pissing contest between rival fan bases.

You can write something as innocuous as "Joe Quarterback committed to State U over offers from Southeastern Tech and Other State U," and you'll get 10 comments from Southeastern Tech fans saying Joe Quarterback never had a "committable offer" from that school.

Who the hell knows what is accurate.

 

[Point of Order]

I've known of kids who I'm certain gamed the media with fake scholarship offers from one school to coax a real scholarship offer from another school. Some of these kids know exactly what they're doing. Sometimes it even works.

 

[Batman]

You also sometimes get dragged into the middle of a pissing contest between rival fan bases.

You can write something as innocuous as "Joe Quarterback committed to State U over offers from Southeastern Tech and Other State U," and you'll get 10 comments from Southeastern Tech fans saying Joe Quarterback never had a "committable offer" from that school.

Who the hell knows what is accurate.

Saw that with one of our local JUCO guys who signed with an SEC school in December. He had verbally committed to a major, major non-SEC program, then lo and behold changed his mind a couple of days before signing day. The message boards for the SEC school were giddy that he jilted the other program for them. The non-SEC school's fans brushed it off by saying they'd never heard of the guy, he sucked anyway, and must've had a "non-committable offer."
I didn't chime in on their boards, but did learn that apparently there are such things as "committable" and "non-committable" offers, and anyone who doesn't know the difference is a flaming moron.
I hate recruiting.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Recruiting is well worth hating, Batman, but it sounds like you really hate college football fans -- also a worthy hate object.

 

[Batman]

Recruiting is well worth hating, Batman, but it sounds like you really hate college football fans -- also a worthy hate object.

No, not really the fans, just everything recruiting has become. The fact that there's two different kinds of offers, and you're supposed to be able to differentiate between the two when one side can't tell you any details, seems silly to me. The whole idea of stalking teenagers to find out if they changed their mind because they said they daydreamed in math class about running on the field at Podunk State, after they'd given a "lean" to Podunk Tech when they saw a homeless guy in a Tech baseball cap on Monday, is equally absurd.
At our shop, we cover recruiting about how I like it. Check in with the kids or their parents once in a while whenever we see them, maybe write a story if they commit or a week or two ahead of signing day, then another when they actually sign. Gets the news out there without drifting into absurdity.

 

[Matt Stephens]

I've known of kids who I'm certain gamed the media with fake scholarship offers from one school to coax a real scholarship offer from another school. Some of these kids know exactly what they're doing. Sometimes it even works.

You have to sometimes question when a kid who just picked up a smaller offer says major programs are recruiting him or "close to offering." That also makes it so much more refreshing when a kid admits he's not really on any other school's radar.

I talked to a kid who committed up here the day before NSD. For whatever reason, it made my day to hear him admit he wasn't the first option for the school, getting a last-second offer. On top of it, he said Wisconsin recruited him as much as it did any other kid in the country ... by sending him a letter. For whatever reason, it made me respect him, knowing he wasn't blowing smoke up my rear.

I love covering recruiting--fans eat it up--but it can be a pretty twisted web with schools not being able to comment on the record until a guy signs.