Pick Up The Damn Phone
[Patrick Barron]
You will not be surprised that the Rashad Weaver decommitment set off another media/twitter/message board tempest. The guy who called Kyle Flood "real" two weeks before his grade-fixing scandal came to light has weighed in. Teddy Greenstein has resumed calling Michael Spath a hack so he doesn't have to actually address Michigan's point of view. Lawyers from Alabama have invaded my mentions.
This is not a good state of affairs. It is not the End of Integrity, as the pearl-clutching wing of the fanbase has fretted. The decommits will sign elsewhere; they won't have to transfer or take a medical midway through their careers. Finding yourself with a guy who would be better off elsewhere is inevitable and it's better to rip off the bandaid.
Michigan isn't in this situation because it's evil or untrustworthy, but rather because it's been disorganized and sloppy. There are countless examples just this year of similar decommits that were handled much better, like when Florida commit Isaiah Williams flipped to Washington State in December. Was that a voluntary switch? Not bloody likely. Did it cause a rending of garments and beating of the breast? Not at all.
Michigan took a number of early commits from fringe players, and they did so without checking up on grades. While there have been no complaints from anyone other than Swenson and Weaver, the sheer number of decommits looks bad even if Michigan has valid reasons for consciously uncoupling. There was no reason to take commits from a slew of academically questionable three stars this summer. Michigan gave them a plan to get right and they couldn't get there, which is fine. More or less dropping contact with them is not.
Meanwhile Michigan's two talent-based decommits were given broad hints but not told flat out until they did not want to take those hints. Whether or not this is how it's done elsewhere, that's the equivalent of breaking up with your girlfriend via meaningful eyebrow arcing and the occasional pursed lip. It results in confusion and people buying you gun racks.
Erik Swenson should have been explicitly dumped as soon as he did not show for Michigan's summer camp, and certainly by October, when his midseason senior film arrived in Ann Arbor. Weaver got enough of a message that he started looking around in November; his situation should have been made explicitly clear by midseason at the latest as well.
This is both ethically better and less damaging to the program. A Swenson set loose in October is both more capable of finding an appropriate landing spot and less capable of setting off a media firestorm. If Rashad Weaver simply flips to one of the four schools he visited over the course of the season his decommit is as newsworthy as that of Isaiah Williams, ie, not newsworthy except to Washington State fans.
So. To prevent further outbreaks, pick up the damn phone. By December.
January 26th, 2016 at 1:18 PM ^
just to upvote. good work, sir or madam
January 26th, 2016 at 1:06 PM ^
We were all Garth this past week:
January 26th, 2016 at 9:53 PM ^
to upvote.
Yes, we were. We sure were.
Nice clip.
January 26th, 2016 at 1:07 PM ^
All Michigan needs to do to avoid this sort of bad press is be forthright with the players and their coaches. And also monitor the recruit's actions - if the recruit seems to be in an ostrich position*, tell them bluntly that their future is elsewhere. And do it earlier than later.
*Sorry ostriches. I know you don't really bury your heads. XOXOXO
January 26th, 2016 at 1:11 PM ^
On behalf of my best friend, who is an ostrich, I appreciate your apology.
January 26th, 2016 at 1:11 PM ^
I did not realize you were best friends with four-time Heisman winner Jimmy Clausen. From now on I'll read your posts with that in mind!
January 26th, 2016 at 1:15 PM ^
...we get along pretty well as long as we don't talk about football or...anything else really.
January 26th, 2016 at 1:48 PM ^
January 27th, 2016 at 1:19 AM ^
January 26th, 2016 at 1:11 PM ^
"To prevent further outbreaks, pick up the damn phone. By December." True, but first and foremost "there was no reason to take commits from a slew of academically questionable three stars this summer."
Don't over-offer and don't take questionable commits so you won't have to pick up the damn phone. This is self-inflicted, yet avoidable.
January 26th, 2016 at 1:13 PM ^
Fist of all Weaver is an honors student with offers from the Ivy league and the service academies. No need to smear this kid, he has handled this with some class, unlike Swenson.
January 26th, 2016 at 1:31 PM ^
No doubt. And nobody is smearing Weaver. My point is not about academically questionable kids, but about the over-extension of offers to athletically questionable players. You think this is bad, imagine what it will look like if there is another slew of decommits this time next year. I hope I'm wrong about over-offering athletically questionable players, but some of the satellite camp commits Hello posts caused me to do double-takes. Time will tell...
January 26th, 2016 at 1:31 PM ^
And I think this is what you're saying, and what I agree with, don't formally offer (written offer sent in August) guys you haven't vetted/evaluated. That means grades, work ethic, skill, etc. I don't care about the verbal offer stuff that happens before, though if you haven't evaluated the kid sufficiently, tell them their offer isn't committable at that time until further evaluation. I don't care about verbal offers because even "offers" mean things to kids whether they can commit or not, which is part of the reason so many kids claim to have Bama offers. But if you haven't evaluated them completed, don't allow them to commit, and don't send them a letter formally stating they can.
By the way,many of the written offers have outs/clauses in it regarding meeting academic requirements, personal accountability (i.e. not robbing folks), and things of that nature. So if people are stupid after that goes out, you can get out of it without it blowing up. But that's upfront and clear. If a kid isn't eligible, he knows he can't go there. But "you are no longer considered a commit because we think there are some better players and we stopped calling you" typically isn't one of the clauses.
January 26th, 2016 at 1:44 PM ^
That's exactly my point. I mean, one of these schools doesn't belong.
And so now we hear that Dytarious - a satellite camp commit - is going to decommit because of academics. What I'm saying is that to avoid having to pick up the damn phone, our coaching staff needs to make better decisions on offering students they haven't fully evaluated (academically but mostly athletically).
January 26th, 2016 at 1:59 PM ^
If a kid wants to verbally commit how is a school supposed to stop it? They can't comment. If a kid has an offer with qualifications, how is the staff going to stop a kid from going to twitter and saying they are going to Michigan?
January 26th, 2016 at 2:25 PM ^
January 26th, 2016 at 3:10 PM ^
It was a few years back and a kid in Yerington, NV held a ceremony in his school where he committed to Cal over Oregon. Cal had no idea who he was and the University of NEvada Reno staff had had him at camp and weren't even planning on having him walk on. Kid blamed it on a "third party recruiter" and everyone pretty much knew he was lying, so it never really went anywhere. Nutty story.
January 26th, 2016 at 2:29 PM ^
January 26th, 2016 at 4:43 PM ^
An understanding of both the rules and best practices of the recruiting game helps, and you're one of the few posts touching on how these things actually go down.
So let me ask - part of the process usually involves sending a "letter formally stating they can [commit]"? But this letter is not "committable" any more than the previous "verbal" offer, other than it has some additional value in the realm of social contract?
To quote DancingWolverine, is that when an offer becomes an OFFER? But until NSD no one is truly obligated under recruiting bylaw? Is there any mechanism for a school to actually commit to a scholarship prior to NSD? What are the barriers to creating one?
January 26th, 2016 at 2:51 PM ^
Thank you jimmy - this is the point I made in the Weaver decommits post:
If I'm Weaver I don't want to be lumped in with academic non-qualifiers - and I also don't want to be lumped in with kids that tried to glide in on the previous staff's offer without committing to improving themselves as players, working with the new staff, or bonding with their classmates.
Weaver is an example of a VERY enthusiastic coach meeting a VERY commendable young man and hastily extending a scholarship offer without due diligence to his playing ability. I think Harbaugh's respecting the kid so much made parting harder.
Swenson situation was handled poorly only in the sense that hints were clearly NOT gonna be enough to shake him loose from that M offer. He should have straight up been de-offered months ago. Instead they sent him a new written offer, which he was classy enough to tweet out after "decommitting". Bad decision!
The best & the worst of this - which I haven't seen mentioned in all these many threads - is Hoke would have kept Swenson in the class. And we'd be wondering in 4 years why his players never seem to develop like their ratings!!!
January 26th, 2016 at 1:36 PM ^
What we're seeing isn't as bad as just dumping recruits out of the blue, but we shouldn't make a practice of pulling offers from recruits who are academically qualified and not in legal trouble. Better not to make early offers to marginal prospects at all.
As Brian said a few days ago, it's fine to tell guys that we're still recruiting their position and that we don't expect them to earn much playing time, but if they don't decommit we should bite the bullet and stick with the offer we made. It would help the program's and the school's rep in the long run.
January 26th, 2016 at 1:07 PM ^
Complete conjecture: this is what Tyrone Wheatley was upset about in early December back when there were rumors that he was frustrated with the staff's "disorganization."
January 26th, 2016 at 1:10 PM ^
I don't remember hearing about this.
Personally, I just hope that the the number and timing of decommits is a consequence of the transition process with a new coaching staff. I know they will still happen, but I would hope that as the coaching staff gets a feel for the recruiting process at Michigan -- what level of kids will be interested, what grades they need to have, etc. -- the number of decommits will be reduced.
January 26th, 2016 at 1:16 PM ^
was there anything ever leaked?
January 26th, 2016 at 1:08 PM ^
Honest question: Are that many people really suggesting this is the End of Integrity?
A thought: Harbaugh seems to have started recruiting as if he were still at Stanford in 2007 and then later realized he was at Michigan in 2015/2016.
January 26th, 2016 at 1:14 PM ^
But the volume is there, at least. At least one guy compared Coldshouldergate to PSU's sex abuse scandal in the "Rashad Weaver Decommits" thread. Such is the way of the Internet, sadly.
It may be that, as busy as they keep themselves, they're not doing this passive-aggressively and simply focus on the recruits they want. Logically, there are a bazillion recruits and only so many hours in a day so you'll only pay attention to the ones you want. That's not the worst thing in the world, but even so, Harbaugh comes off as THAT GUY that only calls when he wants something.
January 26th, 2016 at 1:29 PM ^
I thought Coldshouldergate was less like Sandusky and more like Germany annexing the Sudetenland. But I'm reasonable that way.
January 26th, 2016 at 2:47 PM ^
That's just great. Now you have given it a name.
January 26th, 2016 at 1:36 PM ^
I think it's a valid question, since there is a pattern of departures that fall under various levels of questionable. These go back to Bosch ("I went into the meeting expecting to be back"), Pipkins ("I want to play football"), and Falcon ("I want to play football"). Others departures have been quiet (Norfleet, Bellomy, Countess, Richardson, Reese) but there have clearly been some upset people there too. Not all of these demonstrate a lack of integrity - maybe none of them do. But after Swenson and Weaver and Falcon the preponderance of evidence indicates Michigan is acting in a cut-throat manner.
It's disappointing because most of these situations are easy to address better. The Falcon example is instructive. It's too bad for the kid, but Michigan's position is understandable. They at least did him the honor of still offering him a scholarship. In Swenson and Weaver's cases they should have done them the honor of calling them earlier and being clear about their intentions. Hints aren't enough. Not calling isn't enough.
To plead ignorance on behalf of Harbaugh is ridiculous. Anyone and everyone is well aware of the level Michigan can recruit at. See what they did with a guys who came from San Diego State and West Virginia. Now they have a guy who came from Super Bowls.
January 26th, 2016 at 2:01 PM ^
I do find it believable, though, that Harbaugh misperceived the recruiting landscape. He'd won an Orange Bowl with mostly two and three-star guys, so it wasn't crazy to go after similar players at first. And Michigan was coming off of 7-6 and 5-7 seasons, which might make recruting such kids appear to be an inevitability. All of this makes it seem reasonable to me to think that he anticipated ending up with a mix of highly rated guys and players he thought were sleepers as his first full class.
But I don't say anything at all to excuse the misstep of failing to communicate better with Weaver and Swenson. What Harbaugh thought would happen with the recruiting class and not bluntly telling the kids what was what are two different things.
January 26th, 2016 at 2:12 PM ^
Even coming off 3 and 5 win seasons, with a coach on the hot set, Michigan landed a top 20 class that ranked higher than Stanfords. http://247sports.com/Season/2010-Football/CompositeTeamRankings
Rodriguez's first class ranked #11. Hokes ranked #6. Harbaugh's is likely to land in the #4-6 range - about exactly where you'd expect. The 10 win season might bump you up a few spots from around 10 to around 5, but not that much has changed really. The idea that this is a surprise is just not backed up by evidence.
If it wasn't crazy to go after 2 or 3 star kids that got you to the Orange Bowl in August, it's not crazy in January either.
Harbaugh might not have realized how few 3 stars he had to take, but he had to know very damn well that Michigan would be able to land a class of mostly 4 star kids because Michigan can ALWAYS land a class of mostly 4 star kids -- especially feeding off the energy and publicity of a new coach.
January 26th, 2016 at 5:09 PM ^
Even though it was meant as a lecture, this post makes me feel good.
Like being told you have a special responsibility with women's feelings because you are so irresistible to them.
You are not supposed to feel good about it but you do.
January 26th, 2016 at 7:08 PM ^
Thanks for the laugh.
January 26th, 2016 at 1:08 PM ^
January 26th, 2016 at 1:11 PM ^
"To prevent further outbreaks, pick up the damn phone. By December."
I thought Weaver was informed before December, no? "Weaver got enough of a message that he started looking around in November"
January 26th, 2016 at 1:22 PM ^
He might have been getting the picture from non-communication though. The staff needs to be more blunt. Considering Harbaugh is usually pretty blunt with where guys stand on the team, it wouldn't be that much of a change to also be blunt with guys who you might not be able to take earlier than mid-January.
Be clearer before the dead period and this isn't a story at all.
January 26th, 2016 at 2:06 PM ^
What is missing is context, that is to say everything that transpired between "I've got a Michigan offer" and "I've decided to withdraw my commitment to Michigan."
Michigan can't say anything however, the players can and obviously they do. For some reason once the player announces they are withdrawing their commitment, no more intellectual curiousity is displayed. Nobody asks pointed questions of the players. Swenson is not asked about the December 5th home visit by Coach Drevno, and nobody asks Weaver exactly when he learned about being offered PWO status. We know more about the recruiting of players Michigan may never get than that of Swenson and Weaver.
Speaking of which, Weaver suggests rabid fans don't know what they're talking about and to stop bashing Harbaugh. Woops, can't have that, let's ignore Weaver because bashing Harbaugh and self-flaggelation is so much fun.
January 26th, 2016 at 3:09 PM ^
January 26th, 2016 at 3:40 PM ^
I wasn't aware that Brian had spoken to the players in question and thus has the entire context at hand. Perhaps you can persude him to flesh out the story with the questions and answers from those interviews.
January 26th, 2016 at 4:03 PM ^
January 26th, 2016 at 1:12 PM ^
Edit: I dont care anymore.
January 26th, 2016 at 1:13 PM ^
The radio-silence treatment-the "fade-away," as kids call it--is a poor way to rid oneself of unwanted recruits (or significant others, for that matter). It's ineffective, confusing and rather upsetting for the side that still cares.
Just pull off the damn bandage and let things heal.
January 26th, 2016 at 1:23 PM ^
This is actually worth pointing out despite my other post: It is a poor way of ridding yourself from unwanted recruits so long as the unwanted recruit is being advised by people without a shred of foresight.
If the recruits and their advisors (parents, coaches, whoever) were smart about this, they would decommit from Michigan and make it seem like it was on their own terms.
"Thanks to Michigan for recruiting me, but *insert reason here for re-opening recruitment*". Now he's a kid who was a Michigan commit but chose to leave rather than a kid who was dumped for not being talented enough. Since no one really cares when recruits decommit, there's little downside.
Michigan's staff (I'm not saying they are doing this for the recruit's benefit, I doubt it) allows them to control the narrative without making the story about the player's lack of ability. Again: An adult would be able to see this and use it to their advantage.
Instead, in the case of Swenson and Weaver, it appears whoever is helping them make this decision wants to make it clear to them that they are a victim rather than helping them move forward. This is the obvious downside to the Harbaugh method as it creates negative press among the self-sabotaging Michigan fanbase and local media.
I would personally just tell the kid he needs to look elsewhere sooner, but I see the reasoning behind why Harbaugh does it the way he does. As has been said elsewhere, he probably just underestimated the fainting couch segment of the Michigan fanbase and social media and the effect that it would have if one of the recruits and their advisors didn't get the obvious evidence that they weren't going to be in the class.
January 26th, 2016 at 1:36 PM ^
This is a fantastic point. It's akin to the truism that it's easier to get a job if you already have a job. Nobody wants to hire an unemployed guy, because there's a perception that there's something "wrong" with them if other companies haven't hired him.
If Swenson or Weaver starts shopping around in October while still (by all appearances) committed to Michigan, other schools are going to look at them as a guy who was smart and talented enough to be offered by Michigan. If Swenson or Weaver is formally dropped by Michigan in October, other schools are going to look at them as a guy who wasn't quite smart or talented enough to play at Michigan. Especially considering their compressed recruiting timeline, this could make a big difference in who shows interest.
January 26th, 2016 at 2:47 PM ^
The trouble with this theory is that unless Michigan back-channels the story that "Recruit X has been dropped", nobody would know if the staff called in October to drop him anyway. There is zero need for the staff to be coy or drop hints. If they just called and said, "Sorry, we have better options," the recruit would still control the narrative and they can proceed as you note.
January 26th, 2016 at 4:42 PM ^
This lets the recruit be honest. If a guy committed to one school contacts another school, the other school is going to ask him why he's looking around. Instead of saying they pulled his offer, he can honestly say that he doesn't think it's the right place for him or whatever.
January 26th, 2016 at 5:32 PM ^
But if that's the reason, wouldn't you step in when it became clear the message hadn't gotten through?
It was public knowledge--we were discussing it on this board--that Swenson was still planning to sign with Michigan long after the staff had supposedly decided to cut him loose. When a recruit you no longer want tweets "one month till I sign my Michigan LOI" isn't it time to make another call? Talk to his parents, if you aren't getting the message through to him directly?
January 26th, 2016 at 5:45 PM ^
They probably did. That's why he was reaching out to other schools the week before all of this came out.
This is the stretchgate of recruiting scandals and the people taking your stance are nothing but the MGBblog Snyders and Rosenbergs that this "story" deserves.
January 26th, 2016 at 11:16 PM ^
The best option, of course, is to not have the kid commit. The Michigan offer gets the kid the vis he wants. The commitment and decommitment just hurt the kid, because then "seomthing went wrong." It also hurts the rep of the university and the coach.
Offer the kid but make sure that he understands that he cannot commit based on that offer until the kids ahead of him on the board sort themselves out. That's the way Alabama does it, USC, etc. Yeah, you end up with disappointed kids when there is no spot, but they will have fallback positions.
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