Unverified Voracity Shoots Howitzers, Dodges Hammers Comment Count

Brian

The offer howitzer redux. A few weeks ago FL CB Travis Williams got offered, visited, committed, and was told "hey let's talk later, okay." This caused some consternation here about whether this was, you know, cool. Conclusion: eh… it makes me feel blucky and isn't that different from Matta flat yanking a scholarship from an already-committed kid.

Tim of Varsity Blue has taken up the issue again, providing a comprehensive explanation of the situation. Jim Stefani is interviewed and provides the crux of the matter:

“In a sense, many Michigan ‘offers’ are not really firm offers but more or less strong indications of interest by Michigan.  Take that for what you will, but it is how many schools are now approaching recruiting.  Look at the DB who wanted to verbal to U-M last week [Travis Williams] but was told to wait.” Florida, a school that uses a similar technique in throwing around a lot of offers, had a similar situation, and they had to tell a defensive back outright that the offer he had been given was not “committable.” It appears as though the main point of contention here, then, is what an offer really means.

Shouldn’t an offer, by definition, be “committable?” Isn’t that, after all, what an offer is?

(Tim's right about Florida: a couple years ago I started getting irritated at their recruiting because they had their own offer cannon. This turned a Florida offer from a indicator of talent to an indicator of limbs. It has not hurt Florida's recruiting.)

Yes, as commonly understood an "offer" is something you can "commit" against. An offer that is not committable is more like the suggestion you'll be offered in the future if 1) your grades are good, 2) commits X and Z go elsewhere, and 3) you don't run from cops. Or get caught by them. "Are chased by" cops. You get the idea. No making cops run.

So this may be semantics. Where Ohio State—notoriously stingy, at least in football—says "you do not have an offer, come to camp" Michigan and Florida and probably a bunch of offers say "you have a conditional offer. The conditions are come to camp and be better than anyone else we have a shot to get at any particular point in time"

The problem comes when either the recruit doesn't hear "conditional" or the condition is in a tiny elven font next to the big bold OFFER. Then you get guys who sign up and then must be gently dissuaded. I'm still not a fan because the whole thing seems like it goes beyond salesmanship into the realm of misunderstandings upon which romantic comedies and bad sitcoms are based. All this is discussed further in the post, which comes highly recommended.

One further tangent from me: Rich Rodriguez's itchy offer finger has suddenly burst into prominence after a full recruiting cycle in which it wasn't nearly as apparent. The obvious conclusion to leap to is that it's hard to recruit after going 3-9 and Rodriguez is making do as best he can in an effort to prevent the recruiting dropoff that usually happens a year after you faceplant. Hopefully, this is a one-year phenomenon, then.

Reshape the hammer, then drop it. It seemed like nothing was ever going to happen in ongoing Reggie Bush investigation. Then it got combined with the OJ Mayo investigation and Robert Guillory is telling the feds about direct cash payments from Tim Floyd and people actually think there's a hammer that's going to fall:

The attorney for Louis Johnson, main source for the latest charges against Mayo, said Wednesday he thinks the NCAA "wants to do something before football season," and that "something" will include sanctions. Meanwhile, Charles Robinson, one of the two Yahoo! reporters (with Jason Cole) driving the vast majority of actual reporting in both cases from the beginning, said in an interview with the Orange County Register Tuesday that the NCAA has been extremely active -- and meticulously silent -- in gathering information, and guesses the hammer may fall before the end of the year.

…and I kind of do, too. So let' make a proactive complaint about the penalties: they're not stiff enough, and they're definitely not long-term enough. Given the widespread allegations, smoking gun photos of agents on the sideline, and federal involvement there has to be enough evidence for a lack of institutional control allegation. If that comes down, what's the penalty? Some probation? A year, even two of postseason bans? A couple scholarships gone for a few years? What's the long term here?

The NCAA should ratchet up its scholarship sanctions so they represent a long-term impact on the program. If USC gets hammered for all this, they should still be digging out in ten years. That's how long the scholarship sanctions should go: heavy at first and gradually dwindling. Viciously funny idea that wont happen: both programs lose a scholarship permanently and have to list Mayo and Bush on the roster in perpetuity.

More kickering. Add another walk-on to the fall kicker derby:

Pike High School senior kicker/punter Kristopher Pauloski has committed to Michigan as a preferred walk-on for next season, Pike coach Derek Moyers said.

Pauloski was named to The Indianapolis Star Super Team last fall as a punter with a 37.9-yard average. He also had 31 touchbacks on kickoffs.

Though the article focuses on his punting, Pauloski is being looked at primarily as a kicker. Stats from a message board post that appears to be from his coach:

Kristopher Pauloski 6-3, 185 Sr Pike HS
PATs: 39/40
FGs: 5/7 long of 39
KOs: 31/46 for Touchbacks (63 yard KO avg.)
I didn't count the times we had him squib kick or onside kicks.
He is being recruited by MAC schools as well as Northwestern.

This concludes available information.

2X. Congratulations to the club lacrosse team, which stormed back from an 8-3 deficit to claim its second consecutive national title:

lax-champs

Softball won its regional and should host a super-regional this weekend; sorry to anyone who took my weather predictions seriously and ended up swimming home on Friday night; I blame Accuweather.

Blue people are like this, green people are like this. So Black Shoe Diaries posted this video. It's the MSU-UNC national championship game; State is in the process of getting its face crushed and a North Carolina fan asks a State fan in front of her to sit to he can see. She starts off crazy but really gets in a groove around 1:40:

Good lord. She's never been to Michigan Stadium. I can tell because she is not dead or in jail, which—given the fondness of blue-haired Michigan fans for "down in front"—she definitely would be if she'd been to Ann Arbor.

Comments

Michigan Arrogance

May 18th, 2009 at 12:07 PM ^

was decent, just windy. the ND team was a good team, but clearly inferior. This M team has a good chance to do some damage in the WCWS. they have power up & down the lineup. I expect a Super Regional victory over Baylor in A2 this weekend and a good showing in the following weeks.

iawolve

May 18th, 2009 at 12:18 PM ^

I understand the "offer cannon", but does it really help recruiting if "everyone" gets one? You can only tell so many guys that we "really need you" before people stop listening. Am I right or wrong on this? Does a higher ranked recruit not regard it as well when they look at others offered at their position? Just speculation.

I guess the alternative is that they would be happy with anyone offered and that this staff has covered the country in a more efficient manner than previous staffs to uncover all of these players. At that point, you just want a full class without concern to who comes. I struggle with this theory, but I guess it is possible as well.

msoccer10

May 18th, 2009 at 12:43 PM ^

I think we are saying with an offer is, "we think you are good enough to play D1 ball at Michigan and your skill set would coincide with our general needs". Unfortunately, it obviously doesn't mean, if the player wants to commit, we'll take him at that time. I sympathize with our coaches because one thing you constantly hear from kids is that they like school x because it was recruiting me first/hardest. They feel the need to put the offer out there to anyone that is good enough, and are hoping to pull in the best of that bunch. The rest are just covering all angles should our first 80 choices not pan out.

Magnus

May 18th, 2009 at 1:15 PM ^

The thing is, all these kids have to go somewhere. The lower rated guys generally latch onto the offer they like best (however he decides what that is) while the more highly recruited guys wait to see what schools might man up and offer.

You don't see 2-star guys saying, "I'm going to wait until NSD" or "I'm going to wait until the All-star" game because nobody cares. Nobody would have given a rat's ass if Mark Huyge announced on National Signing Day, but they sure as hell care about William Campbell or Terrell Pryor.

Anyway, the "recruiting me the hardest" thing is misleading. If a kid doesn't want to go to your school but you're calling him every day, he'll likely get annoyed. It might be enough to pique his interest, but kids never answer the question "Why did you choose School A?" with "They sent me the most e-mails."

Tater

May 18th, 2009 at 12:55 PM ^

She was a moron, but the guy with her was pretty classy. He did a great job of sitting her down while apologizing to the fans she may have offended. He probably knew, though, that if she got kicked out, he was going to have to miss the rest of the game, too.

I hope he got something for his trouble after they got home....

Don

May 18th, 2009 at 1:11 PM ^

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I thought I read that Williams committed without having set foot on campus, and I interpreted RR's response as basically, "Travis, you should really visit the campus here in Ann Arbor first and make sure it's the right place for you before you give us your verbal." If that's at all accurate, I think that's the prudent thing for RR to do.

Don

May 18th, 2009 at 3:35 PM ^

I can't figure out what that blue upside-down leg/foot thing is on their shirts. Doesn't look like any lacrosse stick I've ever seen. Maybe a weird stylized #1?

Tim Waymen

May 18th, 2009 at 5:09 PM ^

Well, her boyfriend took it in stride. Maybe it took him a while to get around to stopping her, but it wasn't until she really started to angrily and violently act out. He comes across as reasonable though. He didn't start shoving or arguing with the UNC guys for saying something to his girl but just did what he could to defuse the situation because he realized that his GF was being inappropriate.

I can be a goofy ass when I drink, but I don't get violent and confrontational. Certain people shouldn't be drinking. And if she wasn't drunk, then God have mercy on us all.

Snidely Doo Rash

May 19th, 2009 at 1:08 AM ^

do what you gotta do. She has my support and respect telling the UNC puppetheads off. I generally like the tar heels but not the fan who tells others when to sit and stand.

Lampoon the UNC lazy bums rather than this fan's support of a big ten team.

The south ain't gonna do it and never did it.

demetrius_dew

May 19th, 2009 at 11:16 AM ^

So what is the difference? Players commit to only de-commit later is there is difference between a player not sticking with a commitment and a coach not sticking with an offer?