Apparently I have to say this: treat recruits with respect

Submitted by Brian on

Brandon posted an article about 2016 recruit Teryn Savage, and this is his takeaway from his experience at MGoBlog:

https://twitter.com/TerynSavage/status/382644691738451968

So congratulations, leftrare, MGoBrewMom, JuggernautRides, and chitownblue2, and the other people in that thread who insulted the kid for no reason. Guess what: people are interested to see what people say about them on the internet, and now a potential recruit doesn't want to talk to Brandon. 

If you think that 2016 is a magic land from which news cannot come, don't read it. We're going to report on kids that are being recruited. 

Going forward, anything that could be interpreted as an insult to a blameless high school kid will result in a no-warning ban. Even if that interpretation is crazy. Any "pedo" references will also result in a ban. 

In conclusion, guh.

jblaze

September 24th, 2013 at 8:52 PM ^

You just delete the insulting comments (and ban the poster for a period of time)? I know nothing is deleted on the internet, but at least it will have less of a chance to be seen by anyone (people can't really be screen capturing all MGo comments, can they?).

LSAClassOf2000

September 24th, 2013 at 9:04 PM ^

We can and have done it in other situations, even as recent as the UConn aftermath. This might be a bit of laziness on my part (I can only speak for me), but up until now, the recruiting threads were generally a little lower on the totem pole (i.e., considered "safer") and I did not read this one until the damage had been done and this thread appeared.

TrueLT

September 24th, 2013 at 8:53 PM ^

These kids are stronger, faster and better than all of us, I'm sure they can handle themselves. This little argument  embodies Michigan, a minor point, a ton of pointless semantics delving into ethics and morality, the completely pointless and irrelevant complaints from the ohio state fan, and nobody willing to let it die. Wait, was this an argument?

Wolverine Devotee

September 24th, 2013 at 8:56 PM ^

The bye week must be like our full moon around here or something.

With the student thread and this, it leaves me just waiting for more insanity. The return of McFarlin is upon is. 

jayburn23

September 24th, 2013 at 9:00 PM ^

Is he really going to base his decision on comments from this blog? What's worse a random blogger saying someone looks twelve (wow, what an insult) or comments on a podcast that the QB has mental injuries the last few games? Let's get serious.

Sione's Flow

September 24th, 2013 at 9:08 PM ^

I give the kid credit, if he thought posters were being malicious, he could've said some pretty discrediting things about UM fans.  Hopefully this isn't something that occurs again in the future.  We all want what's best for UM, but this doesn't mean any of us are entitled to speak freely about recruits like we know them personally.  

mejunglechop

September 24th, 2013 at 9:00 PM ^

This will not be coherently enforced. It's too broad and vague. Some of the users listed weren't having fun at Savage's expense. They weren't disparaging him.

Users in the past have been permitted to question the wisdom of the coaches in offering prospects or accepting commitments which are both tantamount to questioning a player's ability. Will this still be be allowed despite the policy stated above?

Erik_in_Dayton

September 24th, 2013 at 9:03 PM ^

When older people say you look young, a lot of the time what we mean is that we feel old...You also won't mind being called young-looking pretty soon.

Yours,

A 35 year old who feels ancient whenever I see a new Michigan recruit

BraveWolverine730

September 24th, 2013 at 9:04 PM ^

Between this thread, RR battle 2.0, and the student basketball ticket debates, this has been quite a contentious few days here.  The UFRs and hopefully some civil discussion can't get here soon enough. 

BraveWolverine730

September 24th, 2013 at 9:50 PM ^

Not trying to be snarky here, but I'm honestly curious why you are here. If you don't enjoy UFRs and anaylsis of players (and note: since we're not going to win every game 1000-0, there is going to be some critique of the players performance), I just feel like this would be a miserable place to be in general. If your larger point is that some criticism in the UFRs went too far (I think Obi Ezeh would be the main example of a player perhaps too harshly criticized for poor performance), that's possibly fair, but that's not what it seems you are insinuating. 

david from wyoming

September 24th, 2013 at 10:03 PM ^

I don't have a issue with the UFR's so much as what they allow, turning a football performance into a judgement of more than just that performance. Read through the comments on any given UFR and there are a ton of comments that I hope are not ever read by the players on the team.

Devin has a mental injury.

The O-line is terrible at their jobs and should be benched.

Obi Ezah is not smart enough to play linebacker.

Fitz isn't a good runner and should be benched.

I'm paraphrasing here, but this is taking Brian's personal opinion on the players performance way to far. I think most posters here would think twice about what they do say towards players if they said it in front of that player or Hoke.

ATXWolverine

September 24th, 2013 at 9:04 PM ^

Agree re locking the recruiting threads except maybe the hello posts. Too much downside. I think some of the posters made those comments as jokes about the weirdness of following such young kids without ill intent toward the kid. We saw one apology already. Those comments obviously did not reflect well on the fan base, but in fairness this blog covered recruits' games under a segment called creeper van originals, which was probably a little weird for the relevant parents and players.

Paps

September 24th, 2013 at 9:05 PM ^

If someone posted that stuff about me, I'd be like 

" haha man thats some bull shit"

Because no high schooler wants to be compared to a 10 year old girl... like, DANG! Look at Caris LeVert.. THEY LOOK ALMOST THE SAME! The kid had braces and played in the final 4 last year... I mean, cmon man.  If you knew he'd read it, you wouldn't have posted it. BUT:

 5 seconds later i'd be like

"hahaha whatever"

and based on what he has said on twitter, that seems to be the case.

Nothing lost THIS TIME... be carefull tho, dont want to turn into "that fanbase" you know what I mean...

93Grad

September 24th, 2013 at 9:10 PM ^

To feature an interview with a kid that young. I know you guys are looking to add content and what teenage kid wouldn't want the attention, but I've never personally liked there being any focus on kids who are not even old enough to drive and when I saw how young the kid looked in the photo it reinforced my sentiment. I did not feel compelled enough by it to comment of course but I'm not surprised other posters did. I don't think that justifies attacking the kid but I'm ok with people asking if such attention is appropriate.

jmblue

September 24th, 2013 at 9:15 PM ^

I made the decision a couple years to basically stop following recruiting.  If a guy commits, I'll read about him, but I don't care who the uncommitted guys in the senior class are, let alone the juniors, sophomores, etc.  Really, paying attention to all this crap is - at best - a huge waste of time, and at worst, something that feels like stalking.  If we're debating whether or not a HS sophomore has posted an "old photo" because he may not look like a normal 15-year-old, that sounds like a cry for help.

 

maizenbluenc

September 24th, 2013 at 9:33 PM ^

With my son playing, it is interesting to figure out who "the guy" is in the upcoming games, and watch them play. The players like it, because they can say yeah I played so-and-so, etc. The parents like it because it shows the local HS programs are successful and at least some of the parents in the stands are going to be very lucky. The rest of us wish we were in their shoes.

CooperLily21

September 24th, 2013 at 9:48 PM ^

You know why he is not? It's HIS LIVELIHOOD! If he feels us idiots are jeopardizing that and potentially taking good out of his child's mouth, then fuck us. Me and you all too. It's about time people start being more respectful and it's sad that it came to this for us grown ups (a LOT of us are grown ups) to recognize this fact.

Yeoman

September 24th, 2013 at 11:28 PM ^

...when I first read this I was going to comment that being at the mercy of the perceptions of 15-year-olds isn't nearly as bad as being at the mercy of other people's perceptions of their perceptions.

Then I got distracted and forgot to actually post it, and said 15-year-old made my point better than I ever could have.

Point was probably lost on the people that needed to get it, though.

State Street

September 24th, 2013 at 9:17 PM ^

Hopefully this starts a necessary dialogue about the role of third party sites (like this one) in recruiting.

If you wan't to talk about a kid after he commits, fine.  But to actively search out and contact via social media (like this dude Brandon explains above, and I'm sure is standard in the industry) is quite frankly pretty disgusting.  I understand these media types want to run a succesful enterprise - but at what price?  

MGoblu8

September 24th, 2013 at 10:10 PM ^

Thanks. I had seen it mentioned, oh 1000 times, but I never really paid that much attention to it. I figured, based on some of the comments, that there might me a couple here willing to provide me with that info. I appreciate it.

ChuckieWoodson

September 24th, 2013 at 10:13 PM ^

a site update it "fell out" of the new version.  Brian mentioned a couple of months ago he would try and fix it, although I'm assuming by now it's pretty low on the totem pole for things to get done during the season. I'd expect them to be back sometime after the season is over.

MGJS SuperKick Party

September 24th, 2013 at 9:31 PM ^

Original post was meant to be a reply and I screwed up - whoops.

But on topic, why cant we follow the rule my parents taught me. If you cant say something nice, dont say it. It goes with everyone on this board, since the self - moderating went away people have become a lot more smarky and I do not enjoy coming to the site as much as I have in the past. If I want to get treated like im an idiot by a bunch of jerks, ill go back to high school. 

In regards to recruits age/height/weight/etc - its not the size of the boxer in the fight, its the size of the fight in the boxer. I hope he reconsiders because I would be happy to have him on our team.