Spurrier says some B1G coach is recruiting dirty
“We don’t run into much of any negative recruiting around here as SEC coaches,” Spurrier said. “We were involved with a player who was being recruited by a Big Ten school. They got negative a little bit with ‘There’s a lot of crime in Columbia, the big city. They don’t graduate their players,’ which was completely untrue. They searched for a little bit of everything but the player came with us anyways.”
http://recruiting.blog.ajc.com/2014/02/11/steve-spurrier-defies-old-age…
I don't have a problem with "negative" recruiting. That being said I am really curious about this incident. I am guessing Urban but that could just be me hating Urban.
The main issue is the age of coaches. I don't know how much age plays a role in recruiting or negative recruiting but I see how the coach being your Granddad's age could make you wonder if e is retiring soon.
February 12th, 2014 at 8:33 AM ^
Hilarious.
February 12th, 2014 at 8:34 AM ^
Pot. Black. Etc.
February 12th, 2014 at 9:44 AM ^
Unless you have cited proof then it's all just rumor and conjecture.
February 12th, 2014 at 10:02 AM ^
we've got you here to defend the SEC's integrity.
February 12th, 2014 at 10:14 AM ^
Same goes for Spurrier and the aformentioned B1G coach he was talking about.
February 12th, 2014 at 11:34 AM ^
All rumor and conjecture. I'm not necessarily calling out Spurrier as a negative recruiter by referring to the old pot calling the kettle black expression (I have no proof of this), just the tone of his message that the SEC only uses positive recruiting tactics and doesn't resort to smearing other programs. SEC = pot. B1G = kettle.
SEC recruiting tactics (oversigning, medical hardships, overall sliminess) are over-the-top, and that cannot be denied. Spurrier calling out a B1G coach is laughable, especially if his intent was to smear the B1G entire conference as a negative recruiting bastion. Negative recruiting probably comes from coaches in all conferences at all levels.
February 12th, 2014 at 1:16 PM ^
There is nothing negative about SEC recruiting. It's all positive:
+ Cash
+ Cars
+ Hookers
February 12th, 2014 at 8:34 AM ^
February 12th, 2014 at 10:27 AM ^
you don't need to guess: it's urban.
February 12th, 2014 at 10:49 AM ^
The "crime in the big city" part would suggest, of all schools, it is not OSU. Definitely sounds like remarks from a school in a smaller college town.
If you can believe Spurrier to begin with...
February 12th, 2014 at 1:18 PM ^
Franklin. BTW, he's also a former SEC coach.
February 12th, 2014 at 8:36 AM ^
The thread title is a bit misleading. Negative is not the same thing as dirty, and I think that it is a foregone conclusion that teams in the Big Ten recruit negatively. Teams recruited negatively against RichRod. There's nothing unethical about it if you aren't lying.
February 12th, 2014 at 8:40 AM ^
February 12th, 2014 at 11:22 AM ^
As Hannibal said, it is only unethical if you are lying. There is nothing wrong with letting a recruit know all the facts.
February 12th, 2014 at 8:47 AM ^
Spurrier said one Big Ten coach used negative recruiting with one recruit. He didn't even say when it was. He's been at SCar for quite awhile now.
The idea that he was talking about Urban Meyer is pretty damn funny. He referenced the crime rate in "the big city" of Columbia. Throw in the remark about graduating players and it sounds very much like Penn State.
February 12th, 2014 at 8:37 AM ^
February 12th, 2014 at 8:40 AM ^
February 12th, 2014 at 8:41 AM ^
February 12th, 2014 at 8:41 AM ^
February 12th, 2014 at 8:44 AM ^
I haven't heard that Meyer does much negative recruiting (let's be honest-he doesn't really have to) but I have heard plenty of people say Franklin is doing just that. If so I don't think it'll last long cause recruiting kids by telling them where not to go doesn't work for long.
February 12th, 2014 at 9:35 AM ^
I can tell you for an absolute certainty that Urban negatively recruits. He has a quite the reputation in that regard, which is probably not helped by the likeliness of the phrase "Urban myths."
Dantonio is another pretty negative guy--he and his staff have turned off at least one H.S. coach I know with their overt contempt for Michigan.
February 12th, 2014 at 11:44 AM ^
I know that about Dantonio - Meyer I'm not as sure about the frequency as you are. But if the litmus test is "allways does it or never does it" then I'm not sure you can put any coach in the latter category. Ours included.
February 12th, 2014 at 11:57 AM ^
But I would like to think that Seth is much more plugged in than you are.
February 12th, 2014 at 12:03 PM ^
February 12th, 2014 at 12:06 PM ^
February 12th, 2014 at 1:41 PM ^
I talk to high school coaches around metro Detroit, some former Michigan players, and guys who've covered recruiting for this site.
The public proof is right before signing day, and right before recruiting dead periods, there's a tendency for other teams' commits, especially those OSU has interest in or OSU competes with, to suddenly come down with strange bits of misinformation. Georgia fans used to bitch about this too.
February 12th, 2014 at 11:54 AM ^
I'm sure it happens quite frequently. There are probably several coaches who said after Hoke's good 2012 season that he will be leaving Michigan for the NFL. Now it is that he only has one year left before he is dismissed as the HC. Meyer and and Dantonio most likely lead the way in negative recruiting. I doubt Michigan would. But it would be easy to make up a lot of shit about Urban's health and how he will have to step down due to health problems.
February 12th, 2014 at 8:45 AM ^
He's really the only one that recruits the same guys Spurrier recruits anyway.
No other teams in the LEAGUE recruits the southeast like OSU does. Especially SC and GA.
February 12th, 2014 at 9:51 AM ^
So, a coach for a school in a small town is your most likely culprit, meaning the leading candidate is a certain former SEC coach in State College, PA.
February 12th, 2014 at 2:50 PM ^
Not to mention that some of the neighborhoods adajcent to where a lot of students live off-campus in Columbus are absolutely horrendous.
February 12th, 2014 at 8:45 AM ^
"They don't graduate their players."
Actually, with regards to South Carolina that portion is true.
South Carolina had a graduation rate of 55 and an APR of 912, among the worst in FBS.
February 12th, 2014 at 8:57 AM ^
To add on to that, Columbia, SC actually has a high crime rate too (not necessarily all violent crime, but crime nonetheless). Safer than only 4% of US cities according to this site (although I can't vouch for the accuracy of said site). It seems as if the SEC confuses telling the truth with negative recruiting. Things are making a lot more sense now into how the SEC works...
February 12th, 2014 at 9:59 AM ^
Living in Charleston SC for the past two years has really opened my eyes to how bad the education system in the south is. My gf worked for Summerville High School (the school that produced AJ Green) and the graduation rate was 69% which they were excited about because it had increased YOY. The stats about USC's APR and grad rates doesn't surprise me at all. There is definitely a lot of negative things to say about Columbia, it's landlocked, ugly, and has a pretty significant crime rate.
February 12th, 2014 at 10:06 AM ^
The term "negative recruiting" encompasses telling the truth, I think. It's simply the act of talking badly about what other schools have to offer, rather than promoting your own program, school, players, etc.
An example of negative recruiting might be where a coach says, "You don't wanna go to Iowa. Their players have been getting in trouble for drugs, and it's out in the middle of a cornfield. Why would you want to play in the middle of nowhere like that?"
February 12th, 2014 at 10:12 AM ^
That sounds about right Magnus. I would say that negative recruiting is more prevalent at schools that have less good things to spout off about their own program. That's just my guess, and that's why I would suspect Franklin is the culprit, not Urbz. Although they are one in the same in my eyes. Both former $EC coaches and all. That being said, I'd say to Spurrier that negative recruiting is probably like a fart, whoever smelt it, dealt it.
February 12th, 2014 at 10:18 AM ^
I can agree with that. In my mind, I often confuse the term "negative recruiting" with the malicious and willful falsification of information and the overexaggerating of unfounded rumors. But I can certainly see how a program would consider another recruiter simply pointing out known flaws in other programs rather than focusing soley on their own program as "negative." That said, does the ol' ball coach really expect us to believe that no coaches within the SEC, or in pretty much any other conference, don't participate in this so called brand of "negative" recruiting?
February 12th, 2014 at 10:42 AM ^
Yeah, that's always been my thinking as well. I'm always on the fence if the talk is "I hear that coach is on the way out..." and stuff like that, but saying "Hey, PSU is going to be under sanctions and you won't be in a bowl game" or "Have you been to Ames? It's pretty terrible and far away" don't seem negative. I'm fine with coaches saying "Michigan is really cold and they went 7-6 last year."
February 12th, 2014 at 8:52 AM ^
I guess technically you don't neet negative recruiting when your official visits are like the ones at Ole Miss, Clemson or the SEC officials Denard/Tate alluded to.
Also Neighborhood Scout says Columbia SC is only safer than 4% of cities nation wide, which is a slight step up from Detroit and right on par with Baltimore. Ol' Ball Coach be cray
February 12th, 2014 at 1:12 PM ^
February 12th, 2014 at 9:02 AM ^
and South Carolina is (was?) one of the biggest abusers of oversigning.
Alabama gets the most flak for oversigning but Alabama is far from the worst of the offenders. Ole Miss under Nutt was flat out ridiculous. In 2009 they signed 37 kids.
From 2006-2010 SC averaged 25.8 kids which was good enough to place them 15th nationally in that time period.
Eight of the top 15 schools in that time period were SEC schools.
Linkage:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/andy_staples/01/24/oversigning-data/
I'm not sure I have a problem with coaches informing kids that schools are oversigning or that an area is dangerous.
There's nothing wrong with negative recruiting when it's true and information that a recruit should be made aware of.
That being said, I believe the SEC changed their rules on recruiting in 2011, placing a cap at 25. Which, as is the case in most if not all conferences, is a soft cap, of course.
February 12th, 2014 at 5:13 PM ^
# of yearly scholarships by conference:
| Avg # of | |
| Conference | Scholarships |
| SEC | 25.7 |
| Big 12 | 25.0 |
| C-USA | 24.3 |
| Big East | 23.8 |
| Average | 23.3 |
| Independents | 23.3 |
| Pac 12 | 22.9 |
| Sun Belt | 22.8 |
| MAC | 22.6 |
| ACC | 22.3 |
| Big 10 | 22.1 |
| WAC | 22.0 |
| Mount West | 21.8 |
You know what I would like to see regarding this rule: Everyone gets NMT 25 scholarships a year with a limit of NMT total 100 players on scholarship for a given year. No back dating early entries, medical hardships, greyshirts etc. Every player/team has the same probablility of someone getting injured or hurt. If you have more than the average amount of guys lost due to injury, you can chose to adjust your training and practice techniques. If you sign a kid, he is on for four years no matter what. If he doesn't pan out or decides to leave, to bad. Make better selections / fits before they show up on campus. If you decide to "cut" or greyshirt a bunch of players, you are stil limited to only 25 total for a given year. That way, everyone is on a more even playing field (for the most part).
February 12th, 2014 at 9:09 AM ^
February 12th, 2014 at 9:16 AM ^
HAHAHA....HAHAHAHAHA...OK really?!?!
Actually, now that I've stopped laughing, the SEC may not negative recruit...I mean stacks of cash are pretty universally seen as a positive yes?
February 12th, 2014 at 9:19 AM ^
Who cares what any of them say, Urbie is one of them.
February 12th, 2014 at 9:22 AM ^
Weird, I've never heard Spurrier spout off bullshit before
February 12th, 2014 at 9:25 AM ^
February 12th, 2014 at 9:26 AM ^