Anzalone decommits from Ohio?
The elevenwarriors.com link above, with the Homer Simpson pic.
You have to go to the post on the front page, however, to see the poster calling Anzalone "mentally weak" for being scared away from OSU by its creepy fanbase.
EDIT: Also this...
I miss humble quiet hard working kids who want to play for Ohio State because they want to be a Buckeye. Social media is defiling the values of these kids. If you need strangers to tell you how great you are, go elsewhere.
I like Anzalone's game a lot, and I was pretty disappointed when he committed to Ohio. It's unfortunate that the circumstances around it are...disturbing. I wish the kid the best.
Time to get your popcorn back out.
As I mentioned above they were at his HS working him and some of his teammates out this week. Fickell and Vrabel were there. Don't know if that is normal to send 2 coaches or not. Smith is an ND lean and I think they know it. A couple of his teammates have show well at 7-7s and camps. So I wouldn't be suprised to see Ohio offer one or two of them to try to intice him to commit. HIs brother is already there. It will be interesting to see if they offer Tyvel Jemison DB, Mike Rodgers WR, Kendrick Mullen DB (brother plays at IU), Andrew Spencer DB (Brother is A Spencer LB for the Cowboys).
Weird, weird timing, but I cant imagine a kid would change his opinion of a program he committed too based on one creepy ass fan....
I hate to say it, but I'm sure we have some creepy ass fans that talk to players, too....
Who knows?
I think its now more to the fact that he's in pictures with the creep. I would be pretty freaked out too.
seems to have more than their "fair" share. Here are just a few examples:
Had to do a screen grab for this one. Bonus is you can guess who he is (hint: think bathrooms...]
Edited to respect some privacy with the current creep.
And this might be the creepiest of all.
Notice a trend?
[Apologies to all who might have lost some retina tissue there.]
What's so creepy about that chick with the big rack? Did I miss something?
Yeah you did miss something, she is an acquitted child murderer.
That's Casey Anthony, she was accused of murdering her kid.
This may be the first time ever that Ohio fans wished their compliance department did more.
+1,000,000 if I could.
Why is this so disturbing? And why would it have any connection to the Waugh thing? Inasmuch as love to sling any dirt about OSU, I can't see how this story would impact an incoming recruit. A sex offender contacted players via Facebook. The players didn't know that, and couldn't be expected to. Then the school outed the guy. It's a gross story. But it's really got nothing to do with anything.
Anzalone is the recruit pointing at Waugh in the picture on the front page. I don't think you can entirely rule out that there's a connection between the two stories at this point. I'd be creeped out, too.
Hey Ace, can you speculate why OSU fans are preparing to lose Bosa too?
It's really only one fan...and most likely it is because Bosa was another person in the same photo with the creeper that is circling around.
Yeah, I wouldn't read too much (or anything, really) into what one commenter posts in the wake of an unexpected decommitment.
Who knows tho. The photo could be cursed. The 3 players in the photo allegedly committed to OSU during the spring game (Anzalone, Bosa, Hueurman). Since then, Hueurman committed to ND and Anzalone is back on the market.
The ohio fans are worried...
1. All of these guys were hanging out together, and maybe this Waugh guy bought them a meal or something, constituting a recruiting violation that is scaring the recruits off (on top of the fact that the guy buying them the illegal meal was a pedophile), or even prompting the coaching staff telling them to decommit to avoid the inevitable attention of possible violations.
2. This is one of several negative things to happen to ohio recruiting in the last week or so... (Neal decommit, Heuerman to ND, Jaylon Smith leaning ND), and there's wild speculation on the boards that something big is happening behind the scenes, like more violations have been revealed or more sanctions will be announced. You know, because Meyer is the greatest recruiter in history, so there must be some totally off the wall explanation as to why this is happening.
(note: I'm not saying I think any of those things... just rehashing the panic! explosion on the ohio boards... seems pretty irrational)
You just made my day brighter after being bummed about MCA. I think in light of today's news this video would be appropriate:
In my opinion, I would assume that Anzalone was freaked out that a registered sex offender was tweeting at him and took a picture with him.
I can't blame him, Waugh's behavior is totally creepy and bizarre. Would you feel comfortable going somewhere that a registered sex offender is hanging around with players?
You're thinking about this rationally instead of emotionally, and if I were in Anzalone's shoes (or his parents' shoes), my reaction would be more emotional than rational at this point. If you don't feel safe at a school, there's no reason to choose that school when you have so many nice options.
And don't forget, multiple current Ohio players have defended this Waugh guy in the past... add that to Anzalone being from PA., and I don't think the timing is a coincidence. Knee jerk reaction, maybe.
Based upon the comments, they think it's either related to the Waugh guy or Notre Dame is up to something "fishy."
I'm not sure about the Bosa thing. It's the same commenter posting it who may just be freaking out.
And obviously this may just be a regular old de-committment, however with the timing it is hard to believe it did not play a part.
The ND accusations just struck me as sour grapes. As if the only way a kid would leave OSU and then even consider ND would be if he was getting paid. Yeah, it'd be a little weird for him to commit to ND, but then I think that it's weird that any kid would commit to ND.
"@ramzyn Anzalone found out yesterday he'd been in photos/chatting with a Buckeye fan with a penchant for underage boys. I'd be freaked out too."
Plus his name is Anzalone. Coincidence?
Says the man with teenage butts as an avatar...
I think based off the info that is out there right now, it doesn't really merit a decommitment. However, I think the two have something to do with each other and maybe there is more to the story. Three recruits are together on a visit and take a picture with this guy, maybe this was somehow permitted by Ohio before they knew and Anzalone now doesn't have the same trust he once had for the school.
But then again, I have no idea.
I disagree because I don't think as many recruits commit to the school. If that's the case for Anzalone, this would (and in my opinion should) be enough reaosn to de-commit.
I don't think this has to do with OSU, it is the fact he was around a registered sex offender who obviously has more access than a typical fan would, and is always contacting the players and recruits on twitter. This could have been at any school, and it certainly would have made me feel very uncomfortable enough to reconsider things.
Also, these are 17/18 year olds. I'm sure that have been lesser reasons for a de-committment/committment. This is a totally legimate one to me.
I hope you guys realize that a strong OSU is good for us... Hoke and Meyer I hope will take the rivalry back to what it was, and put the two teams at the forefront of college football again... We (Michigan) didn't do our part for a decade now. So if you are reveling in this info bringing down OSU, just know that its not in our best interest.
Yes and no. A strongish Ohio is good for us. One like they had in the 90s. It's certainly not good for us if they're too strong.
Agreed. I want Ohio back to where they were in the Cooper years, when they would plow through the Big Ten, come into The Game ranked in the top 5, and lose to us in humiliating fashion.
when they were getting pounded by powers like Case and Oberlin and we had great rivals like Minnesota and Chicago.
But that's just me, and I'm vindictive.
A strong Ohio throughout the 2000's hasn't worked out so well for us. It is nice to have competitive games but I am not advocating they land every top 100 recruit. That would make it significantly more challenging to beat them.
but with a level playing field we'll be fine.
A strong OSU is good for us. I don't need them to be dominant though.
Agree... a couple of kids decommiting is not going to make them weak somehow.
Alex Anzalone will not be the difference between a strong OSU and a floundering one. He could, however, be a real pain in the ass for the next 4/5 years and it definitely helps our cause with him going elsewhere.
High flying spread offense, kids decommitting, other B1G coaches complaining about recruiting tactics. Anyone else think this sounds familiar?
They're similar except for the whole won-2-national-championships-in-the-SEC thing.
I strongly doubt that this has anything to do with the Waugh story.
Was Neal also contacted by this Waugh individual? If he was then that might lend more credence to the idea that the recruits are worried about that whole issue, especially with what happened at Penn State. However, if not, then there might be some other things brewing in Columbus leading to this. Most likely it is a combination of several things. Although some Buckeye fan who dabbles in pedophilia was tweeting Anzalone and interacting with him would seem incredibly distressing for Anzalone, completely eliminating Ohio seems odd. How could Meyer not at least smooth this over and offer to prove to the Anzalone family that their son can feel safe in Columbus? There must be more to the story.