OT - Hugh Freeze pulls scholarship offer over knee injury

Submitted by Blazefire on

So, this story just came up today and I thought I'd get MGoBlog's opinion on it.

http://blogs.ajc.com/recruiting/2012/07/30/ole-miss-revokes-scholarship-offer-to-georgia-lb-because-of-knee-injury/

Ole Miss Head Coach Hugh Freeze has pulled a scholarship offer to a 2013 LB from Georgia due to an ACL tear. Big deal, right? Happens all the time. A coach can't be signing injured players.

Here's the thing. Freeze and his staff were completely aware of the ACL tear at the time that the offer was made, and they never indicated that the offer was condidtional on the knee healing in a certain time or way. Furthermore, team doctors indicated that it was healing properly and on schedule, and were not concerned. It's not like it appeared to be going bad. The kid played last season on it because he was mistakenly told it was just a sprain, and he was able to show enough to earn an offer even with the tear. Now Freeze is getting cold feet.

What's your feeling on this? I don't have a problem with a coach pulling an offer if a kid gets hurt, but making the offer when you know he's hurt and then pulling it later when you suddenly get cold feet puts me off.

mgobleu

August 1st, 2012 at 6:27 AM ^

You know, you can visit Key West, but you never see the REAL thing. You know, the part they dont show in the travel brochures; the part they don't want you to see. Thank you, J Geils...

Blazefire

July 31st, 2012 at 11:58 PM ^

Since his Dad said totally the reverse. It's not unheard of especially in SEC territory for parents to be so dedicated to a school that they will go against their children's wishes, publically, in order to support the school. I'm not saying that's the case here, but the Dad said the reverse, big time. Also, if the kid loved the school so much, he wouldn't willingly give up his offer.

Finally, this quote was hilarious.

“Let’s say that Mario doesn’t get back to the level of a Division 1 player,” Fletcher said. “Coach Freeze made it very clear he didn’t want to preclude Mario from any scholarship offer, because he wants him to get into college. It’s difficult for Mario to talk to other coaches if he’s still committed to Ole Miss.

Because verbally committing to a school precludes other schools from offering/a kid from visiting them. Oh yeah.

No, until I hear this directly from the kid, this is all crap. They pulled his offer. If they wanted him to go to college, they wouldn't have pulled it.

dennisblundon

July 31st, 2012 at 11:51 PM ^

Ole Miss needs 35 able bodied players in each and every recruiting class. At least they cut him before he showed up on campus. This is a classy move in the SEC.

Ball Hawk

August 1st, 2012 at 12:23 AM ^

I lost my scholarship for track at Central Michigan University because I blew out my knee while running hurdles during mid season at Central. Football might be different though as far as medical schollie.

Amaizeinblue

August 1st, 2012 at 4:43 AM ^

Freeze...cold feet. I see what you did there. I'm surprised at the lack of other cold temperature related puns, he gave him the cold shoulder, cooled on his stance, froze him in his tracks...okay I'm done. Classy SEC teams at it again. They'll just oversign again so why not keep the kid's offer available, they'll still have 34 other ones left to hand out.

M2NASA

August 1st, 2012 at 8:00 AM ^

A few years ago SU had a recruit that found out he had an irregular heartbeat and would never play football again and honored his scholarship.



Classless, but not unexpected from a shit school like Ole Miss.

UMgradMSUdad

August 1st, 2012 at 8:32 AM ^

This really sucks.  It sounds to me like the family is back pedaling now because the kid still hopes to play for Ole Miss.  There was obviously some miscommunication, and cosches promising more than they eventually deliver is nothing new, but the other aspect in all this is the kid was screwed over by a medical misdiagnosis as well.  If he had surgery right after the injury, most likely he would have long been completely recovered by now. I had the same thing happen to me as a teenager.  I had torn knee ligaments but our elderly family doctor diagnosed it as a sprain.  It wasn't until 4 years later that I finally had surgery.  By then my knee was so messed up (and the surgical techniques back then so much worse than what is available now), I was told I should never run nor jump again.

bronxblue

August 1st, 2012 at 1:48 PM ^

Oh man, how will Ole Miss be able to go 3-9 with wins over two crappy OOC teams and Miss St. without him?!?!

This is a crappy move by Freeze, but if they were as gun-shy to keep him around because of the knee, this might be in his best interests to just cut ties now instead of heading to Ole Miss, reinjuring his knee/getting cut, and having a harder time finding another program.