STOP TWEETING RECRUITS
Nothing good comes from tweeting at recruits. If you have something to say, please refrain from doing so. You would think this is obvious, but some people still don't understand this.
Per @TomVH:
Just spoke with Damien Harris' coach, he had a message he was adamant that I tweet to Michigan fans.
— Tom VanHaaren (@TomVH) January 21, 2014
"People need to back off of [Damien]. People are attacking him and the fans better ease up or they're going to push him away from Michigan."
— Tom VanHaaren (@TomVH) January 21, 2014
Harris' coach said the only impact a fan can have on a prospect's recruitment is a negative one. Apparently Michigan fans have been nasty.
— Tom VanHaaren (@TomVH) January 21, 2014January 21st, 2014 at 12:49 PM ^
I've followed recruiting long enough to know that when kids decommit, they almost never come back despite what they may say at the time.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:59 PM ^
Nobody's saying that his decommitment is a good thing, or a positive sign, or anything like that. Obviously he's exploring his options (quite possibly with his h.s. coach in his ear due to Borges getting canned). Michigan's situation is precarious, to say the least. We all get that.
But it's quite a leap to go from that to declare "I don't think he's that interested in Michigan". A Bob Beamon type leap.
January 21st, 2014 at 1:00 PM ^
Okay, you disagree with my assessment. Noted.
January 21st, 2014 at 1:02 PM ^
TheGhostofLordGrantham
January 21st, 2014 at 2:46 PM ^
So you're saying that I should be banned for suggesting that maybe this kid isn't that into Michigan?
January 21st, 2014 at 4:04 PM ^
I am saying that your history of posting across multiple usernames suggests sooner or later you will probably do something to get yourself banned.
January 21st, 2014 at 11:56 AM ^
At times like this I momentarily long for some sort of totalitarian Michigan sports regime through which all fans would have to filter their fandom.
January 21st, 2014 at 11:56 AM ^
but if it was OSU that Harris had decommitted from, he'd be getting the same abuse, or worse.
Another reason I don't like early committing.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:51 PM ^
To say they have more assholes than us at a time like this is splitting hairs. We are looking at 0.00000001% of the fan base that is stupid enough to take it out on any recruit that takes a moment to step back just to make sure. Unfortunately there are enough to go around for all schools.
January 21st, 2014 at 1:49 PM ^
After watching the Mich. OSU game who would you rather run behind.
January 21st, 2014 at 11:57 AM ^
January 21st, 2014 at 12:00 PM ^
High profile recruits should set up two accounts. One private and one just for recruiting news. There are too many football-obsessed idiots in the world to avoid encountering some of them. Regardless of whether these are real Michigan fans or rival trolls, they aren't going to go away.
EDIT: Also, NOBODY should blame him for disliking the abuse even if it is "relatively" minor compared to other fanbases. These are high school kids. Adults have trouble dealing with outsider crap, let alone kids who aren't even old enough to sign a legally binding contract.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:00 PM ^
Some recruits do have private accounts, and although I'm not twitter saavy I believe that would solve a lot of these problems. Almost all high-school kids are on twitter these days, so they should be able to have private accounts and not be harassed.
January 21st, 2014 at 11:58 AM ^
Honestly, I think he's looking for a way out of a decision he made wayyyy to soon...to a coach on a hot seat.
I'm not holding my breath for him to recommit. Hopefully he does but honestly Michigan will get a more than capable back with that time rolls around...in 13 freaking months! Chill.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:31 PM ^
January 21st, 2014 at 11:59 AM ^
is an absurdity, in my humble opinion.
January 21st, 2014 at 1:36 PM ^
It's like any other tool in that it can be used for good or ill based on the user. I personally think social media technology can be very useful and positive though ultimately this depends on who is using the medium. This negatively harrassing recruits is obviously one of the darker sides of social media and at the end of the day the world would be a better place if people on the Internet treated others as they would be treated.
January 21st, 2014 at 11:59 AM ^
and I think I mean that seriously. It puts hot-headed, mouth-breathing sports fans in direct contact with 15-17 yr old kids. It's awful
January 21st, 2014 at 12:55 PM ^
Yep, and how exactly does it do that? Oh, both parties make accounts.
January 21st, 2014 at 2:41 PM ^
Did you run out of your meds again?
January 21st, 2014 at 12:04 PM ^
I know it's possible but I wouldn't be surprised if it is games by other schools. I remember reading somewhere on here that Kentucky is very active. I would hope someone talks to him and his coach about it.
Every school does have idiots, grads and fans, but you have to realize it's relatively few compared to the true fans.
I wish these kids would keep their twitter accounts private and only add real friends. I think they like the attention initially then get fed up with it. It's only going to get worse now that he's opened up the recruiting.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:14 PM ^
I have a twitter account, but don't really use it. I was assuming there was some way to do this, although my first reaction was to suggest just shutting it down.
What does making it private do? People can't tweet at you? Their tweets at you don't show up in your feed?
January 21st, 2014 at 12:47 PM ^
If you set your account private, you have to give people permission to follow you. Also, only the people you have approved can see your tweets. People who you haven't approved can tweet at you, but as you guessed their tweets won't show up in your feed. Plus your tweets cannot be retweeted.
And P.S. It wasn't me!
January 21st, 2014 at 12:02 PM ^
Take your damn account private and stop listening to people on twitter who are probably not even Michigan fans. This isn't a reflection of Michigan it's a reflection of twitter.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:57 PM ^
It's not a reflection of what you perceive Michigan to be. The reality is that every fanbase, Michigan included, has its share of maroons, morans, and knuckleheads, and platforms like Twitter give them a voice to share their opinions with the world.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:03 PM ^
"nobody tweet at anybody. only tweet at yourself. tweeting should be done in the privacy of the home."
Too funny
January 21st, 2014 at 12:03 PM ^
January 21st, 2014 at 12:04 PM ^
Just delete your Twitter account. It's a pointless entity unless you're someone from the "marketing" or "social media" department of your company and take yourself far too seriously.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:12 PM ^
In today's age, twitter is used to express opinion and connect with my friends. Also, no one from Marketing or Social media departments would use it if no potential customers use it.
So your comment makes 0 sense.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:17 PM ^
That doesn't make it objectively valuable nor does it mean the positives outweigh the negatives. It's pretty much a medium for passive-aggressive slapfighting, trash-talking, and gossiping. It's a wealth of misinformation with no unique purpose, as far as I can tell. The world doesn't need to know what you did between getting out of the shower and heading to work.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:20 PM ^
If you don't like what someone tweets, block them.
January 21st, 2014 at 1:26 PM ^
If society was accurately represented by Twitter I would decommit from life.
January 21st, 2014 at 1:37 PM ^
I use it almost exclusively as a means to stay aware of current events and to make sure that I don't miss content on sites I follow. But I guess staying informed in real time and ensuring I'm never bored on the Internet has no objective value.
You don't have to tweet with your twitter account and you're not forced to follow any account you deem unworthy. Perhaps the twitter bubble you created for yourself was composed mostly of petty morons.
January 21st, 2014 at 3:39 PM ^
I was thinking the same thing about his theory on who should have twitters. At 20 and in college there is no better way to go about social media than twitter most of the time
January 21st, 2014 at 12:04 PM ^
Idiot 1: "Bro! We need to get [recruit] to commit to our favorite team! Do you have any ideas?"
Idiot 2: "Yeah bro! Let's tweet nasty insults at him and call him names! Then he'll definitely want to play for our team!"
January 21st, 2014 at 12:05 PM ^
I'm not criticizing Harris because certainly kids are free to change there minds, but it really looks like he's just throwing out every possible reason for moving away from us other than the real one: He just doesn't believe this is a winning program right now. I seriously doubt the firing of a bad OC who was here for three seaons or a few offensive twitter responses are behind any current or future decisions to eliminate Michigan.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:17 PM ^
How many times do you have to read the Borges was a friend to his family/coach before it sinks it for you?
January 21st, 2014 at 1:35 PM ^
January 21st, 2014 at 12:06 PM ^
Herein lies the gray area of being a recruiting reporter. TomVH is somewhat acting as a mouthpiece for the Michigan fan base, but he (and others) regularly retweets and tweets at recruits publicly, which gives fans more and more of a relationship and access to the players' Twitter accounts. Personally, I wouldn't know any of these kids' Twitter handles or even know if they have a Twitter account except TomVH, Ace, Steve Lorenz, etc. retweet them all the time.
I realize that TomVH is just repeating what a coach said, and therefore, he's "reporting." But if you're part of the reason that kids' Twitter handles get spread around the internet so much and so quickly, I don't know how much room you have to complain.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:07 PM ^
I wonder if there's a way to censor Twitter handles while re-Tweeting.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:09 PM ^
Maybe they shouldn't re-tweet at all, but do it the old-fashioned way - report it and attribute it in quotes. I would assume a Tweet is on the record.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:58 PM ^
Blame it on a combination of laziness and people constantly being in a rush to do things these days. It's so much faster and easier to simply retweet something than to take the time to refashion it into a tweet that quotes the recruit, includes his name, and doesn't include his Twitter handle.
There's also the competition aspect. If you do a retweet, you might be the first person to report the news to the masses. If you take the time to report it in quotes, you will likely be "scooped."
January 21st, 2014 at 12:10 PM ^
Quote Tweet it, and edit the twitter handle to the wrong one or nothing.
Most analysts quote tweet high school athletes anyways so they should just remove the kid's twitter handle.
January 21st, 2014 at 3:21 PM ^
It really doesn't matter. If the recruits don't set their accounts to private, then all some nutjob has to do is go Google "Damien Harris Twitter", and voila...
January 22nd, 2014 at 8:34 AM ^
This is one of the most astute observations I have read on this site from comments section. I would not have put it quite so diplomatically.
This is what the kid is going to get when he or she signs up for twitter. There may be no such thing as bad publicity, but everthing that flows from it is not going to be good, or feel good.
January 21st, 2014 at 12:07 PM ^
January 21st, 2014 at 12:09 PM ^
How about we stop psycho-analyzing high schoolers? Just for a minute?
January 21st, 2014 at 12:16 PM ^
January 21st, 2014 at 12:08 PM ^
It's not one or the other. Don't pretend it's all rival fans posing as UM fans. If you think zero of those people are fucktard UM fans, you're delusional.
Also, fuck twitter.