Notre Dame Pulls 4 Star WR's Commitment 5 days later
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2785563-4-star-wr-tj-sheffield-says-…
Really strange. Kid is a highly rated WR from TN that doesn't seem to have any red flags.
Imagine if Harbaugh did this. It’d be talked about everywhere.
Yeah man. Kid presents himself well on his statement. Wished Notre Dame well...Etc. You hope that he kid did something really really stupid for Kelly to do something like this, but that's asking Kelly to be classy...something I don't think he cares much about.
Agreed.
Insightful!
It did happen and was talked about everywhere.
More has been made about Harbaugh pulling the offer for an offensive lineman than Kelly telling a kid to stand in a wind storm on top of a crane and dying. Or ND having to forfeit a near-perfect season due to academic fraud by multiple players. For whatever reason ND remains this Golden child to the media.
Must be the helmets.
Or God.
Are we still prohibited from saying "F Notre Dame" on Mgoblog 3.0?
Fuck no, or I'm out of here.
I know college football fans tend to say this about every rival, but...
Why does ANYONE let their kid commit to that assclown?
I agree with you. As much as I don't much like Meyer or Saban, I get going to their programs. More than anyone they can pitch: if you start, you'll get drafted. Kelly, on the other hand, just doesn't make any sense unless you just really like ND.
Or you hate your own kid.
Bizarre. That being said, due to recruiting rules you aren’t able to hear ND’s side of the story. As a program that has had that happen to us in the recent past, we should remember that.
I saw this on reddit, and ND fans are saying that the WR coach pulled the trigger too quickly. In any case, the kid handled the situation with class.
That seems crazy, unless the kid is ranked way too high. If I'm remembering from the article correctly, the gentleman is a top 300 recruit. You just don't turn those away half handedly. Unless you're Alabama.
Hell, if you're Alabama, you can be a Top 100 recruit and still get grayshirted in the last week of August. It is all simply part of the process.
The part where he says ND told him they pulled it due to a "change of plans" sounds like they've decided to use that scholarship on another position.
Maybe they've decided they don't need a/another WR in this class after reviewing their board. It sucks for the kids to emotionally go through that process then feel like they've found their dream school only to have it yanked away but they did it a long enough way out that hopefully he can find another school that he likes as much
Good point. The Swenson deal was closer to NSD if I remember? In any case M has done a good job of explaining their process going fwd and at least he has time to still make a good decision. Good luck to him.
Swenson supposedly knew in the middle of the fall, but chose to wait until the end to “de-commit”. I think he was hoping Michigan would change their mind, but they never did. He and his dad started mud slinging much closer to NSD though.
If this was 3 days before signing day then it would be a HUGE issue. By it still being the summer before his senior season its not that big of a deal. Best to let the kid know now so he can explore his options.
I don't know, maybe it's me, but its July. This kid has plenty of time to get another offer. I can think of a number of things to rip Kelly and ND on, but this isn't one of them. They change their mind, for whatever reason, but for goodness sake, the kid hasn't played a down in his senior season yet.
I get it...kid will accept a full ride athletic scholarship from another great school, but this just speaks to the lack of integrity in college recruiting. I also know this swings both way. The student athlete can back out of a commitment at any time too.
I think one expects more from a grown ass man and an institution like Notre Dame. You extend a kid an offer and kid accepts it. You then rescind offer 5 days later!? What the Hell!? I expect "wishy washy" from a kid under the age of 18. I don't expect douche baggery like this from a grown man...but this is Kelly we are talking about.
Its the system here . A recruit can also change his mind.... There's nothing binding and the schools are in a very bad spot.
I mean...the kid is a 4-star and top-250 player. He's going to land on his feet and he's going to have good chances. Its not going to be an instance of someone "taking a shot" with the kid.
I dont say that to say the situation doesnt suck for Sheffield, but your comments about it are...odd.
Agreed. Those were odd comments and I assume poster never read the article. Top 300 kid at a skill position. Dude will land at an amazing school and be so glad he didn't get locked up with a Coach that would do that to a kid.
It's a bad look for ND and I believe Del Alexander (WR coach at ND) messed up and was caught off guard by the commitment. None of the ND insiders saw this one coming and I believe some had him pegged to commit to Purdue. ND's WR class will be very small this year (1, maybe 2) after taking 4 last year and just got a WR commit from Cam Hart on July 4th for this class. In a recent interview Sheffield said he hadn't had any communication with ND "for months" and then calls Del telling him he's going to commit and Del congratulated him when he should have had a better handle on ND's WR board and 2019 class as a whole. The one excuse Del has is that he was supposedly on vacation but he should still know better than to just accept the kids commitment, especially when the kid's commitment tweet specifically says that he will be taking other visits in the fall. Del messed up but at least he let TJ know soon after that they couldn't accept his commitment. And Kelly never accepted the commitment and never sent out his normal "#WeareND" tweet when someone commits. And yes, I know Michigan has been in this situation before too. Sucks that you never hear the schools side of things like in the whole Matt Falcon ordeal where Michigan turned out to be right.
Knowledgeable, polite, and reasonable. You sure you're an ND fan?
I keed. Hope to see/read more of you in the run up to the game this fall.
I've worked with several ND grads over the years. All were good folks.
My question is did it take five days for ND to let the kid know? That sounds like disorganization beyond a mistake by an assistant.
The kid's inexperience with recruiting showed. If a staff stopped contact months before, you're not a take. Nice to see he handled it well.
Lloyd Carr had something similar happen with a LB from Florida. An assistant took his commitment, but the spot was gone. As I recall, Carr called him right away with the bad news, but the kid was mad and trashed him to the media.
Yep, this was the first thing I thought of. Kid went on to UNC and became a starter there. Kid was pissed though, talking about burning all his Michigan gear.
I don't get why Coaching staffs do that to kids...even Michigan. Why be a prick to a kid by not calling him when he is a commit and just tell him up front that you have changed your mind based upon his current film and production. Don't get the childish "Lets not call him for 2 months so he ends up decommitting." Kind of like acting like a complete ass to your girlfriend so you can say that she broke up with you. Just be up front with the kid.
That usually did work though. Then you don't have to have the "it's not you, it's me" talk.
Thanks that makes things clearer. Yes, shit happens and at least in this case it's July with plenty of time before signing day. And as long as programs like ND or Michigan don't make a regular habit of it, it shouldn't hurt things in the long run.
That was a very classy statement by Sheffield. I hope he commits to a team that plays ND and burns them for 3 touchdowns.
Well if he goes to BC or Navy, he's virtually guaranteed to go 4-0 versus Notre Dame.
Two sides to every story, but definitely does seem strange.
Is Sheffield any good? He's only 5-10 so he's probably a slot. Our WR board looks a little thin for 2019 unless we can somehow pull Ford out of CA.
in addition to kyle ford:
i think slot-wise we are in with giles jackson and wandale robinson
in our current class, george johnson is considered a WR prospect
we are also targeting cornelious johnson, forgot about him
Can he play LT?
This doesn't seem like all that big a story, but I'm surprised there's only 40 comments—in the MGoBlog olden days of yore, this would still have led to a 200-comment thread boiling with anti-ND/Kelly vituperation.
Maybe it's because it's summer and people are off doing things in the real world, but it seems odd to me.
This shouldn't be a big deal. So what, they changed their mind. Kid has plenty of time to find a home. Welcome to the world of "offers" vs. "Committable offers".
Ten years ago that term didn't exist.
I don’t know which program I hate more Notre Dame football or Michigan football. In any event, Michigan, the football program, tends to have class. Same can’t be said for ND and Brian “my face is purple” Kelly. Bad look. Kid is from Independence HS, very strong, big school, state championship HS program in one of the fastest growing counties in the nation. Kelly and ND can kiss goodbye pulling anymore kids out of Independence, and probably Ravenwood, Franklin, CPA, Blackmun, Brentwood Academy, etc etc as well.