LKLIII

January 22nd, 2016 at 12:13 PM ^

My comletely speculative guess is that they wanted to give him every opportunity to show them that he could turn it around.  Even after not camping at Michigan in the summer & maybe not having a great September on the field, the kid still likely wanted to show what he could do in October & November.

This is largely mountain/molehill stuff.  However, I will say that in the future Michigan can be better at:  1) Don't issue the written comittment unless they're either SURE or if there are strings attached, put them in writing so there is no ambiguity, and 2) if it's a "we will need to evaluate you after senior year", make sure that evaluation is done & reported back to the kid with a final evaluation by early December at the latest.  It shouldn't take until mid/late January for the staff to look at a kid's senior year film and make a call.  

Basically, if the kid hears in September, "you're on the fence, you should also look at some other schools for back-ups", and if in early December he hears, "I'm sorry but you're a no-go--please attend another school" or "you are our 3rd choice for XYX position--we will take you but only if we miss out on Smith & Jones," I think that's enough time for a kid to make adjustments accordingly & FAR better than having to make the chocie of "ride bench or transfer" after year 2 in a program.

The rub of course, is even if a staff is very clear & on a somewhat advanced timeline that I laid out, some kids just don't want to hear it. But all a school can do is make sure they are as clear as they can be as soon as they can.  What a recruit decides to do with that information is ultimately up to them.

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kevin holt

January 22nd, 2016 at 12:52 PM ^

Kinda seems like he took the offer for granted. First he slacks off senior year trying not to get hurt but not improving, then he continues to ignore hints or direct statements from the staff. The tweet doesn't mean he was told anything, it just means he either didn't get the picture or chose to ignore it. Maybe he knew he was going to be dropped and wanted to make it look worse. Who knows.

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BuckNekked

January 22nd, 2016 at 2:44 PM ^

It does add up if you dont blindly follow Swensons version of events.

Why would the kid not camp? Why did he not put forth the effort through his senior season? Why did a kid who has been committed for two years not have his official set for the OSU, MSU or one of the other marquee matchups? Why wait until late January? Why tweet out a month before signing day?

The kid knew he was slipping. I am sure that our blunt, honest and competitive coach who is not afraid of any press, good or bad, let him know this. He was trying to skate through unwitnessed to a Michigan scholarship he knew he no longer deserved. Ive raised my two kids to adulthood. I have seen this behavior countless times.

And your last paragraph can be spun another way: they were giving the kid every last chance to prove he belonged. 

 

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Hail-Storm

January 22nd, 2016 at 2:20 PM ^

Not  to say that this couldn't have been handled better,

but I recieved my acceptance letter to UofM in the October time frame, but it still could have been pulled if I tanked my classes from then on.  

If he was good enough to play for Michigan, then he should easily find another landing spot in the BIG.  If he doesn't find a spot easily, it might mean that other schools came to the same conclusion Harbaugh did.

I'd prefer Harbaugh take the call and lay this all out earlier, but it sounds like it could have been said in November and the hint was not taken over the dead period.  

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Erik_in_Dayton

January 22nd, 2016 at 12:06 PM ^

It defies common sense to send someone a letter saying "We are offering you a scholarship to play football at School X" but not be offering such a scholarship.  You should say what you mean.  A grocery store doesn't (or shouldn't) advertise Product X for $Y and then, when customers arrive, say, "Oh, we won't really sell you that product for that amount - we just meant that you could in theory buy it for that amount."  

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Blue Durham

January 22nd, 2016 at 2:43 PM ^

Also, whats good for the goose... kids that verbally commit and then decide to go on visits, re-open their recruitment, drop their verbal, etc. The other problem is alluded to above with Richardson and Enis, with Spath saying they no longer held "commitable" offers. At this point in time, that means only one thing, their offers were pulled. They did not de-commit. Same thing with the claim that Swenson de-committed. This is all goes back to coaches tactics of "cooling" on commits so that the staff does not appear to "pull the scholarship" so that it can either be claimed when the no-longer-desired recruit finally does leave, it can be claimed that he "de-committed" or at the very least, it was a "mutual parting." Often it works, but sometimes it doesn't. I guess I would prefer that the staff, rather than doing the "cooling" thing, straight out tells the commit ASAP that the situation has changed, they no longer have a scholarship offer to Michigan, they wish him well and will do everything they can to help the player land on his feet elsewhere. It would be quicker, more direct, and best for both parties in the longer-run. I think it would be a better approach when most people are no longer fooled by the "he didn't have his scholarship pulled, he de-commited" line.

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BuckNekked

January 22nd, 2016 at 2:51 PM ^

We dont know that the coaches didnt point blank tell him his offer was in danger. Thats the assumption all you guys that are trashing Harbaugh are making and its flat out the wrong thing to base your arguments on.

Since when has Harbaugh ever been afraid to speak his mind? To anyone on anything? Thats the thing Im not getting with the naysayers here. Harbaugh is blunt. He is honest. Probably awkwardly and sometimes painfully. Why do you all jump to the conclusion he is a snake in the grass, whispering out of both sides of his mouth, intentionally misleading these kids?

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Blue Durham

January 22nd, 2016 at 3:41 PM ^

Harbaugh's approach to recruiting at Stanford was discussed in detail here a little over half a year ago, and the "cooling" on recruits, the ceasing of communication, as tactics to get a recruit to de-commit resulting in a lot of turnover within a recruiting class was very well documented there, with a number of examples. What has happened with this class fits completely with that pattern, and has been confirmed by many quotes, not only by the recruits, but by Sam Webb, Make Spath, Brian and others. [The Tom Beaver thing claiming that Swenson was a silent de-commit back in November is contrary to everything everyone else has said, both by Swenson as well as Webb and other insiders, and is also contrary to common sense] Of course we don't know exactly what was said to who and when, but the pattern is pretty clear as to how these cases are handled, both here as well as at Stanford. Brian's post reviewing Harbaugh's approach in these situations gave him pause, and I suspect because it can lead to situations like Swenson's. Its not the end of the world, Swenson should still end up in a good place, and nobody has accused Harbaugh of a crime or violation. But things clearly were not handled properly (as mentioned above and I have stated previously, the August letter affirming Swenson's scholarship, which likely led to Swenson's confusion of the staffs' intentions, was probably a mistake), things could have been handled better. Otherwise we would not be discussing this 2-3 weeks before NSD.

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The Maizer

January 22nd, 2016 at 11:22 AM ^

I agree with you that the written offer is my hangup on why I'm still not 100% pleased with this whole thing. But would you be okay with it if the offer were accompanied by clear communication (verbal or otherwise) that it was contingent on evaluation of his senior year performance or in-person workout/camp?

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DingleberryFinn.

January 22nd, 2016 at 11:24 AM ^

I think this is a very reasonable assessment.

 

 

I think the coaching staff can protect themselves by understanding the significance of social media (as the article point out) in today's age.

 

A few bloggers here keep pointing out Swenson's tweet on January 3rd, and how there's no possible way he was told beforehand that his offer was pulled because of this tweet.

 

Somebody who we all know and love said something about deception and reaping what you sow? Can't recall who or what was the exact quote..

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BuckNekked

January 22nd, 2016 at 2:57 PM ^

But its not puzzling if you follow the story. The kid didnt camp. He didnt put forth the effort his senior year. He knew his spot was in jeopardy. The cynical side of me thinks the kid and his family knew they were gone and were laying the groundwork to control the narrative when he lost his offer. The less cynical side sees a kid losing his grip on something he badly wanted and looking to skate by unnoticed. This is a 17 year old kid. Theres never been a 17 year old kid who tried to slip one by you?

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Hail Harbo

January 22nd, 2016 at 12:19 PM ^

should honor every one of their 100+ written offers which are extended annually?  What about those that were offered but have "decommitted" yet now want back in, they still have their letters, should those letters be honored too?

Or what about Gregory Little and Jonah Williams, offensive tackles currently and respectively committed to Ole Miss and Alabama, both of those players hold Michigan offers.  On February 3rd, should they so choose to flip, should Michigan honor those scholarship offers as well?

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Reader71

January 22nd, 2016 at 1:36 PM ^

Right. Swenson accepted Michigan's offer, whereas the others haven't. These things have traditionally been first-come first-served. Other coaches hold spots open for kids up til signing day, and when they miss on the big targets, the go for someone else, like a Norfleet. It's not complicated. The poster just wants to stick someone on a technicality of language.

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Reader71

January 22nd, 2016 at 2:28 PM ^

Yes it was. I just gave one example above, with Norfleet. He wasn't offered until very late, when it became apparent we would miss on our other guys. That is a recent one. There is a lot of ballyhoo about kids getting offered much earlier than they used to. Why didn't they used to offer 9th graders? Because coaches tended to honor their offers and didn't want to be in a Swenson-like scenario when the kid didn't pan out. Not too long ago, even Juniors weren't offered that often. As for what recruiting was like 15-20 years ago, please tell me about it.

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mGrowOld

January 22nd, 2016 at 11:17 AM ^

Excellent, excellent article - thanks for Rivals for dropping the paywall and thanks to the OP for posting it.

I'm amazed at the sheer number of posters here over the past several days who fawned over Harbaugh during this past year but were willing to assume the absolute worst of him based on hearing one side of an obviously nuanced story.

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WorldwideTJRob

January 22nd, 2016 at 11:24 AM ^

To be fair...people jumping to the side of writers from rivals who have a stake in this story isn't what I would call fair & balanced journalism. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Is Harbaugh some grimey and delvilish coach, no. However, I also don't believe that these kids are lying 17 year old scumbags. Fact is this was a situation that could've been handled better on all sides. Let's just hope this is the last recruiting season we talk about all this garbage.



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westwardwolverine

January 22nd, 2016 at 12:48 PM ^

Whose saying the kids are lying scumbags? No one. 

The extent of this story is that Harbaugh should have told Swenson in crystal clear terms he was no longer going to be a part of this class sooner than he did. That's it. All this other sad wanking about "being uncomfortable" and "not sitting well with me" is nonsense being thrown around by people who wanted to overreact to this story for God only knows what reason and now look incredibly foolish for accepting everything Swenson's camp said as gospel. Not surprisingly, some are even doubling and tripling down on this thread despite all evidence since then proving them wrong. 

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jmdblue

January 22nd, 2016 at 1:21 PM ^

I have seen little in the way of overreacting.  In fact "not sitting well" and "uncomfortable" and "if true" pretty much define a nuanced response to what was being said.  You are the one using terms like "incredibly foolish", "nonsense" and "accepting gospel".  As for any "proof" related to this story... There ain't any.  

Take your pill, read your Strunk and White, and be glad you're part of a fanbase that is willing to look critically at its own program.

Cheers and Go Blue.

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westwardwolverine

January 22nd, 2016 at 1:44 PM ^

Please. Its all concern-troll nonsense. There's a difference between "looking critically" at something and wanting something to be wrong so you can pretend to be self-righteous and morally superior to others. That's why people make topics voicing negative opinions before they know what happened rather than simply asking what is going on. 

And yeah, there is plenty of proof that the initial accounts of Swenson being blindsided by the staff two weeks before signing day were nonsense. Which is why I used that word. Why, there's even some in this article. 

Joined: 11/26/2013

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jmdblue

January 22nd, 2016 at 2:08 PM ^

Not only hearsay, but 3rd and 4th and 5th handed hearsay.  The most definitive evidence we have is what Swenson says because JH and staff aren't speaking on the record and probably won't.  I don't doubt for a second Swenson is exaggerating his case, but he is the only one talking who has any first hand knowledge of what happened.  Did Swenson have an offer as of 2 or 3 weeks ago?  I have no idea.  We're far from any "proof".

As for "concern-troll" I can only speak for myself.  I certainly am not "wanting for something to be wrong so I can pretend to be self-righteous and morally superior to others" (again hit your Strunk and White dude).  I identify strongly with M and M athletics and want sincerely for things be be done right.  It doesn't have a fucking thing to do with moral superiority or pretending (for some reason) to be self-righteous.  

Don't know why you got under my skin on this.... JH is and will continue to be awesome.... Maybe I'll find a pill myself.

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jmdblue

January 22nd, 2016 at 11:33 AM ^

I felt (and remain) a little oogie about the way this went down.  Brian warned us months ago that recruiting was gonna be different under JH when he took a look at how things worked at Stanford.  That said I saw very little assumption of the "absolute worst" about Harbaugh including in Space's original post a couple days ago.  

What I found much more troubling are the number of posters who openly want to press and exceed every recruiting rule to compete with the Alabama's of the world and win NCs.  IMO it's not all about winning, it's about winning and winning right.  That would certainly fall within the joy of Michigan Manhood (Manliness?).

I was proud of how many on this board questioned Harbaugh (almost all of us qualifying the questions with "if this is true" or "based on what is being said"), in spite of how much we like JH and love Michigan FB.

Cheers and Go Blue.

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4godkingandwol…

January 22nd, 2016 at 12:44 PM ^

... As someone who is actually okay with pulling offers based on final year performance, I was shocked at how much vitriol was spewed at people simply questioning the process.  Yes, some people jumped the gun, but most were, like you said, caveating it with "if this is true."

The blind faith in a leader and attacking people who dare question his tactics was to me very surprising for a fan base predominantly made up of individuals who graduated from a school that prides itself on critical thinking and reason. 

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The Mad Hatter

January 22nd, 2016 at 11:26 AM ^

I was pissed about it when the story broke, as I, like many of you, jumped on the outrage train without having all of the facts.  

I've since decided that if this is what it takes to beat OSU and win National Championship's, then I'm fine with it.   As long as the recruit can still get a full ride at a D1 school they'll be just fine.

I don't want my son to grow up in a world where we only beat OSU once per decade.

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LSAClassOf2000

January 22nd, 2016 at 11:36 AM ^

In other words, this has been going on for decades. The difference now is the prevalence of social media. Some of that is good – it gives each recruit more power – but some of it is bad when reputable newspapers pick up the story and run with it without presenting the other side.

The story that Spath relayed from Skene is interesting too, the one aout Bo actually doing something rather similar in a basic sense, or so it seems. I had thought about this when the whole thing broke, thinking this has to be an old practice in the sense that the understanding that people have attempted to convey for decades is that there are responsibilities on both sides of the "commitment", and if a recruit decided to go into cruise mode, they might be playing with their future. It does seem like social media has fostered more visceral reactions to these events - we have even seen that from Michigan fans on Twitter, not to mention people from Swenson's camp and other sources. 

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BlueFish

January 22nd, 2016 at 12:22 PM ^

"When we spoke to our in-house expert, former Michigan All-Big Ten offensive lineman Doug Skene, he told us a story of a player that was supposed to join the 1988 freshman class but that dogged it his senior year of high school. What did Bo Schembechler do? He didn’t sign the young man.

Not to blindly defend Harbaught, but after reading this article -- and if the whole truth ever comes to light -- perhaps the posters within the last two days who cited Bo's recruiting ethics as substantiation to excoriate Harbaugh (and question the morals of other U-M fans) will be willing to come back and make amends.

I'm too lazy to name names.

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Reader71

January 22nd, 2016 at 1:48 PM ^

I will eat a lemon if Bo simply stopped talking to a kid or hinted that he should look elsewhere. Bo would have had no compunction sitting the kid down, with his parents, and telling him that his senior season effort wasn't good enough for Michigan. That's the whole issue. No one is saying the kid is allowed to dog it. But Michigan and Harbaugh are better than just "ghosting" on a guy. Ironically, I think social media and the recruiting press is partially responsible for this ghosting phenomenon -- Bo's way, although much more ethical, would probably cause a shitstorm. Instead, ghosting allows most of the kids to get the hint and go elsewhere, quietly, keeping both parties out of the news.

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Reader71

January 22nd, 2016 at 2:50 PM ^

The article linked to above says a source told them Swenson was told to "look around a few weeks ago." Even if we assume Harbaugh used every bit of game film from Swenson's senior season to evaluate him, and that Swenson was aware that his senior season was going to serve as his evaluation period, as stated in the article, that leaves 2-3 months of the recruit being up in the air. During that time, Swenson came to a campus and was visited in-home. He wasnt clearly told he was no longer wanted. No clear communication. Or ghosting. Look, I'm not saying this merits a guillotine, but you cannot pretend that NOTHING wrong went on here.

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Don

January 22nd, 2016 at 11:38 AM ^

is that if he'd never said anything in the wake of his decommitment, then the whole world wouldn't know about his apparent refusal to camp at UM, or his refusal to work out for Harbaugh and staff, or about his disappointing performance during his senior season. It certainly isn't going to help him find another good program.

In other words, be careful before you whack that hornet's nest with the stick.

All that said, Harbaugh & Co. still screwed up in not making their decision much sooner. Assuming that the story about the refusal to camp and work out is accurate, JH would have been perfectly justified in yanking the offer at that point, and they should have. Instead, it looks like very mixed signals were being sent out by the staff even after Swenson's season was over.

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