lolmsm
recruiting is for gentlemen only
erik swenson

Processing Is Not Rare Comment Count

Brian

conveyor-solutions-belts

If you had Teddy Greenstein in the Brings Up Erik Swenson Next pool, collect your winnings. I get annoyed at Greenstein because he puts up a front of objectivity while putting out article after article designed to put Harbaugh in a bad light. See the recent article on refereeing where he asked the Big Ten's head of officials if he was bad at his job, got a "no," and said "well, I guess that wraps it all up, folks!"

Anyway. This one was somewhat spoiled by Harbaugh explaining the situation from his perspective...

"There's a camp in June, and we really want you to come so we can see you.' It ended up, after a couple of conversations, that he wasn't going to come to camp.

"I said: 'We're going to be in Indianapolis in the beginning of June for a satellite camp. It's closer to your home.' He said no. I said, 'We really need to see you for ourselves.' He said, 'Just evaluate my senior tape.' 'OK, that's what we will do.'"

...but Greenstein does his best to frame it anyway.

What happened to Swenson is exceedingly rare: a high school player in good academic standing, who remains loyal to the school to which he verbally committed, getting dumped within weeks of signing day.

There is a term for a school dispatching a player it no longer wants: "processing."

Connecticut coach Randy Edsall got crushed last week by national media figures Paul Finebaum ("total disgrace"), Mike Greenberg ("How you go to sleep at night, I have no idea") and the Washington Post's Sally Jenkins ("No one is more committed to Randy Edsall than Randy Edsall") after his scurrilous actions regarding a high school linebacker from New Jersey named Ryan Dickens.

Contrary to pearl-clutchers in the media, "processing" kids before they can sign is a common practice getting ever more common. That's why there's a term for it. Most of these situations go uncommented upon because the kid and coaches know the score and are just looking for a landing spot. The rare thing is a kid getting pissed off about it in the media.

I think we can safely assume that someone moving down from a Power 5 program to a lower level has been processed, and there have been a number of these this year: CB Nick Roberts and QB Todd Centeio went from P5 programs to the AAC. S Ahman Ross is trying to find a landing spot at Appalachian State or Colorado State. RB Bentavious Thompson looks likely to end up at UCF. FIU is the crystal ball favorite for WR Kevaughn Dingle.

That's five guys not from all of the Power 5 or one P5 conference but one recruiting class: Miami's. Every collection of team-specific recruitniks in America has a subliminal list of a few guys who are technically committed but won't actually be in the class. For Michigan this year they were Carter Dunaway and Chase Lasater; for Ohio State they were Danny Clark, Bruce Judson, and Todd Sibley.

The 24/7 decommitment tracker is missing a pager so it only goes back three days. In those three days (three days!) there are four recruitments that look like processing of some variety:

  • WR Warren Jackson decommitted from Arizona and fielded a couple of quick CSU picks.
  • LB DeMarco Artis decommitted from FSU and told 247 that it was "unfortunate."
  • LB Jabreel Stephens decommitted from Louisville and looks set to pick USF.
  • LB Jaquan Henderson flipped from Tennessee to Georgia Tech.

It is exactly one week from signing day.

Even if not all of these are genuine processings that should be sufficient to demonstrate that the practice is not rare, or anything close to it. If Greenstein had done 15 minutes of research he would have reached the same conclusion. You have to wonder why he would not take such a basic step before making an easily-disproved factual assertion.

Comments

Abram

January 26th, 2017 at 1:19 PM ^

This whole melodrama was annoying last year. Coach was right to cut him. The kid is too busy to camp once for Jim Harbaugh? Any serious athlete would bust his ass for that new staff as many times as they ask. You go to BOTH camps. You do what your coach says, period. But Harbaugh gives him the benefit of the doubt when the kid says "evaluate my senior tape instead," and then his senior year he REGRESSES, but still expects a spot? I'd expect to be cut, but the staff politely suggests in December that he look around, but he can't take hint. Does it need to be spelled out? And then it's supposed to be Michigan's fault when in January it gets to be too late to get another team, so off he goes to the press. Where's the self-responsibility? It's shocking that anyone here would take the kid's side, much less this holier than thou attitude. Who would tell Bo Schembechler his high school summer schedule is too full to work out? Can you imagine what Bo would say? "Bye bye scholarship," is what he'd say. "Loyal for two years" is another ridiculous point. How loyal is it not to do what your coach asks? All such offers are condtional, but he acted like he was entitled to it, even when it was given by a different coach. No offense to the kid, but at every point he revealed a basic attitude problem. Harbaugh should never take such a player.

Joined: 01/16/2011

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pescadero

January 27th, 2017 at 5:39 PM ^

"I'd expect to be cut," Yep - and I have no problem with that. " but the staff politely suggests in December that he look around, but he can't take hint. Does it need to be spelled out?" Yes, it does. That is the ethical thing to do. Hinting is what 14 year old girls do when they don't have the courage to break up with their boyfriend.

Joined: 03/28/2013

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You Only Live Twice

January 25th, 2017 at 11:13 PM ^

What credibility?

When writers have such an obvious axe to grind, and get called out on it, why should we worry about the axe-grinder's credibility? Can't they defend themselves?  They want to make money generating clicks, OK, being called out on crap is part of the package.

Joined: 09/14/2013

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NRK

January 26th, 2017 at 10:50 AM ^

I'm not a journalist - and to be honest I think Greenstein is a fine writer (his stuff aside from the Harbaugh stuff is not bad) - but I have some issues with this piece:

  • Why no quote about the camps from Swenson or his coach? There are direct quotes from Harbaugh about Swenson not coming to two camps and wanting to be evaluated on his tape.  Greenstein has access to the Swensons and the HS coach, but he did not get a quote or response from them on this point. That is a huge miss and a very basic tenet of journalism. 
  • "I just cover the Big Ten" (SEC issue) - When Greenstein's last piece went out people gave him fits about how his happens everywhere else, why doesn't he write about it. He acknowledged as much, and put it on Twitter, and in his future articles. That's fine, but don't put a throwaway line in your more recent article about how this is "rare" when your twitter feed and previous stories state the exact opposite:
My response to that: I’m among the scores of college football columnists who have ripped SEC coaches for oversigning. What Harbaugh is doing, on this scale, is unprecedented among Big Ten coaches. And I cover the Big Ten. (Link)

 

 

 

 

  • Swenson's motiviation & accuracy - It's obvious to me he wanted to be at Michigan and thought he was going to be at Michigan. But people can also convince themselves of something to be true even when it isn't the case. I do find the fact that he says he's "not a media guy" and then is giving all these interviews and airing things publicly.  Call it what you want, but you're a "media guy." Also this struck me as a bit odd:

    "I had a lot of Michigan clothes — three hoodies, too many T-shirts to count and several long sleeve shirts," Swenson said. "I gave all the clothes to a teammate who is a die-hard Michigan fan."

    Feb 2016 Quote Link

    That seems to contradict his most recent quote: 

    As for that Michigan gear?

    "I'm on the border of 2XL and 3XL, and I have a lot of stuff," he said. "I'm never going to wear it. If anyone wants it, they can go downstairs to the basement and take it."

    Now I'm not going to suggest that this means that much on it's face. Maybe he had two different stashes of clothes. Maybe he gave his stash partially away, or maybe he just is a kid giving interviews and forgot. Or maybe there's these type of things that always come up in stories that are inconsistent. But doubt does start to creep in when we're taking his fact pattern hanging on every word as truth about recruting and it appears he can't even give accurate stories of what he did with his Michigan gear.
  • Timing - Greenstein knows his timing - it's a few weeks away from signing day, lots of fun for recruiting time, a lull in other sports. Harbaugh was smart to call back and give his side of the story. Still feels like a weird time to drop a story - especially given that a year ago he was muting people on twitter who were trolling him about this: The previous tweet he's referrng to read as follows: Greenstein literally muted a guy almost a year ago for accurately calling him out on the article he eventually ended up writing (of course the comment was meant sarcastically at the time..)
  • "Thriving" - Good for Swenson for the work at Oklahoma. But, he is a RS Freshman offensive lineman. Let's damp down the praise a little bit here before throwing around that he's thriving. We know all too well the success rate and attrition of the OL.
  • Other Dynamics - Swenson comes from a relatively affluent area of Chicago, right or wrong, that probably hits home for the readership of the Chicago Tribune a bit more than this happening to a kid from the South. It appears Greenstein has maintained that connection with the family and schools - He's much more economically vested in that relationship than he is in a relationship with Harbaugh. It's why you can't put out a poorly researched piece on UM NCAA investigation and continue to work at the Freep - that matters. I don't have anything to accuse him of being biased (nor do I want to), but those things can even unintentionally creep in.

Joined: 02/20/2009

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SGBlue

January 27th, 2017 at 8:37 AM ^

...and three reactions.

1. Obvous contradictions in the article not addressed by the "reporter." The kid says "I did everythng Michigan asked me to." Jim's says explicitly that he refused to do at least two things they asked of him. Wouldn't even a mediocre reporter have done the follow up to have each party address the explicit contradictions?

2. It goes further to my theory that Teddy got rejected for admission to MIchigan. Any even average Michigan enrollee, when writing an article with its thesis that different people see the same things with widely varying recall, would drop in a reference to Rashomon. Teddy still carries that sting with him, it is obvious.

3. The dude starts his article with a reference to The Affair. Dude. My wife watches The Affair. I've seen a few hot scenes while stopping in the room while she's watching it. Teddy watching it must double its male viewership.

The only complimentary thing I can say is that Teddy did give Jim a full airing, and he (to my biased eyes) was the only one that came across as straightforward, matter of fact, and not carrying an (understandably) emotional grudge from the incident.

Do have to agree with Brian that it makes no sense to imply that something (processing) happens but in the next paragraph report that it actually has a term describing it. Just another point in the mediocrity column for Teddy.

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