Interesting read... Nothing really new though:

http://www.cantonrep.com/article/2014021...242/?tag=1

I could do without the "we were sticking with him" schtick when it came to Devers.

Asking him to grayshirt was a cluster****.

I think the key word in the title is "tries."

(02-19-2014 03:00 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  I could do without the "we were sticking with him" schtick when it came to Devers.

Asking him to grayshirt was a cluster****.

Seems to me a lot of folks here have no problem pulling offers from commits and/or schollies from returnees if a better player comes along. I'm not one of them although I'm OK with some candid discussion intended to have that effect. Admittedly it can be a fine line.

The Devers situation seems a lot less egregious and at face value (not knowing how serious the injury was/is) I think I'm OK with it. As a lineman, you have to think he was going to redshirt anyway to get bigger/stronger etc. Depending upon the injury I'm guessing that can be pretty difficult with some shoulder injuries. Kinda sucks for both the program and player to potentially waste a redshirt year not really getting bigger and better as a football player. A greyshirt is still a scholly - it just buys a semester (or up to a year in effect) for the injury to heal AND then most likely to still redshirt after that to build up his body. It's still a scholarship offer to UC so I think it's fair to say UC "stuck with him".

Of course I can also see why that might not be what Devers wants for himself as a player (potentially not playing at all for 2 years) and especially as a student (putting his life on hold for a semester and then assimilating as a frosh when mostly everybody has already been there for a semester). From what I can tell, to me it's just one of those things that happened because of the injury and neither party acted dishonorably.

I would call it out if OSU or UL did it. Good for the goose, good for the gander.

Kid committed in May or early June and quit answering recruiting calls. We pulled this on him the week before signing day and he was forced to scramble and probably end up at a school below his paygrade..

I think it was a d!ck move. Forget the fact I think that kid is going to be a good one at a position of desperate need

(02-19-2014 03:44 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  I would call it out if OSU or UL did it. Good for the goose, good for the gander.

Kid committed in May or early June and quit answering recruiting calls. We pulled this on him the week before signing day and he was forced to scramble and probably end up at a school below his paygrade..

I think it was a d!ck move. Forget the fact I think that kid is going to be a good one at a position of desperate need

I agree about the goose/gander and our depth at his position isn't a factor in my opinion. I can see a greyshirt being a "grey" area if nothing happened, but it seems very reasonable when something that is nobody's fault intervenes like a serious injury for an athlete. The scholarship offer is still being honored.

(02-19-2014 03:55 PM)Bearhawkeye Wrote:  

(02-19-2014 03:44 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  I would call it out if OSU or UL did it. Good for the goose, good for the gander.

Kid committed in May or early June and quit answering recruiting calls. We pulled this on him the week before signing day and he was forced to scramble and probably end up at a school below his paygrade..

I think it was a d!ck move. Forget the fact I think that kid is going to be a good one at a position of desperate need

I agree about the goose/gander and our depth at his position isn't a factor in my opinion. I can see a greyshirt being a "grey" area if nothing happened, but it seems very reasonable when something that is nobody's fault intervenes like a serious injury for an athlete. The scholarship offer is still being honored.

It does depend on how serious the injury is.

Another thing that bugs me is we had scholarships. It's not like we were short.

It just doesn't sit well hearing we jerked the kid around the week of signing day after he stuck with UC for 7 months. Either you want him or you don't regardless of injury.

If I am a recruit and I get hurt, I would not try to get it fixed until after signing day now. Heck, kid was probably getting it done now to be ready as soon as possible.

I don't know the details about how the injury, treatment and recovery was going but Devers missed games at the end of the season per the article and iirc a poster said his arm was in a sling when he visited Marshall. I'm not sure how waiting around with an apparently significant injury to get it "fixed", whatever "fixed" is, would benefit anyone.

And the available scholarship issue can be very fluid with decommits and late switches as we've seen first hand. It sounds like the approach with Devers was an attempt to make things work for him and other potential recruits down the stretch (but before the very last minute) while living up to the scholarship offer. And that's the KEY thing to me. I understand Devers position to move on. As I mentioned in another thread, I wonder if things might have worked out differently had he waited to commit elsewhere until signing day - not that I blame him. It's just one of those things and nobody's fault imo. I wish him well.

I dunno... If a kid "reopens" his recruitment (like Kempt) or decommits when his situation changes, we tend to get rather hot-and-bothered about it. But then our program decides to change their offer to a kid and we seem to think that's the way it goes?

I admit, I am not a fan of our current head coach. That probably influences my opinion on this issue. But I think it's pretty crappy that UC offers a scholarship to a kid and then changes their mind when the kid gets hurt... Especially when it is an injury that can be worked with... As was mentioned above, Devers would have likely been a red-shirt this year anyway meaning that he would have had a whole year to rehab the shoulder and learn the play-book. I don't see how his injury ends up being the type of thing that we yank a scholarship and say "Well, come here and pay your own way and we'll see what happens..."

Your reputation means everything in recruiting. If trust is not there, and you don't have the prospects playing in front of the bright-lights of a major conference as a selling point, what do you have? You end up getting the kids who have no other better offers or options...in short the MAC-caliber players.

(02-19-2014 05:45 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  I dunno... If a kid "reopens" his recruitment (like Kempt) or decommits when his situation changes, we tend to get rather hot-and-bothered about it. But then our program decides to change their offer to a kid and we seem to think that's the way it goes?

I admit, I am not a fan of our current head coach. That probably influences my opinion on this issue. But I think it's pretty crappy that UC offers a scholarship to a kid and then changes their mind when the kid gets hurt... Especially when it is an injury that can be worked with... As was mentioned above, Devers would have likely been a red-shirt this year anyway meaning that he would have had a whole year to rehab the shoulder and learn the play-book. I don't see how his injury ends up being the type of thing that we yank a scholarship and say "Well, come here and pay your own way and we'll see what happens..."

Your reputation means everything in recruiting. If trust is not there, and you don't have the prospects playing in front of the bright-lights of a major conference as a selling point, what do you have? You end up getting the kids who have no other better offers or options...in short the MAC-caliber players.

He would have been on scholly 2015. What do you know about his injury?

(02-19-2014 05:45 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  I dunno... If a kid "reopens" his recruitment (like Kempt) or decommits when his situation changes, we tend to get rather hot-and-bothered about it. But then our program decides to change their offer to a kid and we seem to think that's the way it goes?

I admit, I am not a fan of our current head coach. That probably influences my opinion on this issue. But I think it's pretty crappy that UC offers a scholarship to a kid and then changes their mind when the kid gets hurt... Especially when it is an injury that can be worked with... As was mentioned above, Devers would have likely been a red-shirt this year anyway meaning that he would have had a whole year to rehab the shoulder and learn the play-book. I don't see how his injury ends up being the type of thing that we yank a scholarship and say "Well, come here and pay your own way and we'll see what happens..."

Your reputation means everything in recruiting. If trust is not there, and you don't have the prospects playing in front of the bright-lights of a major conference as a selling point, what do you have? You end up getting the kids who have no other better offers or options...in short the MAC-caliber players.

SHHHH...dude you are just ASKING for those dbag Texas Tech fans to come in here and crap all over everything.

(02-19-2014 05:57 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  He would have been on scholly 2015. What do you know about his injury?

Those are fair questions and I asked them of myself too... Obviously I know almost nothing of the kid's medical status except it was a shoulder injury of some sort. And yeah, he would have been on scholarship for 2015, but if a school can change an offer once, they can obviously change the conditions again.

But like I said, you raise fair questions.