Posted: Monday, Jan. 28, 2013
Recruits on "secret" visits
By Michael Carvell
In the new age of Social Media, top college prospects are finding it far more difficult to take ?secret? official visits.
When two Atlanta area recruits (committed elsewhere) quietly showed up at Tennessee as visitors this past weekend, it didn?t remain quiet for long.
Word spread quickly on Twitter that Central Gwinnett LB Trey Johnson (committed to Ohio State) and Alpharetta QB Joshua Dobbs (committed to Arizona State) were in Knoxville.
Johnson?s appearance nearly caused a meltdown at Ohio State after a website that covers the Buckeyes tweeted last Friday, ?Buckeyes LB commit Trey Johnson told me rumor he was taking an official visit to Tennessee this weekend isn?t true.?
Marc Givler of Ohio State?s Rivals.com website, also tweeted on Friday, ?Trey Johnson will not be anywhere in the state of Tennessee this weekend. I also won?t be in Tennessee, or Delaware, or Colorado, FYI.?
Of course, we know how this story turned out: Johnson was at Ohio State, but didn?t want to alarm everybody in the Buckeye nation. However, when a commit visits a school he isn?t committed to less than two weeks before signing day, it sets off fire alarms.
Johnson?s coach, Todd Wofford, gave an explanation what happened on Monday.
?Trey just wanted to take a trip,? Wofford said. ?He?s an 18-year-old kid that thought this was an opportunity he wouldn?t get again. He just wanted to take a trip up there, and that?s what he did.
?Trey wanted to keep it low key, so nobody thought it was more than it was. Then it started coming out that he was trying to hide this and hide that. It made it seem like it was a bigger deal than it was. But it wasn?t.?
In defense of Johnson, he?s just a kid who is one of the nation?s top linebackers and has ton of celebrity coaches making sales pitches to him, despite the commitment. Tennessee isn?t the only SEC school that has heavily flirted with Johnson within the last couple of weeks.
?His commitment hasn?t stopped any schools from trying to get this one last visit this weekend,? said Wofford, who politely declined to go in details. ?I mean, it?s coming from everywhere.
?This is the craziest stuff I?ve dealt with in 18 years of coaching. But if Trey wasn?t a big-time player, it would never happen.?
What about Ohio State? Urban Meyer and his staff had their fears calmed on Monday. ?I mean, this time of year, this close to signing day, any school would be nervous about something like that,? Wofford said. ?But Trey is a smart kid, and they trust him. They?re good. Trey is locked in with Ohio State.?
