Louisville pulls offer from first verbal

[crazybuckfan40]

IMO I want the kid to stay on if we would start to sign higher rated guys and he still wants to stay.

That tells me that he has love for the school and that he is not afraid to compete.

If he is scared of the competition and leaves well then so be it.

You don't pull the schollie just b/c you want guys you think might be better.

 

[jlb1705]

To clarify again, we aren't talking about a scholarship. We are talking about an offer that cannot even be officially accepted. The kid and his parents should be aware, just like the staffs are, that nothing is final until all the paperwork is completed. That's just how the world works.

I'm not saying its a nice thing to do, nor would I really want the OSU staff to make this a practice, but I don't find it unethical.

You're right. It's not a "scholarship" - it's the promise of a scholarship. And because athletic grants-in-aid have to be renewed on a yearly basis, even when a student-athlete gets on campus, their "scholarship" for the next school year is really only as the strong as the promise that it will be there - the same kind of promise that this kid supposedely had when he was supposedely offered a scholarship in writing by the Louisville staff.

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

If there is nothing wrong with it, then why don't you want the OSU staff to do it?

OSU currently has a truckload of blue-chippers that are high on OSU... yet they've already loaded up the class with some lower-rated recruits. Are you saying that there is nothing unethical about Jim Tressel telling Donnie Evege they don't want him anymore... and then signing higher-rated studs like Eric Berry, Major Wright & Donovan Warren?

Sorry to leave you hanging there, jwins.

One reason I wouldn't want the OSU staff to use such a tactic is precisely for this reason, bad publicity. I know that most people wouldn't approve of such a manuever and future recruits (and parents) will notice actions like this. Pulling one kid's offer in order to give it to a better prospect may have a short-term gain in this year's class, but I would expect it to hurt future recruiting classes.

From another angle, I view it in a similar light to "negative recruiting." It is part of the business and it is another school's prerogative to employ the tactic, but I expect the OSU staff to be above such actions. We are Ohio State and we don't need to take any actions that will reflect poorly on our coaches and team.

I guess I view this as a situation where no significant harm has been done. The young man has other scholarship offers and its early enough that, come signing day, he will be signing with another school.

 

[DaytonBuck]

To me this says something about the staffs ability to evaluate players. The kid went to the scout combine in Louisville and being a Kentucky player they should be able to make that evaluation way before he verbals.

 

[BuckTwenty]

I remember when this board used to chastize other teams (specifically something that happend to a Mich St verbal before NLOI day pre-John L Smith) for how a verbal was unceremoniusly dropped from the program's wish list after verballing. Shortly thereafter, we learned that our very own program raised the standards for admission higher than those of the NCAA academic clearinghouse, which led to the dismissals most notably of former OSU verbals DaJuan Morgan and Derek Morris (both ended up at NC State), Miles Williams (Michigan State, then Youngstown State), and Josh Chichester (Louisville/prep school). We kinda toned down our collective voices after that.

This is MUCH different than any of those situations though. Seems obvious to me that the Louisville coaches have a little bit more trouble evaluating talent than do most "powerhouse" programs. Maybe they're expectations have raised due to a possible BCS/Championship game berth? Maybe they're just starting to learning how a "powerhouse" program recruits?

Not trying to make excuses for them... just trying to find out the real reason for this. It'll be REALLY interesting when we finally get to hear from the team why they took his schollie away.