Post by Coach Campbell on Apr 25, 2012 9:44:54 GMT
Early commits: Pros and cons of latest prep trend
Colleges go after high school juniors to get early commitment.
By Mitch Stephens
MaxPreps.com
By all accounts, Notre Dame-Sherman Oaks (Calif.) senior Dayne Crist is a jewel of a football player and even a better young man.
The mobile and strong-armed 6-foot-5, 228-pound quarterback is funny, bright and engaging. He's personable, balanced and poised, a perfect leader for one of the country's top teams, especially when the pressure mounts and all goes awry.
Crist was left scrambling, however, from a recruiting onslaught and media blitz following a stellar junior season.
Considered one of the nation's elite quarterbacks and top 25 recruits overall, colleges bombarded Crist with letters (hundreds), scholarship offers (14 in the first month) and text messages, topped off with 36 in one day from 21 different schools.
"And I hadn't responded to one of them," he said.
He did take incessant calls from determined Internet reporters who tried to get the scoop on the prized package who boasts all the essential numbers: 1,710 SAT, 3.6 GPA, 4.66 40-yard dash, 265 bench press, 415-pound squat and a 31-inch vertical jump.
"It (the recruiting process) hit fast and was definitely stressful," Crist said. "At times it could be very overwhelming."
Crist's parents, quite balanced themselves and connected to all aspects of their eldest son's life, at times felt helpless.
"Like Dayne we were new to all of this," Crist's mom Karen said. "We weren't really prepared. It wasn't like there's a book out there, `Recruiting for Dummies.'
"So much was happening without us even being in the mix. It was like, `hey, wait a minute.'
"I mean Dayne is a very mature young man, even at 17. He can handle a lot. But he felt so much pressure. He was trying to prioritize his decision and take SAT exams and be a kid all at the same time.
"It was very emotional. He told us at times he was melting. We just tried to ease his tension and remind him to take a step back."
Crist eventually avoided the rush, stepped out of the pocket and on April 20, roughly 10 months from the official National Letter of Intent signing period, verbally committed to Notre Dame.
He picked the Irish over a Who's Who of national powers including USC, Florida State, Oregon, Michigan and Nebraska to name a few.
"I was just filled with so much joy and relief when I made my pick," Crist said. "I was able to just focus on my off- and senior season. I felt very refreshed."
OUT OF WHACK
Heading into his season opener Friday against defending California State Division I champion Canyon-Canyon Country, Crist maintains that despite the sleepless spring nights - and the Irish's lackluster opening day home loss to Georgia Tech - he absolutely made the right decision.
More so, he was never pressured by any college coaches, least of all at Notre Dame.
Still, something seems out of whack.
Crist is simply an example of a growing trend where high school football players commit earlier and earlier to college programs.
Of the top 100 players from CSTV recruiting expert Tom Lemmings' 2008 list, 66 have already committed.
Other recruiting sites, rivals.com (65) and superprep.com (63) also show well more than 50 percent of its top 100 players orally committed.
Thirty percent of the country's high school teams have yet to play a game yet according to SuperPreps, UCLA has received 24 commitments followed by Texas A&M (22), Arkansas (20), Mississippi (20) and Notre Dame, Texas, Oklahoma State, Utah and BYU, all with 19.
The verbal commitments, of course, are just that: verbal and non-binding.
The only thing that ultimately matters is that players sign on the dotted line and send the letter of intent to respective schools on Feb. 6 of 2008.
"Just because rivals.com reports that someone has orally committed to the University of Missouri that doesn't mean Kansas is going to stop recruiting him," said Jamie DeMoney, publisher of PrepNation.com and national scouting analyst for Forbes Recruiting Evaluation. "The verbal means nothing at all."
Said Lemming, considered the first college football recruiting expert not coaching (he started in 1979): "Now if you get a verbal, that just means you're in the lead. The bulls-eye is on your back and you're the team to beat (for that player)."
According to Lemming, the trend to recruit juniors began in the early 90s by Penn State. Evidently one season the Nitany Lions lost 10 strong Pennsylvania high school blue chippers to more aggressive recruiters. The following year, they started going after underclassmen.
"Gradually most of the schools began to do it," Lemming said. "Now it's to the point everyone has to do it or they get left well behind."
But much can, and usually does, happen between the verbal and signing date. Namely, there's a free-for-all of de-commitments.
Not coincidently de-commits have grown proportionally to early decisions.
Lemming estimates that close to 50 percent of the early verbals from the class of 2007 didn't fulfill their original commitments.
"It just shows that you have professional recruiters who are dealing with impressionable 17-year-old kids," Lemming said.
A WHOLE NEW EXPERIENCE
NCAA rules prohibit coaches from making contact with players at their schools or home before they are seniors. Recruiters get around that by inviting players to camps on campus - a growing trend - or unofficial (unpaid) visits.
They were allowed to text message recruits, but that was just outlawed last month.
Crist took advantage of all avenues - he took unofficial visits to more than eight schools - before making what he called an "informed decision."
He conceded coaches have the upper hand on players: "(Coaches) understand the (recruiting) process. They do it every year. For me and the other juniors and seniors it's a whole new experience."
But by no means did he feel taken advantage of.
Crist said he placed the pressure on himself to commit early and the hardest part was not in picking where he was going, but who he was leaving behind.
"Recruiting is about building relationships," "Crist said. "It honestly feels like these coaches are your best friends. It's tough to say no to your best friend."
Northwestern-Miami's (Fla.) Marcus Forston said he wasn't looking to make friends during his recruiting process.
The 6-2, 305-pound defensive tackle, on everyone's top 50 recruit list, stayed home and verbally committed to Miami University in July over every major college in the country, including Florida and Florida State.
"It's a little crazy hearing from so many schools and coaches," Forston said. "But I didn't feel pressure. I knew where I wanted to go. I decided, why wait? It was all business to me."
It helped to have two older brothers go through the recruiting process and play college football. "That made it a lot easier I think," Forston said.
Drew McAllister didn't have that luxury.
In fact, most thought a family tie would lead the Monte Vista-Danville (Calif.) senior right to the doorstep of Cal, where his father played college football.
Instead, USC brought in the highly-touted quarterback to a pair of summer camps and lured him away from his Northern California roots.
McAllister was moved by a no-contact, no-pad scrimmage, where the school band showed up, the incoming players held hands and the staff previewed what it would be like to play at Notre Dame.
Even though USC sees him as a strong safety, McAllister shocked most, even dad, and committed to the Trojans.
"I want to make my own mark," McAllister said.
Monte Vista coach Craig Bergman, a former college quarterback and assistant coach at San Jose State, said firming up a player's security is fantastic. But he sees some definite drawbacks.
"It's a double-edged sword," Bergman said. "For Drew it was great. I know no matter what he'll go out and perform even with a scholarship locked up. But there's a lot of good players who are going to be overlooked because there's now so few scholarships available. It's like their senior season doesn't matter."
Said DeMoney: "The earlier the recruiting process starts and ends the less informed all parties are. The less informed recruiters extends an offer to players who haven't developed as high school players and it leads to some bad decisions."
FEEDING FRENZY
Some of those poor choices are fueled by the feeding frenzy of recruiting news in the media, particularly Internet sites.
Indeed the sites have increased the interest in the high school and college football, but also added mountains of pressure on both coach and athlete.
"The NFL has the draft as its second season," DeMoney said. "It keeps their fans intrigued and alive. For college football fans it's this recruiting rush. It's their second season.
"Twenty years ago, recruiting stories were a novelty at best. Once or twice a year you'd see them in newspapers. Now some websites write 20 to 30 stories a week. And with each story the reporter wants to get a quote from a kid, who feels the pressure to say something new."
Said Lemming: "At first it's probably exciting (for recruits) to get the calls (from reporters). Then they might get 30 a day. After a while it becomes a hassle more than an honor. By the end of the summer or spring players get flustered and sick of it all."
DeMoney doesn't necessarily blame reporters nor does he see it as a complete negative.
"The fans are as much to blame as anyone," he said. "They drive and demand the coverage. It definitely adds pressure on these kids, but I'm not going to say it ruins them. It's a preview of what they have to face when they play college sports and beyond."
What clearly seems on the horizon is an early signing period, much like basketball and other sports.
Bergman said the college coaches he talks to seem to be split on such an idea.
LSU coach Les Miles told Ben Cook of Al.com that he favors an early signing period.
"If the student athlete wants to sign early, they can get this out of the way, then in my opinion that should happen because it saves wear and tear on the assistants," Miles said. "Certainly the student athlete would like to know that his scholarship is put away. You can then turn your attention to the recruiting position that you need. It just makes sense."
Not so, says Arkansas coach Houston Nutt.
"The only thing about an early signing date is that it draws everything out. It just extends recruiting," he told the website. "After recruiting, after signing day, the regular coaches who hadn't had their skull opened with brain surgery, they're exhausted. I'm exhausted."
Said Florida coach Urban Meyer: "We encourage them not to commit early. We do not back a kid in a corner and say, `I need to know right now because if you don't have it at 2 p.m. tomorrow, we're going to give it to someone else. That's not right. I'd rather go have dinner with their family, my family, and talk about this. I want to make sure they understand that Florida is legit."
Bergman is emphatically against an early signing date, citing the demise of USA basketball coinciding with the early signing period in that sport.
"As far as recruiting, the high school (basketball) season meant nothing," he said. "All the emphasis went to the AAU season, which is all about individual play and no fundamentals. Since that time USA basketball has dropped considerably. I'm afraid the same thing will happen in football."
Lemming isn't so sure about that, but he believes there's really only one solution.
"It would be near impossible for the NCAA to enforce, but I don't think college coaches should be able to offer scholarships until after a high school kid's senior season," Lemming said.
De La Salle-Concord (Calif.) defensive coordinator Terry Eidson couldn't agree more.
The defensive mastermind of one of high school football's premier programs said offering scholarships to juniors is challenging to the offeree and the high school coach.
"Unless the athlete has the grades to qualify for the college academically, then you shouldn't be able to offer him a scholarship," Eidson said. "You have players who are offered scholarships and they think, `Oh, I'm in.'
"They don't read the small print that says that you still have to qualify academically. As educators, how does that help us?"
Ultimately, Valley Christian-San Jose (Calif.) coach Mike Machado believes the onus is on the players.
A decision is a decision.
"We tell our guys don't make a verbal commitment unless you are absolutely sure," said Machado, whose team won four straight Central Coast Section titles before last season. "If you make that decision then you're expected to stick to it."
Colleges go after high school juniors to get early commitment.
By Mitch Stephens
MaxPreps.com
By all accounts, Notre Dame-Sherman Oaks (Calif.) senior Dayne Crist is a jewel of a football player and even a better young man.
The mobile and strong-armed 6-foot-5, 228-pound quarterback is funny, bright and engaging. He's personable, balanced and poised, a perfect leader for one of the country's top teams, especially when the pressure mounts and all goes awry.
Crist was left scrambling, however, from a recruiting onslaught and media blitz following a stellar junior season.
Considered one of the nation's elite quarterbacks and top 25 recruits overall, colleges bombarded Crist with letters (hundreds), scholarship offers (14 in the first month) and text messages, topped off with 36 in one day from 21 different schools.
"And I hadn't responded to one of them," he said.
He did take incessant calls from determined Internet reporters who tried to get the scoop on the prized package who boasts all the essential numbers: 1,710 SAT, 3.6 GPA, 4.66 40-yard dash, 265 bench press, 415-pound squat and a 31-inch vertical jump.
"It (the recruiting process) hit fast and was definitely stressful," Crist said. "At times it could be very overwhelming."
Crist's parents, quite balanced themselves and connected to all aspects of their eldest son's life, at times felt helpless.
"Like Dayne we were new to all of this," Crist's mom Karen said. "We weren't really prepared. It wasn't like there's a book out there, `Recruiting for Dummies.'
"So much was happening without us even being in the mix. It was like, `hey, wait a minute.'
"I mean Dayne is a very mature young man, even at 17. He can handle a lot. But he felt so much pressure. He was trying to prioritize his decision and take SAT exams and be a kid all at the same time.
"It was very emotional. He told us at times he was melting. We just tried to ease his tension and remind him to take a step back."
Crist eventually avoided the rush, stepped out of the pocket and on April 20, roughly 10 months from the official National Letter of Intent signing period, verbally committed to Notre Dame.
He picked the Irish over a Who's Who of national powers including USC, Florida State, Oregon, Michigan and Nebraska to name a few.
"I was just filled with so much joy and relief when I made my pick," Crist said. "I was able to just focus on my off- and senior season. I felt very refreshed."
OUT OF WHACK
Heading into his season opener Friday against defending California State Division I champion Canyon-Canyon Country, Crist maintains that despite the sleepless spring nights - and the Irish's lackluster opening day home loss to Georgia Tech - he absolutely made the right decision.
More so, he was never pressured by any college coaches, least of all at Notre Dame.
Still, something seems out of whack.
Crist is simply an example of a growing trend where high school football players commit earlier and earlier to college programs.
Of the top 100 players from CSTV recruiting expert Tom Lemmings' 2008 list, 66 have already committed.
Other recruiting sites, rivals.com (65) and superprep.com (63) also show well more than 50 percent of its top 100 players orally committed.
Thirty percent of the country's high school teams have yet to play a game yet according to SuperPreps, UCLA has received 24 commitments followed by Texas A&M (22), Arkansas (20), Mississippi (20) and Notre Dame, Texas, Oklahoma State, Utah and BYU, all with 19.
The verbal commitments, of course, are just that: verbal and non-binding.
The only thing that ultimately matters is that players sign on the dotted line and send the letter of intent to respective schools on Feb. 6 of 2008.
"Just because rivals.com reports that someone has orally committed to the University of Missouri that doesn't mean Kansas is going to stop recruiting him," said Jamie DeMoney, publisher of PrepNation.com and national scouting analyst for Forbes Recruiting Evaluation. "The verbal means nothing at all."
Said Lemming, considered the first college football recruiting expert not coaching (he started in 1979): "Now if you get a verbal, that just means you're in the lead. The bulls-eye is on your back and you're the team to beat (for that player)."
According to Lemming, the trend to recruit juniors began in the early 90s by Penn State. Evidently one season the Nitany Lions lost 10 strong Pennsylvania high school blue chippers to more aggressive recruiters. The following year, they started going after underclassmen.
"Gradually most of the schools began to do it," Lemming said. "Now it's to the point everyone has to do it or they get left well behind."
But much can, and usually does, happen between the verbal and signing date. Namely, there's a free-for-all of de-commitments.
Not coincidently de-commits have grown proportionally to early decisions.
Lemming estimates that close to 50 percent of the early verbals from the class of 2007 didn't fulfill their original commitments.
"It just shows that you have professional recruiters who are dealing with impressionable 17-year-old kids," Lemming said.
A WHOLE NEW EXPERIENCE
NCAA rules prohibit coaches from making contact with players at their schools or home before they are seniors. Recruiters get around that by inviting players to camps on campus - a growing trend - or unofficial (unpaid) visits.
They were allowed to text message recruits, but that was just outlawed last month.
Crist took advantage of all avenues - he took unofficial visits to more than eight schools - before making what he called an "informed decision."
He conceded coaches have the upper hand on players: "(Coaches) understand the (recruiting) process. They do it every year. For me and the other juniors and seniors it's a whole new experience."
But by no means did he feel taken advantage of.
Crist said he placed the pressure on himself to commit early and the hardest part was not in picking where he was going, but who he was leaving behind.
"Recruiting is about building relationships," "Crist said. "It honestly feels like these coaches are your best friends. It's tough to say no to your best friend."
Northwestern-Miami's (Fla.) Marcus Forston said he wasn't looking to make friends during his recruiting process.
The 6-2, 305-pound defensive tackle, on everyone's top 50 recruit list, stayed home and verbally committed to Miami University in July over every major college in the country, including Florida and Florida State.
"It's a little crazy hearing from so many schools and coaches," Forston said. "But I didn't feel pressure. I knew where I wanted to go. I decided, why wait? It was all business to me."
It helped to have two older brothers go through the recruiting process and play college football. "That made it a lot easier I think," Forston said.
Drew McAllister didn't have that luxury.
In fact, most thought a family tie would lead the Monte Vista-Danville (Calif.) senior right to the doorstep of Cal, where his father played college football.
Instead, USC brought in the highly-touted quarterback to a pair of summer camps and lured him away from his Northern California roots.
McAllister was moved by a no-contact, no-pad scrimmage, where the school band showed up, the incoming players held hands and the staff previewed what it would be like to play at Notre Dame.
Even though USC sees him as a strong safety, McAllister shocked most, even dad, and committed to the Trojans.
"I want to make my own mark," McAllister said.
Monte Vista coach Craig Bergman, a former college quarterback and assistant coach at San Jose State, said firming up a player's security is fantastic. But he sees some definite drawbacks.
"It's a double-edged sword," Bergman said. "For Drew it was great. I know no matter what he'll go out and perform even with a scholarship locked up. But there's a lot of good players who are going to be overlooked because there's now so few scholarships available. It's like their senior season doesn't matter."
Said DeMoney: "The earlier the recruiting process starts and ends the less informed all parties are. The less informed recruiters extends an offer to players who haven't developed as high school players and it leads to some bad decisions."
FEEDING FRENZY
Some of those poor choices are fueled by the feeding frenzy of recruiting news in the media, particularly Internet sites.
Indeed the sites have increased the interest in the high school and college football, but also added mountains of pressure on both coach and athlete.
"The NFL has the draft as its second season," DeMoney said. "It keeps their fans intrigued and alive. For college football fans it's this recruiting rush. It's their second season.
"Twenty years ago, recruiting stories were a novelty at best. Once or twice a year you'd see them in newspapers. Now some websites write 20 to 30 stories a week. And with each story the reporter wants to get a quote from a kid, who feels the pressure to say something new."
Said Lemming: "At first it's probably exciting (for recruits) to get the calls (from reporters). Then they might get 30 a day. After a while it becomes a hassle more than an honor. By the end of the summer or spring players get flustered and sick of it all."
DeMoney doesn't necessarily blame reporters nor does he see it as a complete negative.
"The fans are as much to blame as anyone," he said. "They drive and demand the coverage. It definitely adds pressure on these kids, but I'm not going to say it ruins them. It's a preview of what they have to face when they play college sports and beyond."
What clearly seems on the horizon is an early signing period, much like basketball and other sports.
Bergman said the college coaches he talks to seem to be split on such an idea.
LSU coach Les Miles told Ben Cook of Al.com that he favors an early signing period.
"If the student athlete wants to sign early, they can get this out of the way, then in my opinion that should happen because it saves wear and tear on the assistants," Miles said. "Certainly the student athlete would like to know that his scholarship is put away. You can then turn your attention to the recruiting position that you need. It just makes sense."
Not so, says Arkansas coach Houston Nutt.
"The only thing about an early signing date is that it draws everything out. It just extends recruiting," he told the website. "After recruiting, after signing day, the regular coaches who hadn't had their skull opened with brain surgery, they're exhausted. I'm exhausted."
Said Florida coach Urban Meyer: "We encourage them not to commit early. We do not back a kid in a corner and say, `I need to know right now because if you don't have it at 2 p.m. tomorrow, we're going to give it to someone else. That's not right. I'd rather go have dinner with their family, my family, and talk about this. I want to make sure they understand that Florida is legit."
Bergman is emphatically against an early signing date, citing the demise of USA basketball coinciding with the early signing period in that sport.
"As far as recruiting, the high school (basketball) season meant nothing," he said. "All the emphasis went to the AAU season, which is all about individual play and no fundamentals. Since that time USA basketball has dropped considerably. I'm afraid the same thing will happen in football."
Lemming isn't so sure about that, but he believes there's really only one solution.
"It would be near impossible for the NCAA to enforce, but I don't think college coaches should be able to offer scholarships until after a high school kid's senior season," Lemming said.
De La Salle-Concord (Calif.) defensive coordinator Terry Eidson couldn't agree more.
The defensive mastermind of one of high school football's premier programs said offering scholarships to juniors is challenging to the offeree and the high school coach.
"Unless the athlete has the grades to qualify for the college academically, then you shouldn't be able to offer him a scholarship," Eidson said. "You have players who are offered scholarships and they think, `Oh, I'm in.'
"They don't read the small print that says that you still have to qualify academically. As educators, how does that help us?"
Ultimately, Valley Christian-San Jose (Calif.) coach Mike Machado believes the onus is on the players.
A decision is a decision.
"We tell our guys don't make a verbal commitment unless you are absolutely sure," said Machado, whose team won four straight Central Coast Section titles before last season. "If you make that decision then you're expected to stick to it."