Remember this? Wonder what Jeffrey will write when Kee-Kee-Dee announces to Bama?
Auburn should rescind offer to troubled lineman Dee Liner
Published: Thursday, August 23, 2012, 7:24 AM Updated: Thursday, August 23, 2012, 7:41 AM
Jeff Sentell -- The Birmingham News
Dee Liner is the best lineman in Alabama this year. He's committed to Auburn and sought after by every school in the country.
He's almost 6-foot-3 and 277 pounds. The Muscle Shoals senior is the right kind of nasty and he's blessed with a rare explosion off the ball.
But Liner is currently not practicing football. He walked off the practice field last Thursday and had yet to rejoin his team as of Wednesday's practice.
As far as the world knows, he still has a scholarship offer to play at Auburn.
Muscle Shoals coach Scott Basden told the Florence Times Daily last week that Liner was suspended indefinitely but would not go into detail beyond a comment: "We are more concerned with helping Dee Liner as a person than (as) a football player."
Liner is simply a 5-star student right now. He's akin to a tennis, soccer or musical prodigy who found a scholarship path outside of a transcript. There's nothing implied to his offer that says he must represent a high school team in any way.
That was just always implicit with no alternate proving ground to show one's worth than on Friday night.
In all honesty, Liner doesn't need his high school coach or Trojan teammates. He's gotten his. Maybe he's come to the realization he doesn't need to play at all. He really doesn't if his future college choice will still welcome him to campus with open arms.
That's the first of many reasons why Auburn should rescind its scholarship offer and wish him the best.
Huh? Was that written by someone who snaked a few fingers around the buckles of a strait jacket?
If Liner is released from a nonbinding spoken pledge to attend Auburn, of course another BCS program would take his commitment in the time it takes to say "second chance."
Liner is that talented a chip in the business of college football. Defensive linemen of his stock are what separate the SEC from the rest of the Top 25. There just comes a point where it has to be about more than ability.
Liner has not had a summer to be proud of. The Florence Times Daily reported he was arrested for two misdemeanors. The first was for verbally confronting a police officer during a traffic stop on July 1. The second was for trespassing in a Sheffield city pool during the early morning on July 10.
The popular notion was that Liner got arrested in the community he moved away from to go to school and play for Muscle Shoals. There are some gray areas to those stories.
Count me among a long line of boys guilty of sneaking into a closed swimming pool growing up.
That said, if you combine those run-ins with the practice walkout it is not so easily rationalized as boys being boys.
His Twitter timeline after last week's events shows he has some growing up to do.
What is most troubling about the story is the lack of commitment to his former team.
Do you want a kid who decided it was not important to represent his community on campus? Muscle Shoals was even rated No. 2 in 5A in the Alabama Sports Writers Association's preseason poll.
If Liner loves football, how can he just walk out on his team? What happened to being a part of something greater than one's self? That line belongs on a Hallmark card when it comes to the talent race, right? It is still fundamental to the team chemistry that breeds championship football.
Every day that goes by that Liner does not practice for his high school and still has a scholarship offer at Auburn sends a pointed message. It strips authority from Basden and every peer who will coach an elite prospect.
If Liner could walk away from his team and go straight to the SEC upon graduation, the next Dee Liner could legitimately ask why play high school ball once I'm committed to my dream school?
The notion to drop Liner came from a respected area coach. It made immediate sense. But this coach was worried about implications on his program if he spoke out negatively against Auburn.
If Gene Chizik and his staff released this trophy back into the ocean, a rival could snatch him up and put him on the field against Auburn. Liner could take over that game.
Is taking that short-term loss worth a long-term gain with every high school coach in America who sees Auburn showing it cares more about the roots of the game than a Redwood sprouting up out of the Quad Cities?
Liner is a rare talent, but there will be other elite defensive linemen to recruit.
That's the point. The high school-to-college football path needs to be redefined before everything starts to look like AAU basketball or travel softball.
As it stands, football was probably the lone remaining sport where no club or travel team developed the necessary skills to attract scholarship attention.
Is that changing? This could be the start or the end of it.
Until that day comes, all those who favor college programs waiting until the start of a prospect's senior year to even accept an oral commitment have a little more validation for that case
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