Just got this email and admittedly, I haven't researched it so TIFWIW. Just thought it was appropriate given recent events.
For many kids around the area, National Signing Day is the happiest day of their young lives. But there's a different, more ruthless side to the recruiting trail that most high school and college football fans never see.
SportsDayHS's Mark Dent wrote about the role that high school coaches can play in guiding the recruitment of their players, and how quickly relationships can sour between coach and college when major programs don't live up to their word. Here's an excerpt:
In the spring of 2006, Richardson Berkner's Justin Johnson had his scholarship pulled from Baylor coach Guy Morriss not long before signing day, infuriating Berkner coach Jim Ledford.
"Don't say you're going to make a commitment to a kid and a kid is coming and you jerk it out from under him," Ledford said. "That's the piece that was wrong. They make one and you jerk it out."
Ledford said he still doesn't let Morriss, now at Texas A&M Commerce, on his campus. If a player inquires about certain programs, Ledford will tell him his opinion. He named Alabama coach Nick Saban, Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino, Ed Orgeron and USC coach Lane Kiffin as those he would never recommend, identifying them as coaches who have spurned players through oversigning, lying or removing a player for unjust reasons.
"I guarantee every coach around here knows who those guys are," Ledford said. "There's no question about it because we all talk about it. When we go to regional meetings or coaches' association meetings, that's a topic of discussion."
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