Late switches become common

[Eric the Red]

Late switches become common

 

John Niyo / The Detroit News

 

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Dale G. Young/The Detroit News

 

Mark Dantonio replaced John L. Smith at Michigan State, an example of the coaching musical chairs that has affected the recruiting process. See full image

 

ANN ARBOR -- Understand this: Lloyd Carr isn't simply being coy. He's being careful.

 

And if you're looking for an answer to the question everyone's asking -- the one about whether next season will be his last as Michigan's coach -- you're probably missing the point. These days, you can never be too careful.

 

Never was that more obvious than Wednesday, college football's insipid holiday we've come to know as Signing Day. It's the day everyone involved in this high-stakes game finally is forced to show his cards, and we find out how many players -- and coaches -- were bluffing.

 

By the time the fax machines had finished spitting out national letters-of-intent, it was clear more than a few were playing liar's poker. The college football landscape was littered with empty promises, spurned suitors and a call for reform that sounded a lot like a call to arms.

 

"I know the breach of ethics we're talking about, but I don't want to be blaming the other coaches for going after a top-line player," said Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, who lost two of his top recruits -- players who'd made verbal commitments to the Irish -- at the 11th hour Wednesday. "What I'm doing then is I'm making excuses -- I'm saying, I lost a kid because that coach is sleazy.

 

"The bottom line is, today is signing day, you sign your letter, you fax it in. Today is the day when the commitment becomes a commitment. Today they got married, OK? Obviously, some people get cold feet."

 

Actually, a lot of them did this winter, and you can't just blame the frigid weather.

 

Some want to blame Florida's Urban Meyer, who's catching flak for cherry-picking a handful of blue-chip recruits who had committed to other schools.

 

Others, including former Michigan State coach John L. Smith, are suggesting there's something rotten in Champaign, where Ron Zook's impressive haul at Illinois raised eyebrows.

 

"Where there's smoke," Smith told the New York Times, "there's probably fire."

 

Recruiting analyst Tom Lemming, who has spent a quarter-century reading the smoke signals, sounded an alarm, too.

 

"I've never seen so many kids de-commit as we did this year," he said Tuesday night. "I think part of the reason is, everybody has worked these kids into such a lather that they think if they haven't committed by April of their junior year they're in big trouble. So they commit early and then the Internet sites and the coaches continue to pound away at them. A lot of them are just looking for a way out."

 

Coaching scramble

 

An offseason that featured two dozen coaching changes in Division I-A -- and countless more assistants changing addresses -- offered a ready-made out for many of those recruits.

 

"The kids, they're seeing these coaches salivating over money and they're thinking, 'Well, why shouldn't I be fickle about what school I'm going to?' " Lemming said. "Why should they be held to a higher standard than guys who are more than twice their age?"

 

Especially when they're acting like toddlers, in many cases.

 

Weis, in fact, was asked Wednesday to defend the actions of one of his former assistants, Peter Vaas, whom he fired last month. A story in Wednesday's Washington Post detailed some of the negative recruiting tactics Vaas used with highly-touted receiver Arrelious Benn after he'd committed to Zook and the Illini in November.

 

"These are grown men," Benn told the Post. "Why can't they live with the decision I made?"

 

Detroit Renaissance safety Derek Knight was left wondering the same thing in December. He committed to West Virginia last fall, but endured weeks of rumors and phone messages when Rich Rodriguez, the Mountaineers' coach, appeared to be headed to Alabama. Rodriguez ended up staying, but one of his assistants, Butch Jones, took the head-coaching post at Central Michigan.

 

"Even though they're making a lot of money, they're making life decisions, too," Knight said. "Like when Coach Jones left -- and he was one of the reasons I decided to go to West Virginia -- I understood that.

 

"My advice to recruits, when they're talking to these coaches, is you have to understand anything can happen. And you've got to keep your options open."

 

Perhaps that's the lesson to be learned here, amid the flurry of text messages.

 

"I simply tell every guy that commits to us, 'Don't tell us you're coming unless you're sure,' " said Carr, who also lost a blue-chip commitment to Florida in safety Jeremy Finch. "Because when you change your mind, you're going to take some criticism."

 

So, Coach, are you planning to retire soon?

 

"I really don't have anything to say about that," Carr said, smiling.

 

Smart kid. He's keeping his options open.

 

You can reach John Niyo at john.niyo@detnews.com.

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

Dan McCarney was on 1620 Tuesday and he said it is very frustrating to a coach to lose a commit from a recruit so close to signing day. All of the "back up plans" likely had already committed elsewhere.

[Eric the Red]

Will the NCAA need to make changes....Either no commits until December or commit as early as August

[DJR313]

Will the NCAA need to make changes....Either no commits until December or commit as early as August

 

You mean an early signing date like there is for basketball? I think that might help, but who knows, it might just make things worse.

[gamecocks]

The early signing period might hurt us more, as we won't know if some of these guys can get fully qualified or not.

[Eric the Red]

The early signing period might hurt us more, as we won't know if some of these guys can get fully qualified or not.

 

 

That would be every team though. We need to get guys on visits during the season, to a home game. That "gameday excitement" wears off after time.

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

The early signing period might hurt us more, as we won't know if some of these guys can get fully qualified or not.

 

 

That would be every team though. We need to get guys on visits during the season, to a home game. That "gameday excitement" wears off after time.

I agree with that side of the coin.

 

One other result of adding an early signing period might be many of the top Juniors being allowed to make official visits early.