Chris Hays of the Orlando Sentinel wrote a nice column on the recruiting process, and how it continues to accelerate which each passing year. So much so that Tyreke Johnson, an eight-grader at Trinity Christian Academy, and the younger brother of First Coast star QB De'Andre Johnson (a 2015 commitment to Florida State), wonders aloud why the Seminoles haven't extended an offer yet.
Is that where we're at these days? A kid, who isn't even in high school, is complaining about the offers he hasn't received yet?
By all accounts, the younger Johnson has the makings of an excellent football player. Standing at 6-foot-1 and 170 pounds, he already has the projectable frame of a prospect heading into his junior year of high school. Johnson recorded 11 tackles and an interception on a 9-2 squad loaded with BCS-caliber skill talent. There's no doubt he has the makings of a major prospect a few years down the line.
This isn't the first time Hays has touched on the topic, either. He previously wrote about the Johnson family in the spring as well. Older brother De'Andre committed to Florida State in the summer of 2012 – the summer before his sophomore year of high school.
There's nothing wrong with pushing kids to succeed, and wanting them to earn a scholarship to play on the next level. Especially if they are blessed with the talent both of the Johnson brothers have displayed at a precocious age. But when is it too much. When is a parent crossing the line and putting too much focus on the future when these kids should still be enjoying childhood?
I've paid close attention to recruiting coverage for about 10 years now. It used to be that recruiting coverage would really ramp up on a senior class of prospects the summer before their senior year. There was a period of several months between National Signing Day and spring ball where the coverage was fairly sparse – limited mostly to camps, combines and such. Now, we already have rankings of the top juniors in the country.
Likewise, with each passing year, the process gets moved up more and more. 10 years ago, Texas began the trend of landing early commitments in the months immediately proceeding National Signing Day. Yes, there was a time when Mack Brown was ahead of the curve, folks. This was before he started offering guys like Robert Griffin III and Johnny Manziel the opportunity to play safety in Austin, of course.
40 years ago, boosters essentially helped coaches recruit players. Today, it's a big business all to itself. Recruiting services, video services and media coverage allow coaches to scout and assemble their squads from the comfort of their offices. As Nick Saban has showed, even the use of Skype allows a coach to make and keep contact with top recruits from the confines of their respective campuses.
But how do we slow down this rolling freight train? Verbal commitments are non-binding, and it's not like the NCAA can prevent them from happening. If a talented eighth-grader – say Louisiana phenom Dylan Moses, for example – wants to make trips on his own dime, what's to stop him from doing that? And if the talent is so inherently clear at that age, what's to stop colleges from extending interest and/or verbal offers to 13, 14 and 15-year old prospects? I agree with the sentiment, I'm just not sure how to stop it.
College football recruiting has always been a dirty business, although not as much so as college basketball recruiting has become in recent years. But with the introduction and growing popularity of 7-on-7 tournaments (football's equivalent of the AAU circuit), elite prospect camps like "The Opening" (Nike's answer on the football side to the shoe company summer basketball camps that became popularized in the late 1990's) and now the pursuit of prospects at the middle school level (which has happened in college basketball for years now), it's hard not to see that football is on the same path as basketball, if it isn't there outright already.
So, how do we fix football recruiting? To be honest, I'm not really sure. The debate brings up more questions than answers. Honestly, it seems like trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube at this point. But I hope that isn't the case. I really hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment