http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/mike-weber-s-hs-coach-sa...
"Weber, an RB from Michigan, signed with the defending national champions on National Signing Day on Wednesday. The next day, the Chicago Bears announced that Ohio State RB coach Stan Drayton would become the team's RB coach. Drayton had been with the Buckeyes for four seasons."
This is why I think playera should get one free move if their HC or DC/OC leave and recruits should be allowed to rescind their LOI if their HC/OC/DC or position coach leave before they get on campus.
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It's a tough call because a kid shouldn't get attached to any single individual in a program in case of change, and should be choosing based on wanting to attend the school and play for the football team. However, everyone knows that recruits want to play for specific people. Lawson switched to VT because he wants to play for Lefty, case in point.
I like the idea of giving kids an out but I'm not sure it's great for the sport. I guess it depends on where you draw the line and whether things were intentionally misleading, which means investigations. And we all know how well the NCAA does with investigations. So say Weber files a complaint and wants an out, but OSU says no and they didn't do anything wrong. The NCAA takes their standard snails pace at investigation, what happens to Weber in meantime? Does he attend OSU first waiting for his out? Does he have to sit out a year (or more) until the crack investigation team gets done? What if after waiting for the investigation to be complete it's found there was nothing wrong, does he then attend OSU?
I can understand why LOI's are hard commits, but I also agree that this is shady as hell. Glad we did it the right way with AMO leaving.
I think it's a blanket rule. If your coach leaves between day after signing day to start of summer classes you as a recruit can try and find another school to take you. In this case clearly the intent was to make sure the coach stayed through signing day.
But then wouldn't they just wait until after the limit stated on the blanket rule? If you say a day, they wait 2. If you say a week, they wait 8 days.
At a certain point a coach can't wait that long to leave for new team.
+1 I'm not really disagreeing with you. I just think that unscrupulous people will always find a way to get what they want "within the rules".
Dumb question but if he hasn't enrolled can he sit out a year and go somewhere else? Does THE Ohio State need to approve the transfer?
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but can't tOSU release him from his LOI if they want to and he can once again be free to sign anywhere?
They can, but the key is, if they want to. OSU holds the power in this situation. If Michael Weber decides that he no longer wants to attend OSU, then OSU should do the right thing and let him go. In other words, if someone doesn't want to be there, then they shouldn't want him there either.
His only way out is to not qualify. If you recall Tyronne Robertson simply dropped out and retook his senior year elsewhere in order to void his VT LOI in 1996.
Sounds as Ohio state & Meyer are burning some bridges with this high school and their coach and this could have been handled better. Future actions like this could bite Meyer in the butt with some future recruits.( Hopefully)
I don't wish the situation on anyone but wish Meyer had burned this particular bridge with a VA school.
His coach is pissed for sure and it will hurt OSU's ability to recruit Cass but it is not like this is particularly unusual in the game today. There were several coaching changes announced after LOI signing.
We don't know what was promised or if Weber asked direct questions and was lied to. The important thing will be for Meyer to address the issue with Weber and the Cass coach.
Incidentally, OSU signed a second player at Cass this year.
I agree that if your position coach leaves after a given amount of time after NSD, you should get a release. The relationship with the coaches is huge for these kids. They are going to spend (ideally) the next 4-5 years seeing this guy almost every day. The kid should get to choose who he wants to play for and in this case, Weber doesn't get to.
This is a couple times we've heard a situation like this since signing day. UCLA's d-coordinator left and the news hit on signing day. Florida's d-line coach lef after signing day.
Yeah and you can be sure the NCAA will be all over this since they're all about protecting the kids interests /s
As an OSU fan, let me give you my (somewhat biased) opinion, based on absolutely no knowledge of what happened and when but from reading many angst ridden 11W posts, beyond Coach Drayton leaving after NSD:
1: Weber was apparently upset based on his tweet; understandably so. Things have appeared to calmed down, especially with the hiring of Alford. His mom, based on her posts, seems to be pissed at TTUN vice OSU. In either case, no one but them knows their real feelings and desires.
2. It's hard to say who knew what about Drayton's departure when. I would be surprised in UM didn't know he may leave, given the importance of relationships in the small fraternity of coaches. It may not have been a done deal until right before he decided to leave so revealing it would not only hurt recruiting but also Drayton's shot at the job.
3. I would hope no promises were made about him being around if he was considering leaving. I can see not telling people about a potential move but deliberately misleading someone would be wrong.
4. If Weber wants to leave I would hope OSU gives him an unconditional release. It would be the right thing to do.
5. In the end, I suspect it was much ado about nothing.
I'm not sure about voiding NLOI, at least at the OC/DC level. Coaches leave all the time and the mess it would create with recruiting would, IMHO, outweigh any benefits. Plus, if a coach left it would result in recruits being pressured to "reconsider the LOI" by schools since a window of opportunity would arise to flip a kid.
HEY! We don't go on 11w and post articulate responses with reasonable, logical and conscientious statements taking all points of view into consideration with a fair bit of factual research mixed in to make sure we have credibility with our sound judgement. Do we? No, we don't.
jk. agree with all of this. It's much more complicated than simply giving a blanket out, however I do seriously doubt the Meyer did not know. But I agree that giving outs on LOI's opens a can of worms that is more trouble than it's worth.
Really love the OSU fans that have made the journey over to TKP. Class act the lot of you. I'll be the first to give my condolences after you lose again next year.
Logic and reason? On an internet sports message board? Surely you jest.
Yea, I would assume Meyer knew Drayton was in talks with the Bears for a while as it would be the right thing to do from a personal and professional standpoint.
I've enjoyed KP and periodically check to see what you all are saying about the Buckeyes; typically when something make step news like our QB controversy.
While I will accept condolences I rather suspect I will be the one offering them; although I would never count Beamer out and you should be healthy at the start unlike what happened during the season.
I believe this is another case that shows how messed up the process of signing day is. It's been said on here before that high school players should be able to sign a letter of intent whenever they choose after receiving an offer their senior year up until a said date. This would allow recruits who know where they want to go to get it over with, and it would stop a lot of the hocus pocus with colleges issuing "non-binding" commitments, pulling commitments at the eleventh hour, and hiding coaching changes from players for fear of decommitments. I think it would bring a whole lot of transparency into what is at best a vaguely iffy process.
I concur. It would also mean coaches, as you point out, would have to be more careful with offers since acceptance would obligate them to a recruit and take up a slot; so there'd be much less ability to hedge a bet while waiting on a more desirable recruit to sign on. It would also take a lot of pressure of a recruit on they sign but the pre-signing pressure may increase to do the deal now.
Personally, I'd let them sign anytime in their senior year and do away with LOI signing day. Schools could still make offers that are time limited or contingent, i.e. if yo sign first you're in if not the other guy is but at least they'd know where they stand.
Semi related but Miami's wr coach just left for the nfl. Wonder if that would have changed much a month ago with cager
This had been rumored for a while now. I would have to assume someone mentioned it to him. Basically, all of his top schools ran out of room and AMO was pretty much the only reason he was going to come here, so he just kind of fell into Miami's lap.
http://m.espn.go.com/ncf/story?storyId=12308125&src=desktop
Article talks about what one recruit is doing with his scholarship after a coach left the school he wanted to attend. Also talks about several players whose cpeaches left.
But shouldn't recruits and parents know by now that coaches change every season? and that the people you're speaking to now could very easily be gone tomorrow? I mean, this is not a new phenomenon. Don't get me wrong, stories about recruiting duplicity by coaches make me angry and I think there should be some recourse for those that are truly duped, but I think that recruits getting personally attached to coaches is the wrong way to go.
Personally, I think recruiting should be completely changed. That coaches/programs should not be allowed to contact any recruit before their junior year. No contact, no offer at all, except for a letter of interest during the recruits sophomore year. That letter should include a packet on both the school and the football program. recruits can send video to schools though and express their interest in the program.
Then in Junior year coaches should be able to visit and meet kids a handful of times for evaluation. Junior days on campus, visits to the recruit at school and in home. This should be structured and limited.
Then Senior year a recruit can commit and sigh their letter at any time following Sept 1. However, that LOI is damn near unbreakable. You sign because you are committed to both school and program, no matter coaches change or not. And on the other side a school MUST honor an offer and commitment. Once a recruit wants to commit they should call the coach and commit on the phone, while at same time accessing an electronic link on university website to sign the letter digitally in real time. As soon as a recruit calls to commit the coach must decide then and there to accept him, no matter what. No gray area. Either they accept him, they pull the offer or they tell the recruit they can't accept now because they are waiting for other recruits. Make the discourse more straight forward, stop with duplicitous written letters like what catfished Gaines. And if the coach accepts and it is signed it cannot be taken away.