Sout.com has reported that according to Davie County (N.C.) head coach Dough Illing, Four Star cornerback Raeshon McNeil and a new addition to The Scout.com Hot List is going to reaffirm his commitment to the Fighting Irish after a visit to Florida. According to Illing, Mc Neil told him he was "solid" with Notre Dame. Didn't Meyer once state that recruiting committed athletes was not ethical?
Apparently Urban has gotten over his shyness about talking to committed recruits...... 8) from Irish Illustrated: Just got off the phone with Doug Illing, the head coach at Davie County. I hope this puts an end to the McNeil controversy. "The trip was just an opportunity to get his parents and grandparents involved and to experience the recruiting process," Illing said. "They've never done anything like that and he took his trip so early because he wanted to be at the Notre Dame-USC game and they couldn't go. "But, he's 100-percent Notre Dame." Now, to clear up some controversy about whether or not Florida extended an offer. Oh, yeah, the minute he walked out of the locker room at the All-American game," Illing said about whether Florida offered a scholarhship. "Florida and Georgia both. Georgia told Raeshon that he'd have a scholarship waiting for him and if he was interested all he had to do was call. They didn't pursue him. Obviously, McNeil didn't call. He didn't call Florida either, but the Gators persisted and that's what led to the visit. Raeshon McNeil will sign a Letter of Intent next Wednesday to play football at the University of Notre Dame. He'll join teammates, Logan Buchanan (North Carolina) and Jonathan Mayfield (Richmond) in a ceremony in the school's media center.
I think Meyer did say that, but it was in regard to a former member of his staff at UF who left when Ron Zook got the Illiinois job. In recruiting now days giving a verbal is not something that other coaches see as something they need to "respect" and discontinue recruiting. However I must say that Greg Mattison continued to recruit not only ND verbals after he joined the staff at Fla, but he brought with him all the recruiting information that the former ND staff had accumulated including contacts and phone numbers of recruits and used that as his base for getting started with UF recruiting. A lot of ND fans thought that was unethical, but I don't think there is any rule against it. Terry
Terry has it right as to what Meyer said and the context he made the statement. It was in reference to a coach leaving Florida then recruiting players he had recruited to Florida. As to Mattison, I'm not in a position to comment on that. I do think there is a difference between taking someone who has already made a public statement and dealing with players who have not done that or are not even in the current recruiting class. I don't know whether McNeil got an offer from Florida or not. I do know our class is pretty full and there is probably one more DB on the list and he is announcing tonight, Patrick Robinson. Also, from a personal point of view it is not unethical to keep recruiting kids until the paperwork is signed. They are young and the point of no return for them is when the LOI is signed and not before. That doesn't mean I think everything that goes on is ethical, but I also know it's a dog eat dog world out there in recruiting. Enough for now. Gator Bill