I love this move by Dantonio...as we all know the world of recruiting has changed drastically. When I first started following recruiting during the Gerry Faust days when a kid gave a verbal to a school that ended it. Other schools for the most part left the kid alone, it wasn't common to see a kid change his mind after giving the verbal. Now it's just the begining, as Urban Meyer once said it just defines the school you have to beat. That and recruiting trips have become big parties, with schools arranging for coeds to show the kids around, and in Colorado's case they even arranged for hookers to be at parties with the kids, without Gary Barnett's knowledge of course. So these kids don't want to miss out on the whole party scene and even after giving a verbal they want to make trips. During Mack Browns hey dey he was able to keep kids from doing this by making sure that the parents came to Austin with the kid to get the offer and make a verbal. He rarely, in those days, gave out an offer that wasn't accepted. The kid and the parents were told the guidelines which included no more visits, if they wanted to take other visits they weren't extended an offer. Well as I said that won't fly today. Coaches still don't like it that their kids take visits but accept it if the kid tells them about it. This is why many coaches want early letter of acceptance so they can lock up the kids and not have them make late changes that hurts their program when they don't have anybody else left of similar talent to replace them with. So this kid didn't quite get the memo and paid the price.
The articles I have read regarding this action by Dantonio are about 50% for and 50% against. Take your pick!
I'm not surprised, and I'll bet a poll of Skybox members would probably be about the same. I know Bill, while naturally wanting Gator verbals to stay tru e to their word, also is very understanding that it's a big decision for kids and that they should have the right to change their minds. Also I have read that if this kid had been a 5* offense lineman would Dantonio have cut him loose over this, it's doubtful. But he also has some other kids in his class that supposedly are still looking around and considered to be "flippable" by other schools. So this might be a shot across their bows to make sure they talk to the coaches about what they are doing before they do it. Both my teams (Texas and ND) win and lose a few every year to kids who are early verbals and then change their minds late. Last year our QB recruit was previously pledged to Penn State before he flipped late to ND. Overall we've gained more than we've lost. Texas had a kid who was part of our Florida 5 that everybody was excited about, he was driving with friends to Austin to enroll for the Summer and start working out with the team and stopped off at Auburn to chat, he never went any further. Texas fans and Charlie weren't esp happy with that one.
IMO it's up to the coach to do whatever he wants to do. I like Dantonio. He's a winner. If he wants to yank a scholarship to send a message, I hope it works with current and future recruits. No one can assume he wouldn't have done the same for a 5 star recruit. Maybe, maybe not.
ND <t>Listening to Butch Davis on Sirius XM today he says when a kid gives you his verbal commitment as far as he is concerned, the school is saying to him O.K. but make sure that you are serious because we are now going to tell several kids that we were recruiting for your position that we are no longer offering them because we now have our guy.<br/> <br/> <br/> Makes sense to me.</t>
I think that's the crux of the problem Tim, it definitely impacts the school and who they recruit. Many times when you have a kid who has been a verbal flip on you, it means that you have to go back to guys you told were out and see if you can get back in with them, rarely you can. So now you have to try and get in on some new guys, more than likely lower rated guys. But I get it that they are 18y/o's and they don't always know what they want and they should be able to change their minds. That's why I'm in favor of the early signing period, cements the relationship and at that point it's game over. If a kid isn't sure, then he doesn't have to sign and can wait till later but now you know.