This has been an ugly year in recruiting
Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 3:17 pm
There has been more mud slinging than I can ever remember. Add to that the amount of kids that switched their commitments and I think we will see some changes instituted in the next year or two, specifically an early signing period.
Here are some interesting articles as they relate to Illinois and their recent recruiting "success". The mud slinging between them and ND has been pretty heavy.
The New York Times
nytimes.com
February 7, 2007
Illinois Has Rivals Fuming About Its Recruiting Coup
By PETE THAMEL and THAYER EVANS
Illinois, one of the worst teams among the major conferences in college football in recent seasons, has astounded experts and enraged rivals by putting together one of the nation’s best recruiting classes.
When recruits make their final commitments on national signing day today, Illinois Coach Ron Zook is expected to have collected one of the strongest groups in the Big Ten and among the country’s top 15. In several cases, the Illini won head-to-head recruiting battles against traditional powers like Notre Dame, Michigan and Ohio State.
Among those likely to sign with Illinois are Martez Wilson, a defensive end from Chicago who is seen as the country’s top prospect at the position, and Arrelious Benn, a wide receiver from Washington who is considered among the three best players at his position. Benn is already enrolled and taking classes on campus in Champaign. Both players had suitors like Notre Dame, Southern California and Ohio State.
The success at Illinois has left the world of college football abuzz with a question: How did a program that went 4-19 the past two seasons, including 1-15 in its conference, persuade so many top players to sign?
John L. Smith, who was recently dismissed as the head coach at Michigan State, expressed a view shared privately by many rival coaches and recruiters: “If they had a winning program and all of that, it would be a different deal. If they had the greatest facilities in the world, then maybe they could sell them. But what are they selling?”
He added, “Where there’s smoke, there’s probably fire.”
But Jim Delany, the commissioner of the Big Ten, made an unsolicited call to a reporter for The New York Times to say that “blogosphere smoke” was the reason for any suspicion surrounding the Illinois class. “Around signing day,” he said, “smoke does not equal fire.”
Tom Lemming, a longtime recruiting expert now with CSTV, said a recruiting class this good at a university like Illinois, with little recent tradition, was virtually unprecedented. “I’ve never seen anything like it in 28 years,” he said.
Neither have the assistant coaches who recruit in Chicago, the center of Big Ten recruiting and a city where the Illini have done well.
“If something is going on, they’ll get theirs,” said the Wisconsin assistant coach Randall McCray, who recruits in Chicago for the Badgers. “But if nothing is going on, it’s just jealous people that are getting beat in recruiting. I don’t know.”
Illinois has a long history of National Collegiate Athletic Association violations in basketball and football predating the arrival of Zook and his staff before the 2005 season. University officials dismissed complaints about this year’s class as the product of envy, and they said Illini coaches had thrived with a pitch of playing time and potential.
“Illinois is a pretty darn good place,” said Ron Guenther, the university’s athletic director. “And we’re going to roll up our sleeves and battle with the heavyweights.”
In a telephone interview Monday, Guenther said the university hired an outside law firm to investigate anonymous tips and complaints about suspected recruiting improprieties, and to determine the source of rumors about the program. He said the investigation had cost the university thousands of dollars.
Guenther also said he and Illinois coaches were convinced that another university’s coaching staff had leaked unflattering personal information about recruits to a Web site. He would not name the Web site or the university, other than to say it was not a Big Ten program.
“I take this stuff so seriously,” he said. “I have an interest in the coach’s and the program’s reputation. It’s defamation of character, and it’s got to be challenged.”
Illinois knew it was getting a strong recruiter, if not a top football strategist and disciplinarian, when it hired Zook. While he was the coach at Florida, he signed 20 of the 22 players who would become starters on the Gators’ recent national championship team. Zook declined interview requests, saying he would not comment until after signing day.
But with only three Big Ten titles since 1964, Illinois does not have nearly the recent tradition or the built-in fan support that the Gators enjoy. Nor does it have nearly the same fertile recruiting ground.
Still, Zook is once again showing how adept he is at navigating the murky world of attracting high school prospects.
For every blockbuster signing at Illinois, there is a logical link.
Benn, for instance, is from Washington, where the Illini’s offensive coordinator, Mike Locksley, has strong ties. Locksley recruited the same area for Maryland, including as its recruiting coordinator from 1998 through February 2003. (Locksley was still the recruiting coordinator at Maryland when an assistant coach was caught giving cash to a high school prospect, Victor Abiamiri, who ended up going to Notre Dame. Locksley was not accused of wrongdoing.)
Benn’s decision to join Illinois was considered a huge surprise outside Champaign. He had talked eagerly throughout his recruitment about playing at Notre Dame with the country’s top-ranked quarterback prospect, Jimmy Clausen. Instead, he chose to play in the Big Ten’s worst pass offense with Isiah Williams, who completed less than 40 percent of his passes last season and was statistically one of the country’s worst passing quarterbacks.
In the case of Wilson and other Chicago-area prospects, Zook landed him partly because of the strong local connections of the assistant coach Reggie Mitchell. When Zook was hired, he lured Mitchell from Smith’s staff at Michigan State.
The Illini also landed a player who originally committed to Florida, D’Angleo McCray, from Jacksonville. The Illini assistant coach Dan Disch was a high school coach in that city for years.
In attracting McCray and Benn, the Illinois staff first received commitments from high school teammates who were not nearly as highly regarded as a way to help show their interest.
“There’s no real formula outside of just plain, hard work,” Guenther said. “He gets in early, and the staff has contacts in different areas. And he’s just so darn competitive.”
On the field, however, Zook’s teams have not been so competitive. He was fired halfway through his third season at Florida after a loss at Mississippi State in October 2004. Along the way, he lost twice to the University of Mississippi and finished with a 23-14 record.
Perhaps his defining moment was when he had a verbal altercation with members of a Florida fraternity in September of his final season. That year, seven of his players had brushes with the law. Of the 70 players Zook recruited at Florida, 32 left the program, transferred, or were kicked off the team. That does not include players who left for the N.F.L.
Florida’s coach, Urban Meyer, stressed off-the-field discipline from the moment he stepped on campus.
The most highly regarded player in the Illini’s recruiting class from last season, defensive lineman Melvin Alaeze, left the university for personal reasons in the fall. Alaeze was charged with attempted murder in December in his native Maryland. Illinois took Alaeze after Maryland rescinded his scholarship offer following a marijuana-related arrest and his struggles to qualify academically.
Guenther said allowing Alaeze a scholarship was a “character risk.”
Kevin Johns, an assistant coach at Northwestern, said: “We’re recruiting two different types of character, two different types of kids. They can get in almost any kid that they want. We have to go through academic admissions.”
To recruits who have committed to, visited and considered Illinois, much of the appeal comes down to the opportunity to play right away and to the allure of turning around a losing program. None of the eight recruits interviewed for this article said they had been offered anything illegal by Illinois coaches or staff members.
“A lot of people think just because they’re getting big-name recruits in that there’s got to be something dirty going on,” said Josh Brent, a defensive tackle from Bloomington, Ill., who picked Illinois over Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin. “Me, speaking personally from going through the recruiting process at Illinois, I have never been offered anything. I have never seen anything of that sort.”
Marvin Austin, a defensive tackle from Washington considered among the best at his position, visited Illinois but has since narrowed his list to North Carolina and Florida State.
Austin said numerous recruits from the Washington area had taken an interest in Illinois because of Locksley. Austin said that the Illini had done a good job of recruiting in urban areas and that recruits were realizing they could go to less successful programs, where they could earn playing time early and more exposure.
“People are scared of what they don’t understand,” Austin said. “And I don’t think they understand why kids are going to Illinois.”
When the Word Isn't Quite Final
By Alan Goldenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 7, 2007; E01
Today it becomes official. The nation's top senior high school football players will formally sign letters-of-intent accepting scholarship offers. For many, the ritual only reaffirms an oral commitment made to the college sometime over the past 18 months.
Players make oral commitments early in the recruiting process because they believe it stifles the almost incessant communication between the athlete and the schools vying for his talents. In the NCAA's "contact period" in late November, December and the weeks leading up to signing day, recruits can expect calls from coaches every day, right up until today, not to mention countless text messages from colleges at all hours of the day through the season, and constant queries from friends and family of "Where are you going to go?"
But committing early rarely halts the badgering. Not only do other programs continue to recruit players who have already "verbaled" to a school, but players and coaches say the dynamic between recruit and school changes after the oral commitment is made, and communication that once was warm and glowing can get downright nasty.
"I thought I'd make my decision and that would be it," said Arrelious Benn, who announced his commitment to Illinois on ESPNU on Nov. 9 before graduating from Dunbar in December and enrolling in Champaign last month. After the commitment? "That's when it got worse. These are grown men. Why can't they live with the decision I made?"
Throughout his junior school year, Benn said he had considered Notre Dame his top choice, but when he felt as though the Fighting Irish coaching staff was putting too much pressure on him to commit he stopped considering the school. Once Benn orally committed to Illinois, Notre Dame assistant Peter Vaas continued to pepper Benn with text messages and voice mails, some of which Benn provided to The Post:
"FYI, ILL is telling Robert Hughes that they will build their offense around him? Didn't they tell you that?
Coach Vaas," Vaas wrote Benn on Dec. 17.
Earlier that month, Vaas left this voice message on Benn's phone: "You don't want to do anything except bury your head in the sand. . . . I guess you're not tough enough to compete at the big level."
Vaas, who was let go as quarterbacks coach by the Irish after their 44-14 loss to LSU in the Sugar Bowl, did not deny leaving the messages. He said last night that even though Benn made his announcement on national television, that isn't necessarily a recruit's final word.
"Did he say [he was going to Illinois] to me? Did I see him on TV?" Vaas said. "There's an awful lot of rumors or innuendo out there . . . and kids change their minds after they do that. A lot of times, it depends upon what kind of conviction a kid has about a place. You know how you read between the lines? As a recruiter, I have to hear between the lines."
A Notre Dame spokesman declined to comment last night.
There are plenty of times when the pressure works, and players change their commitments.
"When we find out a kid's orally committed," said Allen Wallace, who founded SuperPrep magazine in 1985 and is now national recruiting editor for the Web site Scout.com, "one of the first things I ask is, 'What are the percentages that the kid is going to follow through?' I ask if he's going to take any more visits or accept calls.
"Some of them treat their commitment as a fall-back position, like, 'At least, I'll have somewhere to go.' " Wallace estimated between 5 and 10 percent of all oral commitments are broken, but added, "It's hard to keep track of because it's so prevalent."
Sometimes a player will make a commitment, but then see his recruiting stock rise, either through strong summer workouts or a standout senior season, which will attract scholarship offers from higher profile schools.
Coaches said an oral commitment only shows a player is in demand.
After the oral commitment "people know who the competition is," Connecticut Coach Randy Edsall said. "Once that kid gives you a verbal commitment, you can't relax and stop recruiting. If you do, someone will say, 'When was the last time you heard from that school?' Then they come in and start recruiting him."
Said Virginia Tech associate head coach Billy Hite, who is beginning his 30th season with the Hokies, "You have to recruit him as if he hasn't committed to you until the national signing day."
An oral commitment is by no means binding, and schools have been known to back out as well. They may lose interest in a recruit, realize they made a poor evaluation before offering him a scholarship, or just recruit other more talented players at that position.
In June 2004, Northwest running back Tony Nelson orally committed to Clemson, and fielded a steady stream of calls from the Tigers' staff throughout football season. But for the last three weeks of December, Nelson never heard from Clemson.
"With Tony, the line of communication was open," Northwest Coach Randy Trivers said, "and then it was a dark period. That's when I knew something was up."
On Jan. 4, four weeks before signing day, Clemson recruiting coordinator David Blackwell called Trivers to say Clemson had withdrawn Nelson's scholarship offer because Nelson had not yet qualified academically. Left with few options, Nelson signed with Division I-AA Massachusetts, where he qualified academically, but redshirted as a freshman.
Pulling offers can be risky for colleges, however, because it can affect the way they deal with future recruits. Wallace said it happens enough, though, that players will continue to talk to other schools after orally committing to a program.
"They can always say, 'Hey, schools can pull my offer,' " Wallace said.
Ballou senior offensive lineman Lamar Milstead committed to North Carolina last June, but he knew it was far from firm. He soured on his top choice, Virginia, when the Cavaliers' recruiter, Ron Prince, left to take over at Kansas State. Milstead said he wanted to orally commit somewhere to be safe, and see how the situations at the other schools that offered him shook out during his senior season.
"I figured I'd get this over with, catch up on my [school] work and then get back to the recruiting later," Milstead said. "I wasn't entirely sure about [my commitment] but I wasn't going to tell [North Carolina] that. Just like they told me what I wanted to hear, I told them what they wanted to hear. It's just to get them off your back. You want the whole pursuing thing to stop. You just want to be the one to make the decision."
After North Carolina fired coach John Bunting during last season, Milstead said he realized he wasn't in the Tar Heels' plans when new coach Butch Davis didn't call him for two months after being hired. Milstead said he called Virginia two weeks ago, and asked if its scholarship offer still stood. When told it did, Milstead accepted it.
Milstead knows he got lucky. The majority of BCS conference programs hope to complete the large majority of their recruiting several months before signing day. Hite said Virginia Tech has 95 percent of its slots filled eight months before signing day. Edsall said Connecticut had 21 players orally committed before Christmas.
"We would have loved to have had those kids signed and off the market," Edsall said, "but now we've got kids who we've got commitments from who are still getting calls."
Said Hite, "Obviously, it's a big problem in college football, and I'm not so sure that they shouldn't have an early-signing period because of it."
Unlike most other sports, football does not have an early-signing period. Basketball recruits, for example, can sign during a week in November, just before the start of their senior season.
"I'm in favor of an early-signing period," DeMatha Coach Bill McGregor said. "That would stop all the nonsense."
Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, said his membership is considering drafting a proposal to the NCAA for an early-signing period. One stumbling block, though, is when that period should be. Offering it before the start of a recruit's senior season would be tough because NCAA rules prohibit recruits from taking official visits -- all-expense trips paid for by the university -- until the first day of classes of their senior year.
Junior college transfers can sign football letters-of-intent beginning Dec. 20. Edsall said he thinks high schoolers should be allowed to sign at that time, as well. Even six weeks ahead of regular signing day, he said, would make a big difference.
"You're giving a chance to students to end the process in December," he said, "and as a coach, if you have a kid and he doesn't want to sign in December, that should tell you something. Everybody calls each other's bluff a little bit."
Accusations lead to hostility in recruiting battles
By Teddy Greenstein
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO - ``Nasty" was the word of the day.
And not "nasty" as in the way Charlie Weis promised his Irish would play when Notre Dame hired him.
This was a day in which whispered accusations gave way to outright hostility, a day on which two prominent recruits dissed Notre Dame and Illinois was left defending its recruiting practices after signing a top-15 class.
The tone was set early by a New York Times story headlined: "Illinois Has Rivals Fuming About Its Recruiting Coup."
Fired Michigan State coach John L. Smith questioned how a school whose team went 4-19 during the last two seasons could attract such a top-notch class, telling the newspaper: "If they had a winning program and all of that, it would be a different deal. If they had the greatest facilities in the world, then maybe they could sell them. But what are they selling?
"Where there's smoke, there's probably fire," added Smith, whose Spartans were the Illini's only Big Ten victim this season.
Northwestern even entered the fray, with Wildcats receivers coach Kevin Johns telling the paper: "We're recruiting two different types of character, two different types of kids. They can get in almost any kid that they want. We have to go through academic admissions."
Illinois coach Ron Zook downplayed the controversy, saying during an interview on ESPNU: "Today is a day for our players. I know this: If that's all (the Times) can find after all the time they spent, that just makes you feel that much better about the program."
In December Zook told The Tribune: "There are no skeletons in our closet."
During a Wednesday conference call Zook said accusations of "impropriety ... the notion that not all was up to snuff (are off base).
"For people to say those things. ... One, we're not going to have people like that in our program. Two, if you get to know our people, you'll realize they are not that way," Zook said. "For the most part we know where (the accusations) are coming from. It's a shame for people to throw things out there and try to take away from a great university and program."
Illinois officials wouldn't acknowledge it, but there's little doubt they suspect Notre Dame is behind the accusations.
The two teams battled over the last few months for three prominent recruits: Washington, D.C., receiver Arrelious Benn; Simeon defensive end/receiver Martez Wilson and Hubbard running back Robert Hughes.
Benn and Wilson signed with Illinois; Hughes is bound for South Bend.
Notre Dame contends Benn gave one of its coaches an oral commitment months ago that wasn't publicized. Those are considered "silent" commitments.
Last week Justin Trattou, a defensive end from Ramsey, N.J., who had committed to Notre Dame in May, switched to Florida. A key factor in his decision was Greg Mattison, Florida's co-defensive coordinator and former Irish defensive coordinator.
The Irish lost two more players Wednesday: Greg Little, a receiver from North Carolina who committed to the Irish in November, announced he would play for the Tar Heels.
Nothing, though, can top the tale of Chris Little, a 6-foot-5-inch, 342-pound lineman from Georgia who's not related to Greg.
Little committed to Florida State on live TV during the Jan. 6 Army All-America Bowl. Then he switched to Notre Dame, explaining that he was confused about his mother's preference. On Wednesday he declared he would attend Georgia.
"All's fair in love and recruiting," CSTV analyst Tom Lemming said, "but I've never seen anything like this. Some kids are more of a pain than they're worth. The self-entitlement of some players now is completely out of control.
"Committing early now just means that one school is the leader. It's a bull's-eye and tells the other coaches which school they should bad-mouth."
For his part, Weis said the word "commitment" needs to be redefined in recruiting.
"If you're married," he said, "you shouldn't be looking at other women."
Weis said he would push for the creation of an early-signing period, so players who commit early would not be hounded by rival coaches. Weis would like that period to culminate with an Aug. 1 early signing date.
Even if the American Football Coaches Association cannot gain approval on that from the NCAA, Weis said he would change the way he solicits commitments in the future.
"No soft verbals, no silent verbals, no quiet verbals, OK?" he said. "Either you're committed or you're not committed. ... I think we have to define exactly what the rules are."
But Notre Dame took a shot from Benn in that regard. He told the Washington Post in a story published Wednesday that Irish assistant Peter Vaas, whom the school let go after the season, peppered him with text messages and phone calls after he had committed to Illinois.
Benn provided one such text message to the Post dated Dec. 17. It read: "FYI, ILL is telling Robert Hughes that they will build their offense around him. Didn't they tell you that? Coach Vaas."
Weis' reply?
"You ask me if coach Vaas sent him texts. Sure he sent him texts," he said. "You probably could go ask the kid if he committed to us beforehand too_see what he says to that one. It comes down to those silent verbals, all that other type of stuff.
"I don't think coach Vaas was trying to do anything unethical. ... I think (Benn) should wish him well and not point a finger."
Speaking of pointing fingers, ESPNU analyst Mike Gottfried angrily defended Zook over the New York Times story. Gottfried apparently remains close to Zook, whom he hired as his defensive coordinator at Cincinnati in 1981 and at Kansas in 1983.
After calling the story a "cheap shot," Gottfried held up a copy of it and said, "This is not true. The Bill O'Reilly (program) on Fox (News), he has been after the New York Times all year about getting on President Bush ... inaccurate facts and all that. This is inaccurate also.
"What has happened is there's a Midwest university that's out there that has lost some players to Illinois. They're crying, they're complaining: `There must be cheating going on because why wouldn't the players come to our school and why are they going to Illinois?'
"I wouldn't wrap dead fish in this paper, the New York Times. I don't care about it, and it's wrong."
It was that kind of day.
Here are some interesting articles as they relate to Illinois and their recent recruiting "success". The mud slinging between them and ND has been pretty heavy.
The New York Times
nytimes.com
February 7, 2007
Illinois Has Rivals Fuming About Its Recruiting Coup
By PETE THAMEL and THAYER EVANS
Illinois, one of the worst teams among the major conferences in college football in recent seasons, has astounded experts and enraged rivals by putting together one of the nation’s best recruiting classes.
When recruits make their final commitments on national signing day today, Illinois Coach Ron Zook is expected to have collected one of the strongest groups in the Big Ten and among the country’s top 15. In several cases, the Illini won head-to-head recruiting battles against traditional powers like Notre Dame, Michigan and Ohio State.
Among those likely to sign with Illinois are Martez Wilson, a defensive end from Chicago who is seen as the country’s top prospect at the position, and Arrelious Benn, a wide receiver from Washington who is considered among the three best players at his position. Benn is already enrolled and taking classes on campus in Champaign. Both players had suitors like Notre Dame, Southern California and Ohio State.
The success at Illinois has left the world of college football abuzz with a question: How did a program that went 4-19 the past two seasons, including 1-15 in its conference, persuade so many top players to sign?
John L. Smith, who was recently dismissed as the head coach at Michigan State, expressed a view shared privately by many rival coaches and recruiters: “If they had a winning program and all of that, it would be a different deal. If they had the greatest facilities in the world, then maybe they could sell them. But what are they selling?”
He added, “Where there’s smoke, there’s probably fire.”
But Jim Delany, the commissioner of the Big Ten, made an unsolicited call to a reporter for The New York Times to say that “blogosphere smoke” was the reason for any suspicion surrounding the Illinois class. “Around signing day,” he said, “smoke does not equal fire.”
Tom Lemming, a longtime recruiting expert now with CSTV, said a recruiting class this good at a university like Illinois, with little recent tradition, was virtually unprecedented. “I’ve never seen anything like it in 28 years,” he said.
Neither have the assistant coaches who recruit in Chicago, the center of Big Ten recruiting and a city where the Illini have done well.
“If something is going on, they’ll get theirs,” said the Wisconsin assistant coach Randall McCray, who recruits in Chicago for the Badgers. “But if nothing is going on, it’s just jealous people that are getting beat in recruiting. I don’t know.”
Illinois has a long history of National Collegiate Athletic Association violations in basketball and football predating the arrival of Zook and his staff before the 2005 season. University officials dismissed complaints about this year’s class as the product of envy, and they said Illini coaches had thrived with a pitch of playing time and potential.
“Illinois is a pretty darn good place,” said Ron Guenther, the university’s athletic director. “And we’re going to roll up our sleeves and battle with the heavyweights.”
In a telephone interview Monday, Guenther said the university hired an outside law firm to investigate anonymous tips and complaints about suspected recruiting improprieties, and to determine the source of rumors about the program. He said the investigation had cost the university thousands of dollars.
Guenther also said he and Illinois coaches were convinced that another university’s coaching staff had leaked unflattering personal information about recruits to a Web site. He would not name the Web site or the university, other than to say it was not a Big Ten program.
“I take this stuff so seriously,” he said. “I have an interest in the coach’s and the program’s reputation. It’s defamation of character, and it’s got to be challenged.”
Illinois knew it was getting a strong recruiter, if not a top football strategist and disciplinarian, when it hired Zook. While he was the coach at Florida, he signed 20 of the 22 players who would become starters on the Gators’ recent national championship team. Zook declined interview requests, saying he would not comment until after signing day.
But with only three Big Ten titles since 1964, Illinois does not have nearly the recent tradition or the built-in fan support that the Gators enjoy. Nor does it have nearly the same fertile recruiting ground.
Still, Zook is once again showing how adept he is at navigating the murky world of attracting high school prospects.
For every blockbuster signing at Illinois, there is a logical link.
Benn, for instance, is from Washington, where the Illini’s offensive coordinator, Mike Locksley, has strong ties. Locksley recruited the same area for Maryland, including as its recruiting coordinator from 1998 through February 2003. (Locksley was still the recruiting coordinator at Maryland when an assistant coach was caught giving cash to a high school prospect, Victor Abiamiri, who ended up going to Notre Dame. Locksley was not accused of wrongdoing.)
Benn’s decision to join Illinois was considered a huge surprise outside Champaign. He had talked eagerly throughout his recruitment about playing at Notre Dame with the country’s top-ranked quarterback prospect, Jimmy Clausen. Instead, he chose to play in the Big Ten’s worst pass offense with Isiah Williams, who completed less than 40 percent of his passes last season and was statistically one of the country’s worst passing quarterbacks.
In the case of Wilson and other Chicago-area prospects, Zook landed him partly because of the strong local connections of the assistant coach Reggie Mitchell. When Zook was hired, he lured Mitchell from Smith’s staff at Michigan State.
The Illini also landed a player who originally committed to Florida, D’Angleo McCray, from Jacksonville. The Illini assistant coach Dan Disch was a high school coach in that city for years.
In attracting McCray and Benn, the Illinois staff first received commitments from high school teammates who were not nearly as highly regarded as a way to help show their interest.
“There’s no real formula outside of just plain, hard work,” Guenther said. “He gets in early, and the staff has contacts in different areas. And he’s just so darn competitive.”
On the field, however, Zook’s teams have not been so competitive. He was fired halfway through his third season at Florida after a loss at Mississippi State in October 2004. Along the way, he lost twice to the University of Mississippi and finished with a 23-14 record.
Perhaps his defining moment was when he had a verbal altercation with members of a Florida fraternity in September of his final season. That year, seven of his players had brushes with the law. Of the 70 players Zook recruited at Florida, 32 left the program, transferred, or were kicked off the team. That does not include players who left for the N.F.L.
Florida’s coach, Urban Meyer, stressed off-the-field discipline from the moment he stepped on campus.
The most highly regarded player in the Illini’s recruiting class from last season, defensive lineman Melvin Alaeze, left the university for personal reasons in the fall. Alaeze was charged with attempted murder in December in his native Maryland. Illinois took Alaeze after Maryland rescinded his scholarship offer following a marijuana-related arrest and his struggles to qualify academically.
Guenther said allowing Alaeze a scholarship was a “character risk.”
Kevin Johns, an assistant coach at Northwestern, said: “We’re recruiting two different types of character, two different types of kids. They can get in almost any kid that they want. We have to go through academic admissions.”
To recruits who have committed to, visited and considered Illinois, much of the appeal comes down to the opportunity to play right away and to the allure of turning around a losing program. None of the eight recruits interviewed for this article said they had been offered anything illegal by Illinois coaches or staff members.
“A lot of people think just because they’re getting big-name recruits in that there’s got to be something dirty going on,” said Josh Brent, a defensive tackle from Bloomington, Ill., who picked Illinois over Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin. “Me, speaking personally from going through the recruiting process at Illinois, I have never been offered anything. I have never seen anything of that sort.”
Marvin Austin, a defensive tackle from Washington considered among the best at his position, visited Illinois but has since narrowed his list to North Carolina and Florida State.
Austin said numerous recruits from the Washington area had taken an interest in Illinois because of Locksley. Austin said that the Illini had done a good job of recruiting in urban areas and that recruits were realizing they could go to less successful programs, where they could earn playing time early and more exposure.
“People are scared of what they don’t understand,” Austin said. “And I don’t think they understand why kids are going to Illinois.”
When the Word Isn't Quite Final
By Alan Goldenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 7, 2007; E01
Today it becomes official. The nation's top senior high school football players will formally sign letters-of-intent accepting scholarship offers. For many, the ritual only reaffirms an oral commitment made to the college sometime over the past 18 months.
Players make oral commitments early in the recruiting process because they believe it stifles the almost incessant communication between the athlete and the schools vying for his talents. In the NCAA's "contact period" in late November, December and the weeks leading up to signing day, recruits can expect calls from coaches every day, right up until today, not to mention countless text messages from colleges at all hours of the day through the season, and constant queries from friends and family of "Where are you going to go?"
But committing early rarely halts the badgering. Not only do other programs continue to recruit players who have already "verbaled" to a school, but players and coaches say the dynamic between recruit and school changes after the oral commitment is made, and communication that once was warm and glowing can get downright nasty.
"I thought I'd make my decision and that would be it," said Arrelious Benn, who announced his commitment to Illinois on ESPNU on Nov. 9 before graduating from Dunbar in December and enrolling in Champaign last month. After the commitment? "That's when it got worse. These are grown men. Why can't they live with the decision I made?"
Throughout his junior school year, Benn said he had considered Notre Dame his top choice, but when he felt as though the Fighting Irish coaching staff was putting too much pressure on him to commit he stopped considering the school. Once Benn orally committed to Illinois, Notre Dame assistant Peter Vaas continued to pepper Benn with text messages and voice mails, some of which Benn provided to The Post:
"FYI, ILL is telling Robert Hughes that they will build their offense around him? Didn't they tell you that?
Coach Vaas," Vaas wrote Benn on Dec. 17.
Earlier that month, Vaas left this voice message on Benn's phone: "You don't want to do anything except bury your head in the sand. . . . I guess you're not tough enough to compete at the big level."
Vaas, who was let go as quarterbacks coach by the Irish after their 44-14 loss to LSU in the Sugar Bowl, did not deny leaving the messages. He said last night that even though Benn made his announcement on national television, that isn't necessarily a recruit's final word.
"Did he say [he was going to Illinois] to me? Did I see him on TV?" Vaas said. "There's an awful lot of rumors or innuendo out there . . . and kids change their minds after they do that. A lot of times, it depends upon what kind of conviction a kid has about a place. You know how you read between the lines? As a recruiter, I have to hear between the lines."
A Notre Dame spokesman declined to comment last night.
There are plenty of times when the pressure works, and players change their commitments.
"When we find out a kid's orally committed," said Allen Wallace, who founded SuperPrep magazine in 1985 and is now national recruiting editor for the Web site Scout.com, "one of the first things I ask is, 'What are the percentages that the kid is going to follow through?' I ask if he's going to take any more visits or accept calls.
"Some of them treat their commitment as a fall-back position, like, 'At least, I'll have somewhere to go.' " Wallace estimated between 5 and 10 percent of all oral commitments are broken, but added, "It's hard to keep track of because it's so prevalent."
Sometimes a player will make a commitment, but then see his recruiting stock rise, either through strong summer workouts or a standout senior season, which will attract scholarship offers from higher profile schools.
Coaches said an oral commitment only shows a player is in demand.
After the oral commitment "people know who the competition is," Connecticut Coach Randy Edsall said. "Once that kid gives you a verbal commitment, you can't relax and stop recruiting. If you do, someone will say, 'When was the last time you heard from that school?' Then they come in and start recruiting him."
Said Virginia Tech associate head coach Billy Hite, who is beginning his 30th season with the Hokies, "You have to recruit him as if he hasn't committed to you until the national signing day."
An oral commitment is by no means binding, and schools have been known to back out as well. They may lose interest in a recruit, realize they made a poor evaluation before offering him a scholarship, or just recruit other more talented players at that position.
In June 2004, Northwest running back Tony Nelson orally committed to Clemson, and fielded a steady stream of calls from the Tigers' staff throughout football season. But for the last three weeks of December, Nelson never heard from Clemson.
"With Tony, the line of communication was open," Northwest Coach Randy Trivers said, "and then it was a dark period. That's when I knew something was up."
On Jan. 4, four weeks before signing day, Clemson recruiting coordinator David Blackwell called Trivers to say Clemson had withdrawn Nelson's scholarship offer because Nelson had not yet qualified academically. Left with few options, Nelson signed with Division I-AA Massachusetts, where he qualified academically, but redshirted as a freshman.
Pulling offers can be risky for colleges, however, because it can affect the way they deal with future recruits. Wallace said it happens enough, though, that players will continue to talk to other schools after orally committing to a program.
"They can always say, 'Hey, schools can pull my offer,' " Wallace said.
Ballou senior offensive lineman Lamar Milstead committed to North Carolina last June, but he knew it was far from firm. He soured on his top choice, Virginia, when the Cavaliers' recruiter, Ron Prince, left to take over at Kansas State. Milstead said he wanted to orally commit somewhere to be safe, and see how the situations at the other schools that offered him shook out during his senior season.
"I figured I'd get this over with, catch up on my [school] work and then get back to the recruiting later," Milstead said. "I wasn't entirely sure about [my commitment] but I wasn't going to tell [North Carolina] that. Just like they told me what I wanted to hear, I told them what they wanted to hear. It's just to get them off your back. You want the whole pursuing thing to stop. You just want to be the one to make the decision."
After North Carolina fired coach John Bunting during last season, Milstead said he realized he wasn't in the Tar Heels' plans when new coach Butch Davis didn't call him for two months after being hired. Milstead said he called Virginia two weeks ago, and asked if its scholarship offer still stood. When told it did, Milstead accepted it.
Milstead knows he got lucky. The majority of BCS conference programs hope to complete the large majority of their recruiting several months before signing day. Hite said Virginia Tech has 95 percent of its slots filled eight months before signing day. Edsall said Connecticut had 21 players orally committed before Christmas.
"We would have loved to have had those kids signed and off the market," Edsall said, "but now we've got kids who we've got commitments from who are still getting calls."
Said Hite, "Obviously, it's a big problem in college football, and I'm not so sure that they shouldn't have an early-signing period because of it."
Unlike most other sports, football does not have an early-signing period. Basketball recruits, for example, can sign during a week in November, just before the start of their senior season.
"I'm in favor of an early-signing period," DeMatha Coach Bill McGregor said. "That would stop all the nonsense."
Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, said his membership is considering drafting a proposal to the NCAA for an early-signing period. One stumbling block, though, is when that period should be. Offering it before the start of a recruit's senior season would be tough because NCAA rules prohibit recruits from taking official visits -- all-expense trips paid for by the university -- until the first day of classes of their senior year.
Junior college transfers can sign football letters-of-intent beginning Dec. 20. Edsall said he thinks high schoolers should be allowed to sign at that time, as well. Even six weeks ahead of regular signing day, he said, would make a big difference.
"You're giving a chance to students to end the process in December," he said, "and as a coach, if you have a kid and he doesn't want to sign in December, that should tell you something. Everybody calls each other's bluff a little bit."
Accusations lead to hostility in recruiting battles
By Teddy Greenstein
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO - ``Nasty" was the word of the day.
And not "nasty" as in the way Charlie Weis promised his Irish would play when Notre Dame hired him.
This was a day in which whispered accusations gave way to outright hostility, a day on which two prominent recruits dissed Notre Dame and Illinois was left defending its recruiting practices after signing a top-15 class.
The tone was set early by a New York Times story headlined: "Illinois Has Rivals Fuming About Its Recruiting Coup."
Fired Michigan State coach John L. Smith questioned how a school whose team went 4-19 during the last two seasons could attract such a top-notch class, telling the newspaper: "If they had a winning program and all of that, it would be a different deal. If they had the greatest facilities in the world, then maybe they could sell them. But what are they selling?
"Where there's smoke, there's probably fire," added Smith, whose Spartans were the Illini's only Big Ten victim this season.
Northwestern even entered the fray, with Wildcats receivers coach Kevin Johns telling the paper: "We're recruiting two different types of character, two different types of kids. They can get in almost any kid that they want. We have to go through academic admissions."
Illinois coach Ron Zook downplayed the controversy, saying during an interview on ESPNU: "Today is a day for our players. I know this: If that's all (the Times) can find after all the time they spent, that just makes you feel that much better about the program."
In December Zook told The Tribune: "There are no skeletons in our closet."
During a Wednesday conference call Zook said accusations of "impropriety ... the notion that not all was up to snuff (are off base).
"For people to say those things. ... One, we're not going to have people like that in our program. Two, if you get to know our people, you'll realize they are not that way," Zook said. "For the most part we know where (the accusations) are coming from. It's a shame for people to throw things out there and try to take away from a great university and program."
Illinois officials wouldn't acknowledge it, but there's little doubt they suspect Notre Dame is behind the accusations.
The two teams battled over the last few months for three prominent recruits: Washington, D.C., receiver Arrelious Benn; Simeon defensive end/receiver Martez Wilson and Hubbard running back Robert Hughes.
Benn and Wilson signed with Illinois; Hughes is bound for South Bend.
Notre Dame contends Benn gave one of its coaches an oral commitment months ago that wasn't publicized. Those are considered "silent" commitments.
Last week Justin Trattou, a defensive end from Ramsey, N.J., who had committed to Notre Dame in May, switched to Florida. A key factor in his decision was Greg Mattison, Florida's co-defensive coordinator and former Irish defensive coordinator.
The Irish lost two more players Wednesday: Greg Little, a receiver from North Carolina who committed to the Irish in November, announced he would play for the Tar Heels.
Nothing, though, can top the tale of Chris Little, a 6-foot-5-inch, 342-pound lineman from Georgia who's not related to Greg.
Little committed to Florida State on live TV during the Jan. 6 Army All-America Bowl. Then he switched to Notre Dame, explaining that he was confused about his mother's preference. On Wednesday he declared he would attend Georgia.
"All's fair in love and recruiting," CSTV analyst Tom Lemming said, "but I've never seen anything like this. Some kids are more of a pain than they're worth. The self-entitlement of some players now is completely out of control.
"Committing early now just means that one school is the leader. It's a bull's-eye and tells the other coaches which school they should bad-mouth."
For his part, Weis said the word "commitment" needs to be redefined in recruiting.
"If you're married," he said, "you shouldn't be looking at other women."
Weis said he would push for the creation of an early-signing period, so players who commit early would not be hounded by rival coaches. Weis would like that period to culminate with an Aug. 1 early signing date.
Even if the American Football Coaches Association cannot gain approval on that from the NCAA, Weis said he would change the way he solicits commitments in the future.
"No soft verbals, no silent verbals, no quiet verbals, OK?" he said. "Either you're committed or you're not committed. ... I think we have to define exactly what the rules are."
But Notre Dame took a shot from Benn in that regard. He told the Washington Post in a story published Wednesday that Irish assistant Peter Vaas, whom the school let go after the season, peppered him with text messages and phone calls after he had committed to Illinois.
Benn provided one such text message to the Post dated Dec. 17. It read: "FYI, ILL is telling Robert Hughes that they will build their offense around him. Didn't they tell you that? Coach Vaas."
Weis' reply?
"You ask me if coach Vaas sent him texts. Sure he sent him texts," he said. "You probably could go ask the kid if he committed to us beforehand too_see what he says to that one. It comes down to those silent verbals, all that other type of stuff.
"I don't think coach Vaas was trying to do anything unethical. ... I think (Benn) should wish him well and not point a finger."
Speaking of pointing fingers, ESPNU analyst Mike Gottfried angrily defended Zook over the New York Times story. Gottfried apparently remains close to Zook, whom he hired as his defensive coordinator at Cincinnati in 1981 and at Kansas in 1983.
After calling the story a "cheap shot," Gottfried held up a copy of it and said, "This is not true. The Bill O'Reilly (program) on Fox (News), he has been after the New York Times all year about getting on President Bush ... inaccurate facts and all that. This is inaccurate also.
"What has happened is there's a Midwest university that's out there that has lost some players to Illinois. They're crying, they're complaining: `There must be cheating going on because why wouldn't the players come to our school and why are they going to Illinois?'
"I wouldn't wrap dead fish in this paper, the New York Times. I don't care about it, and it's wrong."
It was that kind of day.