When a prospect declares his interest in making an early commitment to Clemson, often one of the first things Dabo Swinney does is to try talking him out of it.
Call him old-fashioned if you want, but Swinney doesn’t want to hear about commitment, in the recruiting sense, unless it’s backed by…well, for the lack of a better word, commitment.
To Swinney and his staff, once a player commits, it should be a done-deal. No more visits, official or otherwise. No talk of ‘soft’ commitments. No de-commitments or re-commitments.
If a player has doubts, any whatsoever, Swinney would rather that the coveted teenager, whatever his star status, keep his pledge to himself.
The Tiger coaching staff has proven again and again that if a recruit is worth their interest on the front end, they’re willing to go the distance – all the way to a hat-picking ceremony on Signing Day afternoon, if necessary.
But sometimes recruits insist on committing and then playing the game by their own rules; and during Swinney’s short tenure at Clemson, that has most often resulted in the end of the recruiting relationship.
It happened in 2010 with running back Marlin Lane of Daytona Beach, FL and defensive back Geraldo Orta of Valdosta, GA, both of whom were committed to Clemson at one time, chose to continue to visit other schools; and they ultimately closed the door behind them.
Enter young R.J. Prince – one of North Carolina’s more highly-rated offensively linemen for the class of 2013.
Prince made an unofficial visit to Clemson for a game last fall, and shortly thereafter announced himself as the Tigers’ first commitment for next year’s recruiting class.
Afterwards, the in-state schools turned up the recruiting heat, and Prince chose to listen.
Wednesday, he visited Chapel Hill for a ‘Junior Day’ held in conjunction with UNC’s big home basketball game against Duke. Clemson’s coaches took exception to his move; and on Friday Prince announced his de-commitment from Clemson and hinted that the Tar Heels may now be at the top of his list.
Whether Clemson will continue to pursue Prince is anybody’s guess.
Offensive linemen won’t be a high priority in next year’s class, as the focus shifts back to skill players on the offensive side of the ball. The Tigers just signed four in their 2012 class, and all are enrolled for this semester. Swinney said on Signing Day that he’ll likely be looking for “a couple” of linemen in 2013.
Clemson currently has offers out to roughly half a dozen players.
Sooner or later, someone will be ready to commit. But before he does, he’ll most certainly have to listen to Swinney’s lecture about what ‘commitment’ really means.
Clemson falls to North Carolina
Baseball. Tigers lose game, win…
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 7
Lynx26 writes:
Sounds a bit harsh to the average ear... Although I believe its a great system to have in place. No need to have commit unless you're 100% sure.
Installing discipline early is a great sign of an elite program up and coming!
T I G E R S!
lhaselden writes:
If the coaching staff is trying to talk them out of early commitments then I think the policy is fair. If they are trying to persuade 17 year olds into a commitment when they do not understand what a commitment is then the policy is not fair. Judging from how many of the commitments stuck after our losing 6-7 season the coaching staff must be doing a pretty good job of explaining what they mean by commitment.
I know that Dabo and the other coaches demonstrated what they meant by commitment in their treatment of Nicopolis and other athletes that could no longer play. They received not athletic scholarships from the Clemson athletic dept.
YabbaDaboDooDoo writes:
Until the kid faxes in his letter, he hasn't made a commitment. The fact that gets overlooked here is that kids aren't guaranteed a scholarship for the entirety of their eligibility. It's a 1-year renewable deal which means they can yank it back after 1 or 2 years if they find better players. In the age of oversigning, coaches can spare us all the lectures on the meaning of commitment. This from the school that told a high character kid who took it upon himself to raise his younger brother to take a hike b/c they were deep at RB. The feel-good Ray Ray story ran its course and they were deep at RB so they had no use for him. Despicable.
brookesdad729 writes:
Here's what's despicable: recruiting a guy knowing full well that you don't intend to play him and he wastes away his eligibility sitting on your bench and if he transfers he has to sit out a year! That is far more despicable then just telling a guy up front that his services are not needed! The thing is, if a guy makes the cut, then he makes and stays on the team. If he doesn't then he goes. That's life dude! Its not right or wrong, it's the way the business runs and all of these guys are well aware of that. They are no longer in HS where they are coddled and cuddled and they don't need to be. It's time to grow up and be a man! A guy who is doing his job well will not get his scholarship yanked. At least I have not seen that happen in Tiger Town. How do they do it in Columbia where your team resides?
YabbaDaboDooDoo writes:
Really? Did you really just imply that Ray Ray McElrathby needed to stop being coddled and cuddled and needs to grow up and be a man? When a school recruits a kid to play football and gives him a scholarship and the kid does everything that's asked of him, it's wrong to yank the scholarship b/c of his place on the depth chart. I'll bet your 401k that Clemson didn't tell him that they could do that when they recruited him. Now Clemson was happy to have Ray Ray around when he was low on the depth chart while he was in the news. Once that ran its course they told him he couldn't play anymore.
Clemson isn't the only place where this kind of thing happens. But then again I don't see other places talking about the importance of verbal commitments. You talk about the real world and how businesses run yet you fail to realize that a non-binding verbal commitment is just that... non-binding. The players and the schools know it and yet Dabo is the only one getting his panties in a bunch over it. So yeah, Clemson doesn't get to talk about the importance of commitment when they can kick a high character guy off the team simply b/c he's an upperclassman low on the depth chart and they need a scholarship. That's hypocrisy.
sennmanthetigerfan writes:
i believe ray ray got a bachelors degree from CU. if so i would consider the schools obligation fulfilled. i'm sure these guys know they're actually COMMITTING to a yr by yr contract when they COMMIT!
33dtb writes:
The Ray Ray deal happened under the "late/great TB", who in my humble opinion was already a despicable HYPOCRITE.
Dabo has not sunk to that level or that of the OBC.
Share your thoughts
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.