H/T The Only Colors, this was posted over at their site:
A couple of things to note from the DetNews article. First, Gholston’s comments.
Backstory is this: Gholston committed to MSU back in June last year, then in the fall made a few comments that seemed to indicate that maybe he wasn’t 100% sure. Then Ghoston backtracked, basically saying that he misunderstood the question he was asked that led him to say he was looking at other schools, and that he was going to be a Spartan.
So back to the DetNews story. Asked about his best recruiting experience:
It was at the Alabama spring game, my junior year. They allowed 160 recruits to go and I was the only one they let on the field. I was able to talk with coach (Nick) Saban for a few minutes before the game.
Certainly not what you want to hear when you are NOT Alabama, and especially when Alabama is employing the services of Nick Benedict Arnold Saban.
Still, it’s easy to read too much into this. A recruiting event with 160 other athletes sounds like a Junior Days event, where the university invites a whole bunch of athletes to the school to check out the campus, take in a game and basically get really excited about a school they have a very small chance of receiving an offer from. Seriously, these are great events to drum up excitement, but the vast majority of the kids who are invited aren’t seriously being considered for a full scholarship offer by the school.
If you do happen to be one of the athletes that the school is seriously interested in, it wouldn’t be out of character for the school to show you some preferred treatment. Such as letting you onto the field, and talk to the coach. All in all, I’d rather his number one experience have been from MSU.
Second, it’s interesting to read the comments from the recruits especially when they didn’t pick U-M or MSU.
Some of the comments from guys who didn’t chose U-M:
- The coaches know. I was favoring Michigan. It was like Michigan and Michigan State was neck and neck. Then things happened and they fell off. U-M was in my top five but not at the end.
- It was like I was the last thing on their list. I didn’t get an offer from them until other schools offered.
- Michigan didn’t fit me like Oregon did. The style of play and the whole environment didn’t fit me like I thought it would.
- They never showed interest in me. They were looking for a more dual-threat quarterback.
- I feel more comfortable at Michigan State. It’s a better fit. I stuck with my gut. I did think about U-M. Just overall, Michigan State was better.
- I didn’t like the way they ran things there. I didn’t feel comfortable.
- They asked me to come to camp after I had about 15 offers. They wanted to see me play a little safety. I wasn’t interested.
Again, don’t want to read too much into these, but it doesn’t seem that Michigan is giving off that lovin’ feeling.
If you’re winning 10 or 11 games a year, you can slow play some recruits, build some desire, and give off an aura of uber-selectivity. And this isn’t to say that Michigan can’t be selective, obviously with the reputation they have, selectivity and appeal to some of the best athletes in the nation isn’t going to disappear after two subpar seasons. But the slow play does give off a sense of disinterest, and in the course of a recruiting cycle, that can leave a bad taste in the mouth of a recruit when they’re considering a school that only won five games last year.
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