Deadspin: Recruiting

Kevin Hart, Who Lied About Being Recruited, Says He's Being Recruited

Barry Petchesky — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:50:08 EST

Way back in 2008, Kevin Hart, a two-star offensive lineman prospect out of Nevada, held a press conference to announce he was choosing Cal over Oregon. It turned out that none of it was true: Hart hadn't been recruited by anyone. At first he claimed that he had been scammed by someone posing as a recruiter, but soon admitted that was a lie too. It was funny at first, but just kind of sad by the end. (Even lying liar Mitch Albom pooped out something on how Hart reflects society, or something.) More »

Whatever You're Doing With Your Life, It's Not As Awesome As The Athletes In This Recruiting Video

Barry Petchesky — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:30:00 EST

I don't care where you matriculated, what you studied, or what honors you graduated with. If you didn't go to Benedictine University, your degree is now useless. More »

Recruit Who Tweeted Stuff Like "The Teacher Tells Me When A Girls Squirts That’s Not A Organism" Commits To Colorado

Dom Cosentino — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:51:02 EST

Looks like things worked out for Yuri Wright. The 85th-best recruit in the nation, according to Rivals.com, Wright had been kicked out of Don Bosco Prep (N.J.) last week after his cornucopia of racist, sexist, sexually graphic, and language-mangling tweets became known to the wider world. Michigan, which one report said was his "dream school," also stopped recruiting him because of it all, and Rutgers was said to be losing interest, too. But Colorado was still willing to have him, and today Wright verbally accepted the Buffaloes' scholarship offer. He's also reportedly back on Twitter, and we've been reminded one more time of his fantastic Twitter fusillade. See? Everybody wins! More »

"The Teacher Tells Me When A Girls Squirts That's Not A Organism": Top Recruit's Twitter Gets Him Expelled

Barry Petchesky — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST

Yuri Wright, the seventh-best cornerback in the country according to Rivals.com, is finding his options curtailed. Michigan has reportedly dropped its pursuit, and Rutgers is reconsidering a campus visit. Oh, and he got kicked out of high school, so he needs to find somewhere to finish his senior year. More »

Gunner Kiel's Mom Recommits Him To Notre Dame

Emma Carmichael — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:50:00 EST

Gunner Kiel, the No. 2 high school quarterback prospect in the country and the only quarterback prospect who was probably named to one day be a top quarterback prospect—your time has passed, Colt McCoy—has decommitted from LSU, where he'd planned to enroll this week. Instead, Young Gunner heeded his mother's advice, and he's decided to play for Notre Dame's NBC contract next year. More »

Top Football Recruit Makes College Decision On Live Television, Much To His Mother's Visible Displeasure

Timothy Burke — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 01:02:04 EST

Landon Collins is the top football recruit from the state of Louisiana, and the defensive back was heavily recruited by top college programs. Having narrowed his commitment decision to LSU and Alabama, he chose the Crimson Tide live during ESPN's broadcast of the Under Armour high school all-star game in St. Petersburg—leaving his Tigers-supporting mom shaking her head in bitter disapproval, which only got worse when she got on the microphone. [ESPN] More »

Recruit Says Bruce Pearl Sent A Beautiful Girl To Tell Him To Attend Tennessee

Barry Petchesky — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:25:20 EST

Small forward Jordan Adams is one of the many prospects out of Oak Hill Academy, and ESPN has him ranked as the 50th best recruit in the nation. He's going to UCLA in the fall, but they weren't the only ones who were interested: Bruce Pearl, while still at Tennessee, apparently called in the services of one of his top recruiting specialists: More »

Top Prospect Chooses Ohio State Because "There's No Way You Can Fail"

Barry Petchesky — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:00:21 EST

Hello, and welcome to Quotes Taken Out Of Context And Used To Make Fun Of A School's Reputation Theater. Our first contestant is Adolphus Washington, ESPNU's 10th best DE prospect, who just committed to Ohio State. Adolphus, why did you choose the Buckeyes? More »

A Report That Jerry Sandusky Was Still Recruiting For Penn State Last Spring Appears To Be False

Dom Cosentino — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:36:35 EST

This has been getting around this afternoon, and it is alarming for all of the obvious reasons, though it looks like it's not true. The grand jury began its investigation of Jerry Sandusky's alleged sex crimes more than two years ago, and until now there had been no indication Sandusky was still on the recruiting trail on behalf of Penn State. But that didn't stop a South Carolina television station from taking what high school senior Adam Ah Ching told them at face value, after which they aired it and put it on their website: More »

Willie Lyles Is Struggling To Keep His Stories Straight

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:20:23 EDT

Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: he can save Oregon's ass, or his own, but probably not both. More »

Why You Should Never Trust College Hoops Recruiting Rumors

Barry Petchesky — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:00:00 EDT

They're all made up! At least the ones on SummerHoopScoop, which suckered in a good number of people with plausible prep and recruiting news over the past few months. "Jonathon Paige" was quickly becoming, if not a major player, a name that kept popping up on message boards in connections with rumors. More »

Football Wunderkind Now A D1 Prospect: A Followup To Our Pearl-Clutching

Barry Petchesky — Thu, 26 May 2011 11:45:00 EDT

It was more than four years ago that this very site brought you the story of Ben Onett, a 13-year-old New Hampshire quarterback who was already thinking college recruiting. His lovably low-tech scouting profile, set up by his family, still exists, but it's an artifact of a simpler time. Now this stuff is commonplace, like with barely pubescent David Sills "committing" to USC, and it's still all publicity stunting, but we've learned to accept that college sports are weird and wrong and that there are worse things to get bent out of shape over. (Even our headline seems naive: when's the last time we expected our NCAA stars to be in school for the "enjoyment of sport"?) More »

Presenting The 18-Minute Video Of Shin-Soo Choo's Failed Roadside Sobriety Test

Brian Hickey — Thu, 05 May 2011 09:30:00 EDT

Your morning roundup for May 5, the day a former vice president wants you to thank "enhanced interrogation" for the current president's visit to Ground Zero. More »

Oregon Paid For Recruiting Services, But That's Probably Okay

Barry Petchesky — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 10:35:00 EST

There have been rumors over the past few weeks that the NCAA was investigating a top program for possible recruiting violations. Then it comes out that Oregon's been cutting checks to recruiters/trainers/scouts/mentors of prospects who eventually committed to the Ducks. That sounds bad. It isn't. More »

Explaining The Cam Newton Ruling, As Best We Can

Barry Petchesky — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 14:35:37 EST

We don't know a heck of a lot right now, since the NCAA and Auburn aren't talking. But we can parse the NCAA's statement and try to break down what happened, and what happens next. More »

Cam Newton Ruled Eligible By NCAA

Barry Petchesky — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 12:55:46 EST

The NCAA has reinstated Newton, after he was secretly declared ineligible yesterday (for procedural purposes after an amateurism violation was determined to have occurred). [NCAA, Birmingham News] More »

Community College Baseball Player Has The Heart Of A Champion

Barry Petchesky — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:30:00 EDT

Alec Cortez, of San Bernardino Valley College, sent this video to more than 100 schools, just looking for a chance to show of his skills. And what skills they are. More »

Sun-Times Going Hard On UK's Pay-For-Play Recruit

Barry Petchesky — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:35:06 EDT

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The paper reported rumors, that highly-prized Anthony Davis accepted $200,000 to choose Kentucky. UK's lawyers got involved, and the editors pulled the paragraph...for a day. Now the Sun-Times is fighting back, with more detailed, sourced allegations. This should be fun. More »

Byzantine Facebook Recruiting Rules Trip Up UVa

Barry Petchesky — Sun, 02 May 2010 16:50:00 EDT

Virginia Coach Mike London is in trouble not because he sent recruit Curtis Grant a Facebook message, but because he didn't do it secretly. Oh, and the actual message is pretty weird, in a NAMBLA kind of way. More »

Uproar Over 13-Year-Old Recruit Symbolizes The Grim Specter Of Death

Barry Petchesky — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:15:00 EST

It would be easy to say that the verbal commitment of a 13-year-old crystalizes everything that's wrong with college sports. But the real reason there's been so much handwringing is simple: it makes us realize we're old. More »

Mississippi State Recruits Enjoy Ponies And/Or Strippers

Dashiell Bennett — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:15:35 EST

It seems that quite a few high school football recruits made their campus visit to Mississippi State this weekend and a few mentioned enjoying something called "THE PONY." You don't think they're talking about Starkville's greatest strip club, do you? More »

Bizarre Recruiting Hoax Fools None, Confuses All

Dashiell Bennett — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:40:18 EST

A sad young man is accused of recruiting high school football players for East Carolina—a school he has no affiliation with and that has never heard of him. What could have been the point of this not-so-master plan? More »

UF Football Not About To Get Any Classier (Update)

Barry Petchesky — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:30:00 EST

Not for nothing have they garnered the "University of Felons" nickname. I'm not saying a top recruit posing with a gun and $16 is necessarily a crime, but it's not going to change any impressions. More »

A Brief History Of Campus Recruiting Hostesses

Dashiell Bennett — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:00:36 EST

We hope you didn't get the impression that Tennessee is the only school to use attractive young ladies as bait to lure prospective athletes, because it's actually a college football tradition as revered as marching bands and beer bongs. More »

Tennessee's "Hostess" Program Catches Recruits' (And NCAA's) Eyes (Updated)

Dashiell Bennett — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:30:52 EST

The New York Times has a verrrrry interesting story about an NCAA investigation at Tennessee, concerning recruiting "hostesses"—i.e., hot Tennessee co-eds who get quite friendly with talented high school football players. (Updates below) More »

Most Auburn Fans Are Doltish Cretins, Obviously

The Cajun Boy — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:43:24 EDT

Have you ever been to Auburn? No? Well, I have, and IT SUCKS! Which is why, in order to "attract" recruits, the program has to dispatch its illiterate boosters to harass the nation's top prep talent into signing with them. More »

Henry Family Reminds Everyone Who's The Boss

Dashiell Bennett — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:15:49 EDT

Carl Henry was not happy about that article that seemed to suggest he was a arrogant basketball father on a power trip, so he responded in the only way that made sense—by pulling an arrogant power trip. More »

Henry Boys Not Making A Lot Of Friends At Kansas

Dashiell Bennett — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:50:03 EDT

This story about hoop brothers Xavier and C.J. Henry—and their mastermind father, Carl—is pretty much everything you need to understand about the modern world of college basketball. Try not to let that fact stop you from reading it. More »

13-Year-Old Commits To Lane Kiffin, Kind Of

Ben Cohen — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:00:00 EDT

The 13-year-old boy has enough to worry about. Committing to a college is not usually one of those preoccupations, unless you're really, really good — or the brother of an All-American who plays for Lane Kiffin. Or both! More »

The Washington Huskies Revival Will Be Led By Joe Montana's Son

Ben Cohen — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:15:13 EDT

Tough call for Nick Montana: Charlie Weis' Notre Dame or winless Washington? Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a Huskie by the toe, my father told me to pick the best one and that is Y-O-U-W. [Seattle Times] More »

ESPN Now Enabling Lane Kiffin's Recruiting Violations

Dashiell Bennett — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:05:14 EDT

Stop me if you heard this one before: Lane Kiffin may have committed yet another recruiting violation. I know the man can't roll out of bed without doing something wrong, but does ESPN really need to be his facilitator? More »

John Wall Declaring Early For Life Of Crime

Dashiell Bennett — Mon, 04 May 2009 11:35:28 EDT

Number One basketball super recruit John Wall has not yet decided what college he will pretend to get an education at for one semester, but perhaps he just needs trespassing time to think about it. More »

Auburn's "Tiger Prowl" Might Be As Creepy As It Sounds

Dashiell Bennett — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:00:00 EDT

The Auburn recruiting limo—coming soon to a high school near you. If you're 250-lb linebacker with 4.6 speed, that is. [Birmingham News, Press-Register] More »

Your Team Is A Fan Of Being On Probation

Dashiell Bennett — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:15:50 EDT

Please don't take any "What cast member of 'Saved By The Bell' is your 4-star basketball recruit?" quizzes on Facebook, unless you want your program to get slapped with an NCAA violation for being dumb. More »

High School Basketball Without The High Schools

Dashiell Bennett — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:30:01 EDT

Sports Illustrated has a very curious story this week about Findlay Prep, the team that won ESPN's inaugrual RISE National High School Invitational tournament last weekend. There's just one issue—Findlay Prep is not a high school. More »

UConn Accused Of Recruiting Violations

Dashiell Bennett — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:45:00 EDT

Yahoo Sports is reporting today that Connecticut violated many NCAA rules in the recruitment of Nate Miles, a former student who expelled from the school last fall. More »

No Pressure On Sixth-Grade Basketball Recruit

Dashiell Bennett — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:45:25 EDT

The New York Times is concerned about the hype that recruiters place on young sixth grade athletes. You know what would definitely help with that? A feature story in The New York Times! More »

Bill Self Talks To Who He Wants To, When He Wants To

Dashiell Bennett — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:45:00 EST

Every college basketball program cheats the NCAA regulations—that's been well established, right?—but some are a little more brazen about, if this alleged tale about Kansas coach Bill Self has any truth to it. More »

How Texas And Oklahoma Fight For Football Recruits

Dashiell Bennett — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST

Everyone knows recruiting for big time college football programs is a shady business, but it's instructive to occasionally be reminded what schools and players go through on the road to a letter of intent. More »

The Ballad Of Willie Williams

Dashiell Bennett — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:15:00 EDT

This story takes us way back to the year 2004 B.D. (Before Deadspin), and yes, sports existed even then. Back when a 19-year-old kid from Miami named Willie Williams was the most sought after football recruit in Florida and the Miami Herald figured, "Why not ask him to keep a diary of his on campus recruiting trips to let people see the experience from the inside." Why not, indeed? Maybe because the inside was the last place the universities ever wanted the press or public to look. More »