Vandy News: 3 Footballers Wouldn't Have Made Academics, Went To Happy Valley

((HT: The Dirty South Sports Report))

Here's another round from contributor Jackson Martin and paragraph 2 is the more interesting part...

The biggest news out of the AD office today is that Vanderbilt has offers from three different BCS schools to play a future home and home series with the Commodores. A potential matchup with Stanford — new Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason’s former employer — is the most exciting possibility by far, but some fans would rather see less successful programs in Georgia Tech or Boston College on the schedule. Vanderbilt has never played Stanford in football, but has played Boston College three times (most recently defeating the Eagles in the 2008 Music City Bowl) and former SEC-member Georgia Tech 37 times (most recently in 2009).

Another potentially shocking story comes from our source who says, ”Three of the six recruits that Franklin ‘stole’ from Vandy were denied admission on academic grounds.” What isn’t known is the timeline here: did the recruits flip and then were denied by the school, or did they flip because they were denied?

Our source also told us, “DW and all SEC ADs are opposed to 9 game SEC schedule. Some coaches are in favor.” That’s unfortunate news to this writer, who would be in favor of adding an extra conference game so that teams don’t see non-rivals from the opposite division only once every six years.

A small bit of uniform-centric news: the team will not have names on the back of the jerseys in the fall. Former head coach Bobby Johnson was a big believer in the “team-first” mentality and didn’t have names on the jerseys either, though Franklin did put the names on the uniforms during his tenure.

Dime Store Analysis:

The HQ isn't all that shocked that coaches would have their prospects flip from old school to new school, but the timing will turn out to be interesting...

John Stuetz from the Daily Collegian detailed some of the flippers around National Signing Day and it included OL Chance Sorrell and Ashburn, Virginia QB Trace McSorely.

The others, according to the Collegian, are Tampa-Gaither DB Amani Oruwariye, The Lovett School (Atlanta) CB Grant Haley, and Park Ridge, Illinois OT Brendan Brosnan. LB Troy Reeder from Wilmington-Salesianum out of Delaware had an offer from Vandy as well.

Here's Franklin addressing his NSD2014 with the media...
((HT: Centre Daily Times))

OSG High: Raekwon Chooses Ohio State

((HT: SouthernPigskin.com))

The HQ has seen Liberty County (GA) High School LB Raekwon McMillan up close- and he is a beast...

Today, he decided on his next place to attend, enroll early, and become one in the pile of all the other 5-star recruits heading to the next level...

So...
From Hinesville...


McMillan will be an interesting add for tOSU...

The HQ will be even more interested in how he would integrate

Alex Collins Finally Signs With Arkansas While Mom Hires Lawyer

((ht: cbssports.com))

This just keeps getting weirder.

One day after "Not" being able to sign a letter of intent to play football at the University of Arkansas, Alex Collins of South Plantation (FL) High finally got a parent to sign off on one.

You'll recall Wednesday, Collins, who announced he would play football for the Razorbacks couldn't fax in his letter, because his mom took it. And then disappeared.

Apparently Collins got his father, Johnny Collins to sign off on it and things were made official early Thursday afternoon.

And then Collins was told his mom, Andrea McDonald, had hired a lawyer to investigate her options.
To which he told gathered reporters, "I didn't know that."

Okay.

To say this is a bit strange would be somewhat understating things. We are sure there are times when parents and kids disagree about choices like this. But not in such a public forum and in such a strange way.

This isn't going to affect whether or not Collins can play football in Fayetteville, he can. And he also told reporters his mom "Just wanted him to be sure". That part we get, going from the Miami suburbs to Fayetteville is going to be a bit of a culture shock to say the least. We just find it amusing they hadn't apparently discussed this until Wednesday.


For those interested, here's video of Thursday's signing:


Here’s the statement released by The Cochran Firm:

Andrea McDonald, mother of highly sought-after college football recruit Alex Collins, has retained attorney Jack Paris of The Cochran Firm – South Florida to represent the family’s interests while she contemplates on signing the NCAA’s Letter of Intent that will decide where the South Plantation High School running back will play football.

McDonald was expected to sign the document with the Razorbacks during Wednesday’s National Signing Day. However, the family of the five-star recruit said no decision has been made.

Alex’s family has been overwhelmed with media inquiries regarding their impending decision,” said Paris. “They want to make a clean choice that is free of any outside influences. This is a very tough decision and they are weighing their options very carefully. In the meantime, they have requested The Cochran Firm’s assistance in clearing up any false or inaccurate statements in the press.”

Opinion: The Weird Fascination With Signing Day

It's a question that I keep asking myself every year around this time: Why are so many grown men utterly fascinated with the college choice of 17 or 18 year old high school kids?

And despite living and growing up in the south along with a very long career working in TV Sports, I've still not been able to understand it.

My Twitter feed yesterday was blown up with people, no, grown men boasting "National Signing Day should be a holiday in the south".

Really?

Sure, I'm a bit cynical and while I love all things Sports, I don't LIVE for all things Sports. But there are an awful lot of people down here in SEC territory who do LIVE for this.

From the breathless local TV coverage of kids making the dramatic, yet rarely surprising "announcement" of where they are going to play...(even if they say the school name wrong)

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To the non-stop reports of "Who's flipping?" "Who won?" and the growth of sites like Rivals.com, scout.com and the 24-7 sites, it's an endless flood of who's the best high school prospects.

And it creates an artificial, bizarre bubble around the kids. Alumni become hyper-critical if the kid doesn't come to their school. Fans start making accusations. Poor Ole Miss. They get Robert Nkemdiche and some other "High" rated recruits and "Boom" there are allegations they are cheating.

Without getting too much on the soapbox, we just keep asking ourselves, "Why"? Does rating a 17-year old as 1,2, 3, 4 or 5-Star recruits measure how successful they'll be in college? No. Is it a best guess? Yes.

I've said it before and will say it again, you cannot predict with 100% accuracy how any teenager will react in his first year in college. You can't.

There are so many more temptations, so many more things they can't possibly have experienced that they'll be exposed to. Sure, lots of kids don't have a problem with it, adjust, become immediately successful and never look back.

But an equally large percentage don't.

It's an in-exact science and the even the "Recruit-niks" will tell you, they rarely get things dead perfect. But yet it's treated as such.

I think what is hard to understand is the pressure it puts the kids under. It's not uncommon any more for a kid to commit somewhere as a junior, but never go to the same school he says he loved just the year before. Nkemdiche did it. He "Committed" to Clemson, flirted with Georgia, took a visit to LSU and flirted again with Alabama before "committing" to Ole Miss.

The burden is wrong to put on a kid and I challenge ANY of you to argue that this system is "Fair and/or Equitable" to anyone.

For that matter, if you believe this "Should" be a holiday, I'd love to hear your argument for it. Why should this be "Celebrated" like it is? Why should an employer be obligated to give you a day off for work for something like this?

This kind of applies...kind of:

It Wouldn't Be NSD Without An "Alex Collins..."

((HT: FoxSports))

Plantation ((FL)) High RB Alex Collins committed to Arkansas on "The New College Football Show: Next Class" Monday night on Fox Sports Net around the country.

Here was the moment and the discussion...


But... and this is a big "BUT..." Tuesday, his mother said that she wanted to be at the signing ceremony at the high school, Alex said it would be okay to be there.

This morning, according to OSG sources, Alex's mom created a scene before the ceremony at the school and, during all of the emotion, runs off with the Letter of Intent and now can't be found. Our sources say that the letter has already signed, but not faxed to Arkansas.

During the 4-letter coverage, anchor Rece Davis asked new head coach Bret Bielema asked about Collins...
((HT: ESPN/youtube))


Collins is 18, so he can be a (somewhat) emancipated signee, but the rest of the Ess-E-Cee would like to welcome Bielema to the 'cruitin' world...