"Recruit" Lies About Being a Recruit

This is just another reason why I simply don't get that into college football recruiting. First of all, what a kid does in high school really doesn't mean anything at a div. 1 college program. It's not how good he was in h.s., it's what you can do to develop that talent to translate to the college game. Just look at Notre Dame...top 5 recruiting class every year. How did their season turn out?

Okay, sorry...I'm on a rant. Back to the story. There is a high school player, Kevin Hart, at Fernley High School in Nevada who wanted so badly to play big time college ball, that he fabricated a lie about being recruited by about 5-6 big west coast schools. Oregon, Cal, Washington, Nevada...among a few others. The head coaches of all these schools knew about this kid, but never recruited him, never called him, and never even sent him a letter. He attended camps at Cal and Oregon, but thats about it.

But the lie snowballed so much that everyone started to believe him. The head coach, the principal, his classmates. On signing day last week, they packed the gymnasium, had local TV crews there for his decision. He sat down at a table dressed in a white shirt and tie, looked at two hats on the table, one an Oregon cap and the other a Cal hat. He reached out, grabbed the Cal hat, put it on, adjusted it just like every other big time recruit has done in the past. The crowd cheered, his coach hugged him, and he waived to his fans.

And then the chat rooms and blogs quickly started to figure this out. No one knew about this kid. Sure, he looked the part. He was a 6'5" 290 pound o-lineman. He was a little chubby, but looked like once Cal got their hands on him, they could mold him into an athlete. But he seemingly dropped out of nowhere and landed on the Cal list. Coaches at Cal immediately learned of the story and were quick to deny it.

But how dumb can people get? His coach never wondered why a Cal or Oregon coach never called him? His parents never wondered why their phone ever rang? Typically, when you are a big enough star to have a hat ceremony, the head ball coaches for those hats are usually intimately familiar with the high school coach and family.

So now what? There's no way he can play college ball now. Even if he is good enough, the shame he'd have to deal with wouldn't make it worth it.

But this just illustrates the insane hype that goes along with college recruiting. And I think this translates well into the situation with Terrelle Pryor. Sure, he's a great high school athlete, but there's more to it when you go somewhere like Michigan or Ohio State. There's pressure, you're opponents are better, you're just one of 95 super-talented players on a team. And you also have to attend class, follow more rules, you're away from home. Going away to college is hard enough for just typical people like me...let along being a super star with the hype and pressure to deliver fame and glory for you're school.

I say we just do away with the hat ceremonies. We need an early signing period. And we need to have Kevin Hart be an example.