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Coaches' finger-pointing over recruiting is hypocritical, laughable
What does it say about Miles as a leader that he feels the need to stand up at a campus recruiting celebration and trash Notre Dame signee Gunner Kiel for bailing on the Tigers? (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
This is rich. But they are rich ? and this is how they got that way ? so this probably shouldn't come as a surprise.
Still, isn't it the height of hypocrisy for high-profile college football coaches like LSU's Les Miles and Notre Dame's Brian Kelly ? not to mention all those bickering Big Ten gentlemen ? to be blasting 17- and 18-year-old kids for having a change of heart? Or for saying one thing and then later doing another? Or for being swayed by the lure of a better promise?
Really now, what does it say about Miles as a leader that he feels the need to stand up at a campus recruiting celebration and trash Notre Dame signee Gunner Kiel for bailing on the Tigers?
"We needed a quarterback in this class. There was a young man from Indiana that thought about coming to the Bayou State," Miles said in a speech at the appropriately-named "Bayou Bash" ? a video of which was posted on YouTube by the LSU student newspaper. "(But) he did not necessarily have the chest and the ability to lead a program. So you know."
So you know, Miles also made gestures as he spoke, pointing exaggeratedly at his chest, to drive home his message that Kiel (originally an Indiana commitment) didn't have the courage or the character ? or something like that ? to lead his powerhouse SEC team. (Unlike, say, Jordan Jefferson, last year's starter, who was kicked off the team following an August bar fight but later reinstated after his felony battery charge was reduced to a simple misdemeanor.)
Then there was Kelly, he of the weekly red-faced tantrums on the sideline in South Bend, who had sharp words after a big one got away. Five-star receiver Deontay Greenberry did an 11th-hour about-face on his verbal commitment to the Fighting Irish and signed with Houston instead.
But rather than taking the high road Wednesday, Kelly first told his university's website, "I used to have a saying about players like that, and that was I'd rather play against him for four games than with him for four years." Kelly had toned down his message by the time he held his signing-day news conference ? give him credit for that, at least ? but he'd already made his point.
No one's squeaky clean
And here's mine: All this finger-pointing is laughable, if only because hardly anyone is left untouched.
Sure, Urban Meyer flipped eight or nine recruits committed to other Big Ten schools and signed them at Ohio State, which had the added bonus of two coaching staffs for a time this winter. But some of those players already would've been locked up by Ohio State if not for Jim Tressel's firing and the coaching limbo ? not to mention the feeding frenzy ? that ensued.
So let's drop the pretense about ethics here for a minute ? it wasn't just the coaches at Wisconsin and Michigan State complaining this week, by the way ? and just admit everyone's guilty of poaching on some level.
And let's remember that an SEC coach's grandstanding about a recruit's supposed lack of loyalty is severely undermined by the ugly ? and routine ? practice of oversigning and greyshirting that goes on in that conference. All too often there, today's coveted recruit is tomorrow's castoff. (Right, Les?)
And let's not ignore that fact that some of these same coaches pounding their chests and selling their schools so passionately ? to recruits, to fans and to the media ? also are aggressively selling themselves to the next highest bidder. (Wasn't it Brian Kelly, the former Central Michigan and Grand Valley State coach, who ditched his Cincinnati players ? and a pretty sizeable recruiting class ? to jump to Notre Dame right before his school was to play in the Sugar Bowl a couple years ago?)
So in the end, let's not forget this: For all the childish behavior we see from some of the teenagers in this crazy recruiting game ? from the last-minute broken promises to the multiple-hat shell games announcing their decisions ? most of them are just playing follow-the-leader.
john.niyo@detnews.com
- John Niyo
This is rich. But they are rich ? and this is how they got that way ? so this probably shouldn't come as a surprise.
Still, isn't it the height of hypocrisy for high-profile college football coaches like LSU's Les Miles and Notre Dame's Brian Kelly ? not to mention all those bickering Big Ten gentlemen ? to be blasting 17- and 18-year-old kids for having a change of heart? Or for saying one thing and then later doing another? Or for being swayed by the lure of a better promise?
Really now, what does it say about Miles as a leader that he feels the need to stand up at a campus recruiting celebration and trash Notre Dame signee Gunner Kiel for bailing on the Tigers?
"We needed a quarterback in this class. There was a young man from Indiana that thought about coming to the Bayou State," Miles said in a speech at the appropriately-named "Bayou Bash" ? a video of which was posted on YouTube by the LSU student newspaper. "(But) he did not necessarily have the chest and the ability to lead a program. So you know."
So you know, Miles also made gestures as he spoke, pointing exaggeratedly at his chest, to drive home his message that Kiel (originally an Indiana commitment) didn't have the courage or the character ? or something like that ? to lead his powerhouse SEC team. (Unlike, say, Jordan Jefferson, last year's starter, who was kicked off the team following an August bar fight but later reinstated after his felony battery charge was reduced to a simple misdemeanor.)
Then there was Kelly, he of the weekly red-faced tantrums on the sideline in South Bend, who had sharp words after a big one got away. Five-star receiver Deontay Greenberry did an 11th-hour about-face on his verbal commitment to the Fighting Irish and signed with Houston instead.
But rather than taking the high road Wednesday, Kelly first told his university's website, "I used to have a saying about players like that, and that was I'd rather play against him for four games than with him for four years." Kelly had toned down his message by the time he held his signing-day news conference ? give him credit for that, at least ? but he'd already made his point.
No one's squeaky clean
And here's mine: All this finger-pointing is laughable, if only because hardly anyone is left untouched.
Sure, Urban Meyer flipped eight or nine recruits committed to other Big Ten schools and signed them at Ohio State, which had the added bonus of two coaching staffs for a time this winter. But some of those players already would've been locked up by Ohio State if not for Jim Tressel's firing and the coaching limbo ? not to mention the feeding frenzy ? that ensued.
So let's drop the pretense about ethics here for a minute ? it wasn't just the coaches at Wisconsin and Michigan State complaining this week, by the way ? and just admit everyone's guilty of poaching on some level.
And let's remember that an SEC coach's grandstanding about a recruit's supposed lack of loyalty is severely undermined by the ugly ? and routine ? practice of oversigning and greyshirting that goes on in that conference. All too often there, today's coveted recruit is tomorrow's castoff. (Right, Les?)
And let's not ignore that fact that some of these same coaches pounding their chests and selling their schools so passionately ? to recruits, to fans and to the media ? also are aggressively selling themselves to the next highest bidder. (Wasn't it Brian Kelly, the former Central Michigan and Grand Valley State coach, who ditched his Cincinnati players ? and a pretty sizeable recruiting class ? to jump to Notre Dame right before his school was to play in the Sugar Bowl a couple years ago?)
So in the end, let's not forget this: For all the childish behavior we see from some of the teenagers in this crazy recruiting game ? from the last-minute broken promises to the multiple-hat shell games announcing their decisions ? most of them are just playing follow-the-leader.
john.niyo@detnews.com
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