S-T Article: Visits Gone Bad
Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2004 5:40 amMon, Feb. 02, 2004
VISITS GONE BAD
Recruits expect to be spoiled by colleges, but some trips turn into nightmares.
By Ruben Martinez
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
First impressions are lasting ones. That's why college coaches go to great lengths to make sure recruits feel special during their visits. They'll take them to their school's basketball games. They'll announce the players' names over the public address system at the football stadium. They'll take them to posh restaurants.
"It takes a lot of people working together to make sure a visit goes well," former Texas Tech coach Spike ****s said. "You want to be as natural as you can."
But sometimes visits go very wrong. Recruits end up stranded in cars or in their hotel room. They get sick.
The all-important recruiting visit -- tailor-made to be fun -- doesn't always go as planned.
Unwelcome Dome
Former Lamar High School standout Matt Sign still gets upset when recalling his trip to Notre Dame.
He went to South Bend, Ind., for an official visit in December 1988, a year in which the Fighting Irish won the national championship. Sign thinks his chances with Notre Dame took a nose dive when the coaches saw a 5-foot-10, 220-pound kid wanting to play nose guard.
Sign and the recruits were taken to a banquet on Friday night, where they met individually with the football coaches. Everyone except Sign. Sunday morning, Sign and the recruits went to coach Lou Holtz's home for breakfast. Holtz met each player individually. Everyone except Sign.
That was when assistant coach Pete Cordelli pulled the dumbfounded Sign aside and told him the program was not going to offer him a scholarship.
"I got on a plane and left without ever meeting or speaking to coach Holtz," said Sign, now the executive director of the Tangerine Bowl. "That's fine, but if you're going to bring someone up, hell, talk to them! To this day, I think Pete Cordelli was embarrassed by the whole thing."
Sign, who was coming off Lamar's state quarterfinal loss to Odessa Permian and was trying to deal with his father's recent heart attack, eventually landed a scholarship from Rice, where he was named to two All-Southwest Conference teams.
Chilling out in Michigan
Jermaine Brooks, a Cowboys rookie defensive tackle this season, didn't agree with the Michigan weather in December, and that's probably the only reason he didn't play his college games in Ann Arbor.
Brooks, who had a freshly shaved head at the time, traveled from California to Michigan for a visit in 1998. He got off the plane ready to commit.
Then he stepped outside.
The temperature had dropped below zero. He said he had never experienced weather that cold.
"That sort of chilled my whole little trip," Brooks said.
Chilled it to the bone. During his short stay, Brooks became ill. Just like that, Brooks was an Arkansas Razorback.
"I thought, if it was going to be this cold, I don't want to be up here," Brooks said. "Everything was fine, and they had just won the Rose Bowl. But that cold really ate me up. I just told them I didn't want to come, but I never told them why."
Wasted trip
TCU defensive end Robert Pollard went to Northwestern State in Natchitoches, La., for a visit he'd rather forget. But he can't.
His tour guide, another football player, took him to a friend's dorm room for what turned out to be a fun night.
Fun for everyone but Pollard.
The tour guide and his friends began to play video games. Three or four hours later, they were still at it. Pollard never got a chance to play.
"I didn't learn anything about the football team," Pollard said. "I just kind of sat there the whole time and watched them play. I was pretty upset. They seemed like nice guys when I first got there. But I guess they just forgot about me. I didn't get the sense that I was one of their special recruits."
Which was good news for TCU. Pollard earned four letters with the Horned Frogs and was fifth on the team in tackles last season.
Overstaying his welcome
Talk about uncomfortable.
Cowboys tight end Jason Witten's timing couldn't have been worse. During a visit to Michigan, he told coaches the night before he was to leave that he had decided to commit to Tennessee.
But a snowstorm stranded Witten for a day, and he had to spend it with coaches who were understandably less enthusiastic about his visit.
"All day Sunday, they didn't want anything to do with me," Witten said. "They just left me in my hotel room. They told me when my plane was leaving, and that was it. I'm sure they would have loved it had I not told them I was going to Tennessee. They could have had an extra day of recruiting, and I'm sure they would have had something for me to do."
Instead, Witten spent all Sunday stuck in his hotel room, watching television and catching up on sleep. Because of the weather, sightseeing was out of the question.
Stalled trip
Cowboys linebacker Al Singleton's guide borrowed a beat-up car to drive him around Newark, N.J., during a visit to Rutgers in 1994.
During a snowstorm, the car stalled at the top of a hill.
"We had to leave the car," Singleton said. "It took about an hour for some other recruiting guy to come pick us up. That wasn't fun."
Singleton eventually went to Temple.
Can't cash in
****s recalled a visit that still troubles him.
Jake Young was on an official visit to Texas Tech in the late 1980s and, during halftime of a basketball game, was selected to attempt a half-court shot for $5,000. Young made the shot. The visit, seemingly, was going better than planned.
The next day, ****s was told by school officials that Young was ineligible for the prize because he was on an official visit.
"I felt terrible," ****s said. "He didn't think it was fair."
Young eventually went to Nebraska, where he was an All-America center in 1988 and 1989.
****s was melancholy when recalling the incident; Young was one of the 202 people killed in a 2002 terrorist blast in Bali, Indonesia.
****s described the recruiting process as a science. He said that, when visits go bad, there's not much coaches can do. He said it's more important for him to be himself, rather than flowering recruits with excuses and promises.
"You just try and patch things up as best you can," he said. "You're on defense instead of offense now."
VISITS GONE BAD
Recruits expect to be spoiled by colleges, but some trips turn into nightmares.
By Ruben Martinez
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
First impressions are lasting ones. That's why college coaches go to great lengths to make sure recruits feel special during their visits. They'll take them to their school's basketball games. They'll announce the players' names over the public address system at the football stadium. They'll take them to posh restaurants.
"It takes a lot of people working together to make sure a visit goes well," former Texas Tech coach Spike ****s said. "You want to be as natural as you can."
But sometimes visits go very wrong. Recruits end up stranded in cars or in their hotel room. They get sick.
The all-important recruiting visit -- tailor-made to be fun -- doesn't always go as planned.
Unwelcome Dome
Former Lamar High School standout Matt Sign still gets upset when recalling his trip to Notre Dame.
He went to South Bend, Ind., for an official visit in December 1988, a year in which the Fighting Irish won the national championship. Sign thinks his chances with Notre Dame took a nose dive when the coaches saw a 5-foot-10, 220-pound kid wanting to play nose guard.
Sign and the recruits were taken to a banquet on Friday night, where they met individually with the football coaches. Everyone except Sign. Sunday morning, Sign and the recruits went to coach Lou Holtz's home for breakfast. Holtz met each player individually. Everyone except Sign.
That was when assistant coach Pete Cordelli pulled the dumbfounded Sign aside and told him the program was not going to offer him a scholarship.
"I got on a plane and left without ever meeting or speaking to coach Holtz," said Sign, now the executive director of the Tangerine Bowl. "That's fine, but if you're going to bring someone up, hell, talk to them! To this day, I think Pete Cordelli was embarrassed by the whole thing."
Sign, who was coming off Lamar's state quarterfinal loss to Odessa Permian and was trying to deal with his father's recent heart attack, eventually landed a scholarship from Rice, where he was named to two All-Southwest Conference teams.
Chilling out in Michigan
Jermaine Brooks, a Cowboys rookie defensive tackle this season, didn't agree with the Michigan weather in December, and that's probably the only reason he didn't play his college games in Ann Arbor.
Brooks, who had a freshly shaved head at the time, traveled from California to Michigan for a visit in 1998. He got off the plane ready to commit.
Then he stepped outside.
The temperature had dropped below zero. He said he had never experienced weather that cold.
"That sort of chilled my whole little trip," Brooks said.
Chilled it to the bone. During his short stay, Brooks became ill. Just like that, Brooks was an Arkansas Razorback.
"I thought, if it was going to be this cold, I don't want to be up here," Brooks said. "Everything was fine, and they had just won the Rose Bowl. But that cold really ate me up. I just told them I didn't want to come, but I never told them why."
Wasted trip
TCU defensive end Robert Pollard went to Northwestern State in Natchitoches, La., for a visit he'd rather forget. But he can't.
His tour guide, another football player, took him to a friend's dorm room for what turned out to be a fun night.
Fun for everyone but Pollard.
The tour guide and his friends began to play video games. Three or four hours later, they were still at it. Pollard never got a chance to play.
"I didn't learn anything about the football team," Pollard said. "I just kind of sat there the whole time and watched them play. I was pretty upset. They seemed like nice guys when I first got there. But I guess they just forgot about me. I didn't get the sense that I was one of their special recruits."
Which was good news for TCU. Pollard earned four letters with the Horned Frogs and was fifth on the team in tackles last season.
Overstaying his welcome
Talk about uncomfortable.
Cowboys tight end Jason Witten's timing couldn't have been worse. During a visit to Michigan, he told coaches the night before he was to leave that he had decided to commit to Tennessee.
But a snowstorm stranded Witten for a day, and he had to spend it with coaches who were understandably less enthusiastic about his visit.
"All day Sunday, they didn't want anything to do with me," Witten said. "They just left me in my hotel room. They told me when my plane was leaving, and that was it. I'm sure they would have loved it had I not told them I was going to Tennessee. They could have had an extra day of recruiting, and I'm sure they would have had something for me to do."
Instead, Witten spent all Sunday stuck in his hotel room, watching television and catching up on sleep. Because of the weather, sightseeing was out of the question.
Stalled trip
Cowboys linebacker Al Singleton's guide borrowed a beat-up car to drive him around Newark, N.J., during a visit to Rutgers in 1994.
During a snowstorm, the car stalled at the top of a hill.
"We had to leave the car," Singleton said. "It took about an hour for some other recruiting guy to come pick us up. That wasn't fun."
Singleton eventually went to Temple.
Can't cash in
****s recalled a visit that still troubles him.
Jake Young was on an official visit to Texas Tech in the late 1980s and, during halftime of a basketball game, was selected to attempt a half-court shot for $5,000. Young made the shot. The visit, seemingly, was going better than planned.
The next day, ****s was told by school officials that Young was ineligible for the prize because he was on an official visit.
"I felt terrible," ****s said. "He didn't think it was fair."
Young eventually went to Nebraska, where he was an All-America center in 1988 and 1989.
****s was melancholy when recalling the incident; Young was one of the 202 people killed in a 2002 terrorist blast in Bali, Indonesia.
****s described the recruiting process as a science. He said that, when visits go bad, there's not much coaches can do. He said it's more important for him to be himself, rather than flowering recruits with excuses and promises.
"You just try and patch things up as best you can," he said. "You're on defense instead of offense now."