Even after athletes choose college, pressure persists

[Cheesesteak]

Sun, Jan. 29, 2006

Even after athletes choose college, pressure persists
More and more, seniors back out and go elsewhere.

By Sam Carchidi and Rob Parent
Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writers

Cedric Jeffries kept mentally rehearsing the words.

The Egg Harbor Township High senior spent days in late December running through what he would say when he phoned the University of Virginia with the news: He was reneging on the oral commitment he had made in August to play football at Virginia. Instead he would attend Penn State.

"It was the most difficult call I've ever had to make," the 6-foot-3 defensive back and receiver said.

Jeffries had become disillusioned with coaching changes Virginia made after his early commitment, and Penn State had kept pressing its case. And the Nittany Lions had that nearly undefeated 2005 season.

And Jeffries' parents seemed to get along so well with the Paternos.

On a visit to Penn State in December, while Jeffries met the school's players, his parents were invited to the home of head coach Joe Paterno. His dad watched a football game with the venerable coach, and his mother went Christmas shopping with Mrs. Paterno.

Welcome to Happy Valley.

It's that time of year for the nation's top high school football seniors. Wednesday begins the NCAA signing period for incoming football players. It's the first day recruits can sign binding letters of intent.

For the most heavily recruited teenagers, the pressure of deciding where to play is intense, even if they already have made oral commitments to schools.

"I'm just glad it's over," said Cedric Jeffries Sr., the player's father. "There are a lot of nerves seeing your son go through the agony of trying to make a decision."

It's called de-committing, and it is how resurgent Penn State has scored some of its highest profile recruits. Top offensive line prospect Antonio Logan-El switched his commitment Thursday from Maryland to Penn State.

Downingtown East quarterback Pat Devlin made his own difficult phone call last week, to the University of Miami, where he had orally committed before his senior season. He too switched to Penn State, after much pressure and indecision.

Devlin's change of heart, like Jeffries', was inspired by a coaching change, then clinched by hard recruiting. On Jan. 2, Miami head coach Larry Coker fired four assistants, including Philadelphia-area native Dan Werner, the offensive coordinator who had developed a rapport with Devlin. By 3 o'clock the same afternoon, Downingtown East coach Mike Matta said, "I'd received four calls from other top college coaches asking about Pat."

Devlin "didn't want to be known as a guy who backed out of a commitment," Matta said.

"That was definitely a concern for me," Devlin said. "I'm always fully committed; I try to stick to things."

Still, he made the tough decision and is tentatively scheduled to join other Nittany Lions recruits putting pen to Penn State paper in a group signing at the ESPN SportsZone restaurant in Baltimore.

"You definitely do a lot of growing up," Devlin said of the recruiting process. "It's a big thing for a 17-year-old to go through."

And Paterno is still on the case. On Friday he paid a visit to Downingtown East to "shake some hands and sign some autographs," according to the school's athletic director, Jack Helm.

Tom Lemming, a football recruiting editor for College Sports TV, said all the de-committing means "there's no integrity in this process anymore. Even after the kid's committed, they're calling them from different schools."

Kids are being pulled in different directions, sometimes at the same time. At Egg Harbor Township High in December, "I was talking to a Virginia coach and, a half hour later, a Penn State coach came to the school; it was kind of uncomfortable," Jeffries said. "The Virginia coach heard that Penn State was coming, and he asked if I was going to talk with him. I told him I was, and he got mad and left."

"If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have committed so early," Jeffries said. "I committed early because I didn't know if anyone else would come in, and I thought Virginia was a good place."

Then there is Vidal Hazelton of Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., who is ranked by scouting services as one of the nation's top two high school wide receiver prospects.

He was sure where he was going to go to college: He made an oral promise on Dec. 30 to attend the University of Southern California. Four weeks later, Hazelton is not so sure.

His father, Dexter Hazelton, is contemplating a visit today to Penn State for some last-minute research. The family is reconsidering USC, influenced in part by quarterback Devlin's move to the Nittany Lions.

"He's told me there are a lot of things going through his head right now," Dexter Hazelton said of his son, who was not available for comment. "I don't think people realize what 17-year-olds have to go through with this."

Penn State isn't the only school winning de-committed athletes. West Deptford running back Kordell Young, The Inquirer's South Jersey offensive player of the year, orally committed to Virginia last summer. But he visited last weekend "and didn't feel comfortable there," his coach, Clyde Folsom, said yesterday. Now Rutgers is in the mix.

And the Lions aren't undefeated in the recruiting game. Glassboro High linebacker/tight end George Johnson began reassessing his oral commitment to Virginia when the school started to become a coaching carousel.

"I didn't want to make the wrong decision, because this is my future," he said. "It made me start to look around, and that's when Penn State stepped into the picture."

After a lot of soul-searching, Johnson decided to honor his commitment. He said he will sign with Virginia Wednesday.

It remains to be seen whose hand Vidal Hazelton shakes.

"When Joe Paterno comes to your school to see you or you find yourself walking down the hallway with [USC coach] Pete Carroll, I mean, that can turn a high-school kid's head," said Dexter Hazelton. "It's great, but it's really tough on them."

[Casey]

Penn State has been stealing other schools' commitments for a couple of years now. I'm sure that's helped in their resurgence.

And just for the record, if Penn State (which I hate) does it, it's immoral. If SMU does it, I'm totally OK with it.