Programs' responsibilities to recruits

[Denver_sc]

I turned on the local sports radio channel yesterday to see if they were going to talk Beavs-Buffs at all. They didn't, but they were having a particularly interesting discussion regarding Oregon getting recruits by letting them play where they want to.

In short, they said that their opinion was that they landed De'Anthony Thomas, Darron Thomas, and Arik Armstead because they recruited those three guys at their position of choice (RB for DAT when everybody else was recruiting him to be CB, QB for Darron Thomas vs WR/S, DL vs. OL for Armstead).

Their discussion was framed in the context of "what's best for the team?" but I think the more interesting question is if this is responsible to recruits.

As a brief thought experiment, think about De'Anthony Thomas. Presuming (as many head coaches must have thought in order to recruit him as such) that DAT could have been a shutdown corner and would have if he had elected to do so, he'd be a much more draftable commodity than the RB he is now. His size and lack of touches in college will drive off a lot of pro teams, and those that would draft him will likely draft him as 3rd down back and kick/punt returner. It would be very difficult to believe that an NFL team would invest the time and effort to convert him to a CB, where he might not even pan out. Moreover, a cursory look at salaries in the NFL shows that cornerbacks make much, much more money than KR/PRs or 3rd down backs.

By allowing prospects to languish rather than reach their full potential, is Oregon's staff (or any other college staff) shortchanging the recruit?

 

[Buffnik]

You can't place any blame on Oregon here.

1. It's not their responsibility to be a minor league team for the NFL.
2. The entire foundation of the discussion is that the players made a choice on what position to play. How is that on UO?

 

[SuperiorBuff]

I turned on the local sports radio channel yesterday to see if they were going to talk Beavs-Buffs at all. They didn't, but they were having a particularly interesting discussion regarding Oregon getting recruits by letting them play where they want to.

In short, they said that their opinion was that they landed De'Anthony Thomas, Darron Thomas, and Arik Armstead because they recruited those three guys at their position of choice (RB for DAT when everybody else was recruiting him to be CB, QB for Darron Thomas vs WR/S, DL vs. OL for Armstead).

Their discussion was framed in the context of "what's best for the team?" but I think the more interesting question is if this is responsible to recruits.

As a brief thought experiment, think about De'Anthony Thomas. Presuming (as many head coaches must have thought in order to recruit him as such) that DAT could have been a shutdown corner and would have if he had elected to do so, he'd be a much more draftable commodity than the RB he is now. His size and lack of touches in college will drive off a lot of pro teams, and those that would draft him will likely draft him as 3rd down back and kick/punt returner. It would be very difficult to believe that an NFL team would invest the time and effort to convert him to a CB, where he might not even pan out. Moreover, a cursory look at salaries in the NFL shows that cornerbacks make much, much more money than KR/PRs or 3rd down backs.

By allowing prospects to languish rather than reach their full potential, is Oregon's staff (or any other college staff) shortchanging the recruit?

Simple answer, no. This is only a topic due to the high visibility of Oregon. It happens all the time; Oregon is probably the only high profile school willing to take a risk on letting kids play where they choose. Forcing someone out of their dream to fit your program, even if it improves their draftability, is not doing them a favor.

 

[DBT]

Well, its also a pretty common tactic to tell 'em they can play where they want full knowing that they will be switched to a position for which they are best suited. I would think, generally, a kid will come to that reality himself. Didn't Kasa resist playing TE for a while? Not sure about that. Same with Solder. When and how did he come to switch from a TE to an OL?

 

[Denver_sc]

You can't place any blame on Oregon here.

1. It's not their responsibility to be a minor league team for the NFL.
2. The entire foundation of the discussion is that the players made a choice on what position to play. How is that on UO?

Agreed on the first point, but based upon your second point I may have not properly communicated my overall point.

If you consider the coaches only responsibility to the players on their team to be to coach them up while they are at the school, then the answer to my question is clearly "no." However, if you consider coaches to also have a mentorship role for these kids then I don't think it's stretching to say that they are failing in that role at least a little bit by not advising them to choose the route that will have the most success for them. These coaches have a lot more expertise than an 18 year old kid as to the best path for that kid when it comes to a career as a professional athlete.

 

[Buffnik]

Agreed on the first point, but based upon your second point I may have not properly communicated my overall point.

If you consider the coaches only responsibility to the players on their team to be to coach them up while they are at the school, then the answer to my question is clearly "no." However, if you consider coaches to also have a mentorship role for these kids then I don't think it's stretching to say that they are failing in that role at least a little bit by not advising them to choose the route that will have the most success for them. These coaches have a lot more expertise than an 18 year old kid as to the best path for that kid when it comes to a career as a professional athlete.

Nope. Still a stupid discussion. It assumes that no program would have more use for DAT at RB instead of CB. And that if a program did have a bigger need for him at RB, they have a responsibility to not let him play there because he could potentially make more money if he developed into a great CB at the college level. Whoever was arguing for that may be the dumbest person on the sports talk airwaves. And that's saying something.

 

[Denver_sc]

Nope. Still a stupid discussion. It assumes that no program would have more use for DAT at RB instead of CB. And that if a program did have a bigger need for him at RB, they have a responsibility to not let him play there because he could potentially make more money if he developed into a great CB at the college level. Whoever was arguing for that may be the dumbest person on the sports talk airwaves. And that's saying something.

What if that's literally true, though? We'll never know, obviously, but what if DAT could have been an All-American corner? Who would have more impact on a game: a RB for 10-15 touches a game, or a CB who's in the game for every defensive snap?

Either way, for the record, I agree with you. I just like to play devil's advocate.

 

[Buffnik]

What if that's literally true, though? We'll never know, obviously, but what if DAT could have been an All-American corner? Who would have more impact on a game: a RB for 10-15 touches a game, or a CB who's in the game for every defensive snap?

Either way, for the record, I agree with you. I just like to play devil's advocate.

I know it wasn't true based on the simple fact that if DAT would have called up CU and said that no one will let him pursue his dream of playing RB, Embree and EB would have told this 5*, top 10 national prospect that he could come to CU and the closest he'd get to defense would be if he had to break up a bad pass to him to avoid an INT.

 

[BuffUp]

blow and hookers at some programs

 

[WizzersGhost]

blow and hookers at all programs in the SEC

FIFY They don't go to 'Bama, UT, LSU or Ol Miss to get that coveted "Industrial Arts" degree or high scores on their Wunderlich tests!

 

[BlackNGold]

It sounds to me that some Oregon Hacks were on the radio. Both Armstead and DAT were 5 star recruits - if you look in any one year there are usually only around 25 of those available. DAT was projected as a top recruit at CB, WR, and RB. Any team would let those guys come and compete at the positions that wanted to compete at - they are the elite of the elite.

Most coaches allow players to compete at positions they want be at but at the same time the let the player know where they sit in the competition. Solder going from TE to OL. Barnett and Watson tried to get Bernard Jackson to switch to WR from QB but BJax wanted to be a QB so he stayed there. He might of had a much better career if he had switched.

 

[Ozbuff]

I'm glad DAT is playing RB. He's probably the most exciting player in college other than P-Rich. :wink2:

 

[Highlander]

I'm glad DAT is playing RB. He's probably the most exciting player in college other than P-Rich. :wink2:

It's been a long time since I have seen someone that is that much faster than every other player on the field every game. It represents everything that is great about college football - I love the athletic differentiation and explosion plays. More so when CU is doing them, but before this year, it had been a while...

 

[Duff Man]

FWIW, there were way more important factors than position that got DAT out of LA. Safety and bad influences played a larger part than the promise of playing RB.