Street agents

[Duff Man]

Lots of discussion in this thread:

http://www.allbuffs.com/showthread.php/58895-Top-10-program-rumored-to-be-in-NCAA-crosshairs

Well, Fox Sports just put out four articles on the matter that are worth reading. They chronicle the recruitments of various star players and their connections to guys like Will Lyles.

Part I:

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefoo...Lyles-college-footballs-biggest-danger-031211

A week later, Hartman crossed paths with Lyles again. This time he was with LSU defensive line coach Brick Haley, who had come to see Randle. When Lyles tried to walk onto the field, Hartman told him to return to the parking lot.

Hartman later called Haley and told him that Lyles was never to return to Clear Springs High.

“I didn’t know the guy, Coach,” Hartman recalled Haley saying of Lyles. “He showed up and said he was helping the last guy here for LSU.”

Hartman knew that wasn’t true. After all, LSU had never previously recruited at Clear Springs High.

Part II:

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefoo...from-Texas-to-Oregon-divinely-inspired-031211

A reputed Houston-based “street agent,” Lyles met Seastrunk at a Texas A&M camp the summer before the player’s junior year of high school. Shortly thereafter, the two attended a summer football camp at LSU with Seastrunk’s mother, Evelyn Seastrunk.

Soon, Lyles was staying several days a week at a house where Seastrunk and his mother lived. Not long after that, Monsen was told by Seastrunk’s mother that he would no longer be involved with her son’s recruitment.

And after what Seastrunk described as his father’s vision from God some 20 months later, he shockingly chose Oregon just a few days before signing with the Ducks on Feb. 3, 2010.

Part III:

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/7-on-7-is-college-football-recruiting%27s-new-battleground-031211

At the forefront of national 7-on-7 is Flenory, who played defensive back at New Hampshire when Oregon coach Chip Kelly was an assistant coach there. Flenory and his brother-in-law, Kashann Simmons, founded New Level Athletics in 2006 and two years later started what is now BadgerSport Elite 7-on-7 camps.

“I want to be the Sonny Vaccaro of 7-on-7,” Flenory told FOXSports.com in a January interview, referring to the controversial pioneer of grassroots basketball before saying in another interview that he wanted to be like Vaccaro only for the positive things that he did.

Dixon, a sophomore safety at Baylor, said he got the money to attend the Las Vegas camp two years ago through a “fundraiser thing,” but didn’t recall how much it cost.

“Basically, it was just do your own way to get your money and all that and make your way down there,” Dixon said.

When Dixon first met Lyles at the camp, he said Lyles was inquisitive about his then-commitment to Texas.

“He was just asking me if I was interested in taking visits and all of the schools that I was interested in,” Dixon said.

Dixon said Lyles specifically asked him if he wanted to visit USC. He said Lyles later took him, Seastrunk and Reed along with Nelson on an unofficial visit to Auburn, where they spent time with Tigers assistants Trooper Taylor and Curtis Luper.

On the way back from Auburn, Dixon said Lyles took him on an unofficial visit to LSU with Seastrunk, Reed and Nelson. Both trips were made driving together, Dixon said.

Part IV:

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/Chris-Barnett-took-winding-road-to-Michigan-031211

“I’ll listen to my Dad with him being a coach; he’s going to be helping me the most,” Barnett said in the interview with Scout.com, a network of sports websites that covers recruiting coverage and is owned by News Corp., which also owns FOXSports.com.

But when Chris Barnett signed with Michigan on signing day in a surprising decision last month and reneged on his commitment to Arkansas, his father wasn’t involved at all. Instead, the man behind the camera during Barnett’s Scout.com interview takes credit for him becoming involved with the Wolverines: Baron Flenory.

We actually recruited Barnett, he even took an official visit here. It made me nervous because there were red flags with the multiple transfers and many schools had backed off. I am sure Flenory's involvement made many coaches nervous.