He did say 'excuse me'...
Oh, I thought that smiley was a
mediate....
I think that BGIF's point is fundamentally correct: none of the outstanding offers are 'guaranteed' for any period......otherwise, if every 'offered' player decided to verbal, Coach Weis would have a BIG problem.
I would expect that as the train starts to fill up in certain areas, the staff will nudge certain players that they need to make their minds up otherwise there may not be a spot. High-end recruits will have more leeway.
It does appear that Coach Weis is different than some other coaches; Meyer had about 500 DL offers out last year but only took a couple of handfuls (and was
rumored to have have done some nudging aside).
Oh, I hate to do this because I'm still not sure what I said earlier that made BGIF so pissed, but since I am a glutton for punishment, I'll do it anyway.
BGIF is
fundamentally correct in what he posted, but what I posted was also correct. That is why the BS irked me. He is fundamentally correct only because it is usually not an issue at ND. A scholarship offer is not guaranteed for any period, but it is still an open offer until rescinded. Presumably, the minute a recruit "solid verbals" to another school, the offer is
fundamentally rescinded. The point I was trying to make is that CW gives all appearances that he would prefer not to rescind scholarship offers to recruits who have not yet committed to another school. As far as I know and I could easily be wrong, he has not yet been forced to do that since coming to ND. This year could be different.
This whole offer process is not a whole lot different than the regular admissions process at many colleges. They look at the statistical history of admiited vs. enrolled students, set a target for how many they want enrolled, and then use that target to determine how many applicants they will accept. ND has one of the highest enrollment/admitted rates in the country at around 60%, if that number hit 80% in any given year, they would be looking at enrolling 600 more students than they expected. The process is similar with athletic scholarship offers accept that they can be rescinded at any time. However, CW does not appear to want to be a greedy SOB like the Cockwad. Last year, Meyer's % of recruits who wanted to come to Florida was much higher than normal, but instead of rescinding offers to late uncommitteds when his scholarships were filled up, he started to push guys away who had already committed. Naive that I am, I do not see CW doing that. Meyer also compounded the issue by not actually rescinding the offers for two reasons, one, he wanted to look like a good guy who would never do that, and two, he wanted to keep all his options open. That is why he was able to nab Trattou at the last moment. It is also why he was still recruiting Ian Williams up to NSD eve, even though he had earlier told Williams to look elsewhere, but had never actually rescinded his scholarship offer. Now again naive person that I am, someone is going to tell me that it is all part of the recruiting process and should be accepted. I say
that is BS. What Meyer did last year was not illegal or an NCAA violation, but that does not make it any less unethical or distasteful, and not
everyone does it. Mack Brown does not do it, and I hope to hell CW never has to do it. I will leave you with one hypothetical situation that is somwhat far-fetched but within the realm of possibility, and you tell me what you think CW would do in this situation.
Suppose all of the currently LB's offered accepted prior to NSD with the exception of Brown & Hale. That would give ND 5 LB's from this class not even counting tweeners like Fleming et al (assuming they commit as well). It comes to NSD, ND still has 2 scholarships available, and Brown & Hale are still uncomitted, and they both call CW and tell him they want to come to Notre Dame as well. Do you really think that CW would turn down 2 of arguably the 3 best LB's in the country, and at the same time do you also think he would start pushing the other 5 LB commits to other programs, or worse if he had no schollies left to offer, would he dump Beal & Sweat in order to get Brown & Hale. It's just my opinion, but I don't think so, and I hope not.
Now granted this hypothetical is very unlikely, and that is exactly why what BGIF stated was fundamentally correct, but it is also exactly why what I stated is not BS.
I hope I don't get another BS thrown my way.
