Spiders05 wrote:BDK, perhaps you should recount yourself...4 in c/o 2010 and 2 in c/o 2009.
As for the kids not getting scores/grades (typically scores) for UR, typically this isn't public info. However, in the case of Mr. Scott, there was a DNR article where he mentioned he didn't have high enough SAT scores for UR.
http://www.dailynews-record.com/sports_ ... 422&CHID=3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; I can't speak to the others factually, but it wouldn't be surprising for some to fall short. UR has higher academic standards than JMU. Not a snub, just a fact (collaborated by DQ's comments in the paper as well.
What you say may all be true, but you've got all kinds of posters made all kinds of claims on here. When you have a poster, esp one without a long track record on here, from say school "A" state a bunch of school "B's" specific recruits over the last several years would have signed with school A if if wasn't for school A's higher academic standards, then you have to have something to back it up or people are going to take it with a grain of salt. This is mentioned in the DNR Scott article you gave a link to, but I haven't seen any articles mentioning this for any of those other JMU signees who also were offered by UR.
Scott may have very well have backed out of his committment to UR and signed with JMU due to needing to take the SAT again and get a higher score, but he claims that wasn't the reason.
Since you have to have a subscription to read the whole Daily News Record Article:
"HARRISONBURG - Dae'Quan Scott visited a college, met with its football coaches, liked what he saw and announced that his recruitment was over. The speedy, versatile R.E. Lee High School senior had decided to play for the University of Richmond. That was in late November.
But when Scott signed his national letter of intent this month, he pledged his services to the state's other NCAA Division I-AA power - James Madison.
What happened in between?
"I just made the mistake at first by committing too early," Scott said this week. "If I'm going to tell some younger kids, guys that look up to me, I'll tell them to go to every visit, every college you like. Pick after you have seen every place."
High school seniors who orally commit to a college are not bound to that choice. The NCAA doesn't recognize the verbal commitment and deems nothing official until a player signs his letter of intent in February.
In the time between players announcing their intentions and actually signing on the dotted line, college coaches can continue to recruit them. And, coaches say, that's a pretty common practice.
"It used to bother me a lot more a long time ago," New Hampshire coach Sean McDonnell said. "When I first became a head coach, there was an unwritten rule that once a kid commits, you let it go. It used to bother me a lot more. Right now I think it's the expected norm in the business. It's not right. But you have to be prepared."
Richmond coach Mike London, who lost Scott - a 5-foot-9, 190-pound quarterback who will likely play wide receiver in college - to JMU, agreed.
"The days of the handshake kind of signed the deal, that's about over in a lot of circles," London said. "You have to understand that, until signing day, things happen in the last minute."
In Scott's case, he committed shortly after Lee's football season ended with a Region III title-game loss to Brookville. He informed Richmond coaches on Nov. 23.
JMU assistant coach Clayton Matthews "had developed a good relationship with Dae'Quan over the summer," his father, JMU head coach Mickey Matthews said. So when he picked up a newspaper on
Nov. 25 and saw that Scott had orally committed to the Spiders, he was - to say the least - surprised. "We were stunned when we read in the newspaper he committed to Richmond, because we kind of thought we were doing pretty good," Mickey Matthews said during a press conference on signing day, Feb. 4. "To Clayton's credit he said, ‘Dad, don't worry, I'm still going to get him.'"
For a while after his oral commitment to Richmond, things were all quiet on Scott's recruiting front, he said. College recruiters weren't permitted, under NCAA rules, to contact prospects again until Nov. 30.
But once that date came, Scott said two or three schools - including JMU - reached out to him to gauge how solid his commitment to the Spiders actually was. Turns out, it wasn't. He said he simply decided he'd made his choice too quickly and wanted to check out other schools.
"I let everybody know that my options were still open," Scott said.
Matthews said Wednesday the Dukes do not recruit players who ask not to be contacted.
"If an athlete tells us he is committed somewhere and he does not want to be recruited, we honor that request," Matthews said. "Dae'quan, there was no question he had a sincere interest investigating James Madison. If a recruit and a family wants, we will cease recruiting at any point."
Scott took an official visit to JMU and decided, among other things, that he fit better into the Dukes' spread offense.
Although there also was a question of academics - Scott said he was NCAA qualified but needed a better SAT score to qualify under Richmond's stricter standards - it apparently wasn't why the Lee star re-opened his recruitment.
"I'm qualified, but for Richmond you had to have something higher," Scott said, adding he was confident he would have achieved the higher score if he had retaken the test. "That wasn't a factor."
London, a Richmond alum who led the school to the NCAA Division I-AA national championship this past season, declined to answer when asked how he felt about JMU and Matthews continuing to recruit Scott after the Lee senior had orally committed to the Spiders.
"I have no comment on that," London, a former Virginia and Boston College assistant, said.
He did say, however, that keeping in contact with recruits to determine how solidly they are committed is part of the game.
"If a kid says he's firm, we don't mess with him anymore," London said. "If a kid says, ‘Coach you can keep calling,' then he's not as firm as he's alluded to."
For coaches, that means two things. First, they have to continue recruiting prospects even after they've orally committed.
"Every day. Every day. Every day," McDonnell said. "You don't call him every day, but you want to make sure you know. You're going to visit him, contact him once a week, some way, some how. I think you've got to."
But with more and more oral commitments backing out and switching schools - often late in the recruiting process - college coaches must also continue contacting backup prospects. In other words, they must keep recruiting tailback B in case tailback A decommits just before signing day.
"You have to craft your recruiting strategy around that," London said. "You have to be diligent and make sure you don't stop recruiting."
Battles like the one for Scott only heighten the already tense rivalry between JMU and UR. In 2005, wide receiver Kevin Grayson backed out of his oral commitment to James Madison and signed with Richmond. At the same time, tailback Griff Yancey signed with the Dukes despite having orally committed to Richmond.
But Matthews doesn't think JMU did anything wrong in landing Scott and doesn't think London has any problem with the Dukes' tactics.
"I don't think so. Not at all," Matthews said. "I wouldn't think so."
From Scott's standpoint, the whole recruiting process ended up working itself out in the end and he said Tuesday he is looking forward to playing for the Dukes.
"Everything just falls in place," he said."