Recruiting an NCAA non-qualifier 101

[SJScout]

What role should UConn play when a top recruit is an NCAA non-qualifier and has to attend a juco or prep. Spoke to an Asst. coach from Temple yesterday about a specific recruit. His response was "his offer is still in the envelope waiting for him to sign it". Same recruit no longer hears from UConn while other schools are stepping in. Doors close while others seem to open, but who is right?

 

[Oxford Bob]

I don't think there is a right or wrong. UConn might have signed or received a commitment from another player to fill that spot and they might not have a need at that spot anymore. Or they might view the kid as a game changer and try to hang on to him. Historically under HCRE UConn didn't recruit Preps or Jucos as hard as other schools, it seems to have picked up a bit under HCPP.

 

[uconnell]

We have lost quite a few kids to RU, Temple, St John, etc. They manage to get a kid qualified so why can't Conn? I'm not saying a class full, just one or two who are not problems character wise. ND does this and so do a lot of other schools. SU with J. Flynn and others who were problems to SU in the end because of character.

 

[Oxford Bob]

Temple doesn't count because they could take partial qualifiers before they joined the BE. As for the others it comes down to each schools admissions. UConn has been tougher than the others in terms of getting marginal student athletes into school.

 

[uconnell]

Temple doesn't count because they could take partial qualifiers before they joined the BE. As for the others it comes down to each schools admissions. UConn has been tougher than the others in terms of getting marginal student athletes into school.

Yes I realize that. Maybe UConn needs to lightened the qualifications some to get 1 or 2 good players in ( like Montrell Dobbs, etc) Kids who could bring excitement to our game, along with new coaches of course.

 

[businesslawyer]

Yes I realize that. Maybe UConn needs to lightened the qualifications some to get 1 or 2 good players in ( like Montrell Dobbs, etc) Kids who could bring excitement to our game, along with new coaches of course.

You are lumping together partial qualifiers by NCAA rules with being denied by UConn's admissions office. We've never heard that the latter is much of a problem. Dobbs by all reports was not denied by UCOnn admissions -- he was a partial qualifier and by Big East rules couldn't play there.

 

[uconnell]

You are lumping together partial qualifiers by NCAA rules with being denied by UConn's admissions office. We've never heard that the latter is much of a problem. Dobbs by all reports was not denied by UCOnn admissions -- he was a partial qualifier and by Big East rules couldn't play there.

OK then how did RU get Mark Hairston ( think that's his name)?

 

[Oxford Bob]

Harrison by all accounts was borderline academically, Edsall made the call not to pursue based on this. Schiano stuck with the kid and the rest is history.

 

[uconnell]

Harrison by all accounts was borderline academically, Edsall made the call not to pursue based on this. Schiano stuck with the kid and the rest is history.

That is my point. How did RU get him in? I know that Edsall complained about the tough time getting academically challanged kids in. Bet he doesn't have that problem at MD.

 

[Oxford Bob]

For years that was the argument at ND. Their standards were higher than other schools and they couldn't touch some of the athletes the others were getting. Stanford and Northwestern the same thing. The school made a decision to adhere to stricter admission policies. My guess is if we were able to bring in a borderline academic 5* football player, admissions would find a way to get him here as long as he qualified.

 

[businesslawyer]

OK then how did RU get Mark Hairston ( think that's his name)?

Harrison at the end of the day was fully qualified. The story I had heard (indirectly through his teammates) is that at the beginning of his recruitment he was not expected to qualify. UConn walked away and RU stayed involved. Subsequently, to everyone's surprise, including his own, he did qualify academically and only RU was there.

 

[Oxford Bob]

Harrison's HS coach lives in town here, nothing bothers me more than seeing the block R magnet on the back of his car, but bottom-line you can't really blame Edsall for that one. As Biz said, he wasn't projected to qualify and somehow miraculously did.

 

[uconnell]

Yup Miracle is the right word. We need a few miracles. Why do other schools get these and not us?

 

[businesslawyer]

Yup Miracle is the right word. We need a few miracles. Why do other schools get these and not us?

You know that we haven't signed kids that others have walked away from because they were an academic risk? How do you know that?

And, I can think of some kids (like Stormy Butler and the OL from So Fla who came up with him) who no one but us offered because they were academic risks and then they didn't qualify.

Do we really need to be grasping at straws to criticize our staff for everything? Isn't there enough to criticize if we stick with reality?

 

[johnhuskies95]

Harrison's HS coach lives in town here, nothing bothers me more than seeing the block R magnet on the back of his car, but bottom-line you can't really blame Edsall for that one. As Biz said, he wasn't projected to qualify and somehow miraculously did.

His coach has a block R on his car even though the only NFL player he ever coached went to UConn?

 

[Oxford Bob]

His coach has a block R on his car even though the only NFL player he ever coached went to UConn?

Yup, kind of telling isn't it.

 

[SJScout]

The way that I understand it is that if a kid is a non-qualifier, juco would be the only option to play at the DI level. The athlete can still be a DII partial qualifier and skip juco. A DI partial qualifier would be able to do a pg yr. at a prep. Juco kids now are enrolling early (Jan semester) and taking classes through summer to get out of juco in a yr to a yr 1/2. My original point was to ask if a kid is a top UConn recruit and the decision was made to go juco to get the academics on track, then will Uconn stick with that kid or potentially still verbally offer. An SEC school just offered a WR from ASA juco in NY before the kid ever stepped on the field for ASA. I've heard that UConn really backs away. My question would be , why?

 

[Oxford Bob]

The way that I understand it is that if a kid is a non-qualifier, juco would be the only option to play at the DI level. The athlete can still be a DII partial qualifier and skip juco. A DI partial qualifier would be able to do a pg yr. at a prep. Juco kids now are enrolling early (Jan semester) and taking classes through summer to get out of juco in a yr to a yr 1/2. My original point was to ask if a kid is a top UConn recruit and the decision was made to go juco to get the academics on track, then will Uconn stick with that kid or potentially still verbally offer. An SEC school just offered a WR from ASA juco in NY before the kid ever stepped on the field for ASA. I've heard that UConn really backs away. My question would be , why?

I don't know, UConn has 3 kids in JUCO right now (Sylva, Bryan and Cunningham) no ones seems to know the answer if they are still committed or if they still have offers. There is another thread here about JUCOs that might help.

 

[huskymedic]

I don't know, UConn has 3 kids in JUCO right now (Sylva, Bryan and Cunningham) no ones seems to know the answer if they are still committed or if they still have offers. There is another thread here about JUCOs that might help.

We also have DT Lance Burlingame @ DEan JC...

I think alot of sticking with a kid has to do with how serious the kid is about improving what got him to JUCO in first place whether it was academics, more seasoning or both.

 

[sportsjunky1]

Being in JUCO has to be a hell hole for the D1 prospects that have to be there.

 

[Buffett10]

Medic, we don't have lance anymore. He signed to play at FAU

 

[huskymedic]

Medic, we don't have lance anymore. He signed to play at FAU

I know that... that post about LB was from December 4th - this was off the radar screen till Sportsjunky started trolling threads last night.

 

[Carl Spackler]

What role should UConn play when a top recruit is an NCAA non-qualifier and has to attend a juco or prep. Spoke to an Asst. coach from Temple yesterday about a specific recruit. His response was "his offer is still in the envelope waiting for him to sign it". Same recruit no longer hears from UConn while other schools are stepping in. Doors close while others seem to open, but who is right?

This is a question for conference level administration. Individual university admission standards, vary from school to school, but within a conference, that's what you're looking at.

It's a question I've pointed out here somewhere along the way. The recruiting practices among the member institutions of the Big East moving forward, absolutely must be visited and put into written form, sooner than later, I think I was talking about this when the AD's and such were meeting in Texas earlier this month.

Frankly, I'd like to see a little more leeway with recruiting in the future, than what was allowed in the past at the conference level. Not only the issue of partial qualifiers, but partial scholarships as well.

 

[Carl Spackler]

BTW: What on earth makes anyone think that UConn is NOT honoring offers for players that have been recruited, but failed to meet admission requirements? All evidence to the contrary - we're actually doing a hell of alot more with recruiting and maintaining relationships with players that didn't meet standards the first time around, than we were in the past.