High school bans Spurrier from recruiting

[bigfan]

nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/28612796/

High school bans Spurrier from recruiting

Prep coach angry after South Carolina pulls scholarship to his player

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier has been banned from recruiting football players from a prominent Georgia high school, according to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

According to the report, Spurrier is "no longer welcome" at Tucker High, a school the paper calls "one of the state's top producers" of prospects.

Tucker coach Franklin Stephens was angered after South Carolina withdrew a scholarship offer to Tucker linebacker Jonathan Davis. Davis has already accepted the offer, choosing South Carolina over Georgia Tech, Boston College, Central Florida, Oklahoma State and Louisville, according to Davis.

“The bottom line … what South Carolina did to Jonathan was wrong,” Stephens told the newspaper. “Coach Spurrier accepted blame for the situation … [but he] is not going to do anything to fix the situation, therefore South Carolina will not be recruiting any more Tucker players.”

Stephens said he had a "heated" conversation with Gamecocks assistant Shane Beamer on Friday. He waited to comment until talking to Spurrier on Sunday.

“It’s not fair what happened to Jonathan,” Stephens told the Journal-Constitution. “When he committed to South Carolina, he turned down scholarship opportunities to other schools. And then those other schools moved on to fill that spot. What South Carolina did was wrong, and the timing of it, so close to signing day [Feb. 4], is worse. It’s just a bad deal.”

[Phaedrus]

Unfortunately, this kind of stuff happens all the time. And not just in football or basketball. Not sure what this action will do, South Carolina is at a disadvantage against the rest of the SEC already but I would think that the average recruit will think that it couldn't happen to them so the recruiting goes apace with no changes in the South Carolina recruiting.

[BearClause]

There's far more to this story. Apparently the offer was made by a South Carolina assistant named Ron Cooper who wasn't authorized (might have even specifically been told not to make the offer). That assistant coach just moved on to coaching at LSU. He may even have been told to leave for pulling stunts like this in the past.

The kid is also 5'7" playing linebacker. That's not going to work in NCAA D-IA at a high level unless he converts to DB. Even then he seems undersized in today's game.

www.charleston.net/blogs/gamecocks/2009/jan/11/0111-davis/

[bunnywailer]

Bleh. Spurrier is a dumbass. Even if it was an ill-fated promise by a renegade assistant coach, the program has 85 scholarships to commit. By all accounts, this kid can play. Even if he were to be a special teams player his entire 4 years at South Carolina, he could still impact their program positively. The damage done by not doing the honorable thing is far greater than the one scholarship committed to a player they feel is undersized.

Bob Sanders of the Indianapolis Colts is a pro bowl strong safety and the acknolwedged leader of their defense. At 5'9" he is about 4-5 inches shorter than the prototype for an NFL strong safety. Doesn't seem to hurt his ability to play football.