Aaron Philo Commits!!!!

[Word]

Hopefully his uncle understands why our excitement might have been a bit subdued.
In this day and age of lack of commitment (even guys asking out of commitment after signing - see Gopher bball) it might be best to just wait to see who shows up for freshman classes.

The "I'm 100% (or even 110%) committed" tweets really mean nothing.

 

[Word]

Is it really necessary to take a shot at Fleck? Kids decommit all the time, I'm sure your golden boy Fickell has even had it happen to him.

And I'm sure Fickell has zero "schtick" in his recruiting.

 

[GophersInIowa]

Is it really necessary to take a shot at Fleck? Kids decommit all the time, I'm sure your golden boy Fickell has even had it happen to him.

He’s a wisconsin fan so he kinda has to be obsessed with Fleck.

 

[mngolf]

He is a young man and initially bought into PJ's shtick and after some reflection and probably more offers he found one or two he liked better.
He did the honorable thing and notified PJ that he had changed his mind.

Breaking a commitment is honorable? Not saying I'm surprised but that is not honorable.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Hopefully his uncle understands why our excitement might have been a bit subdued.
In this day and age of lack of commitment (even guys asking out of commitment after signing - see Gopher bball) it might be best to just wait to see who shows up for freshman classes.

The "I'm 100% (or even 110%) committed" tweets really mean nothing.

Exactly. There is zero reason to invest in recruits prior to them actually signing because verbal commitments mean next to nothing.

And in this current transfer portal era it honestly doesn't make sense to invest much in a player until they at the very least see the field.

 

[mngolf]

Hopefully his uncle understands why our excitement might have been a bit subdued.
In this day and age of lack of commitment (even guys asking out of commitment after signing - see Gopher bball) it might be best to just wait to see who shows up for freshman classes.

The "I'm 100% (or even 110%) committed" tweets really mean nothing.

The bolded is such a Minnesotan way of looking at things. I've taken a different approach. Uncle comes on here with the hard sell and excitement making me want to buy in. But it just irks me that much more than I fell for it full knowing that this had a high likely hood of happening. I'd be more pissed if I was the uncle that did the selling.

 

[MNVCGUY]

He’s a wisconsin fan so he kinda has to be obsessed with Fleck.

Wait....I thought Plato was one of those people who is a fan of both Minnesota and Wisconsin.....because you know that is a real thing....

 

[Doc1001]

I thought his decision making had improved. hmmm

 

[PeoplesFront]

Through my many years of perusing GH, I think I can safely say that if a self-identified relative of a player shows up with an account here, the player will de-commit or transfer.

I’m going to start treating it as a bad omen.

 

[WindyCityGopher]

It was a good run. I’m cutting his Gophers tape now and should have it posted shortly. Soooo many highlights.

 

[Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0]

Perhaps while attending practice he looked at the team and thought "Oh f####, I'll never be that good!" Realizing he was destined for the transfer portal, he decided to keep his options open!

 

[Willwin40]

That could be. He may have thought that he wouldn’t ever be the starter.

 

[Word]

Judging by how shocked his uncle was about the little bit of negativity there was on Twitter regarding Fleck or the Gophers, I'm just wondering if maybe they weren't cut out for being in a major market? Maybe he's better off at a smaller school/smaller town where there's not as much media attention and/or all the attention is positive?

 

[Word]

The bolded is such a Minnesotan way of looking at things. I've taken a different approach. Uncle comes on here with the hard sell and excitement making me want to buy in. But it just irks me that much more than I fell for it full knowing that this had a high likely hood of happening. I'd be more pissed if I was the uncle that did the selling.

Even a few years ago I would have been more excited, but with the transfer portal and NIL poaching/recruiting going on, I'm just going to reserve my excitement for the guys that actually show up.

Now I view recruiting more like the off-season free agent rumors in pro sports. Like the Twins off-season courting of Correa.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Judging by how shocked his uncle was about the little bit of negativity there was on Twitter regarding Fleck or the Gophers, I'm just wondering if maybe they weren't cut out for being in a major market? Maybe he's better off at a smaller school/smaller town where there's not as much media attention and/or all the attention is positive?

That was kind of strange. I mean if you spend any time online at all you shouldn't be shocked by negativity. You can find people willing to complain about pretty much anything if you go looking for it.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Even a few years ago I would have been more excited, but with the transfer portal and NIL poaching/recruiting going on, I'm just going to reserve my excitement for the guys that actually show up.

Now I view recruiting more like the off-season free-agent rumors in pro sports. Like the Twins off-season courting of Correa.

Portal has put a massive damper on the excitement around high school recruiting.

Said in a different thread that in this current climate your best bet is to enjoy the team you have for that year and assume it is going to look very different next year. Very little point in trying to project the roster out multiple years because the roster churn is so high.

 

[50PoundHead]

Disappointing. I wish him well. Big decision for any top prospect and one not to be taken lightly.

 

[Word]

He just picked up an offer from MTSU. Hope he doesn't hear about the humidity there.

 

[Chucklehead]

Then why commit this early before really checking it out? I wonder if PJ’s hard sell tactics (creating sense of urgency to make a decision) sometimes creates premature commitments. More often than not it seems to stick though.

Hilarious! If you think PJ does a hard sell, you should hear deion Sanders for Colorado.

 

[Word]

Hilarious! If you think PJ does a hard sell, you should hear deion Sanders for Colorado.

Yeah, if you're a P5 coach and not doing the hard sell, you're not getting any recruits. (see Paul Chryst)

 

[fmlizard]

One of these days it would be refreshing to hear a young man say he made a choice or had a change of heart or was offered money or a starting role and it wasn't "God"

"God is in control" is the furthest thing from a Nekton Mentality in life. Gophers can do better.

 

[ComoCraig]

Sucks to have lost him, but based on his other offers I feel as though we were taking a chance on him, not vice versa. Looks like the best offers he has outside of the U are Georgia Tech, UCF, and Georgia Southern. Being from Georgia, and putting up the numbers he has, I am curious why the big dogs haven't come barking for him. Wish him the best moving forward

 

[DarthGopher]

One of these days it would be refreshing to hear a young man say he made a choice or had a change of heart or was offered money or a starting role and it wasn't "God"

"God is in control" is the furthest thing from a Nekton Mentality in life. Gophers can do better.

The irony is God doesn't make decisions for people. The duality of free will and God is in control is an absolute mind bender, but that hasn't stopped people from engaging in this kind of circular reasoning before.

God must be too busy ensuring a 17 year old kid attends the right college for football and that is why He doesn't have time to intervene on more pressing things like wars, dictators and famine that have real life and death consequences for LOTS of people. But hey, throwing a perfect spiral 50 yards is super important, too <insert sarcasm>.

Yep, makes total sense.

 

[Dakota2]

That was kind of strange. I mean if you spend any time online at all you shouldn't be shocked by negativity. You can find people willing to complain about pretty much anything if you go looking for it.

Very, very frightening to think any recruit would seriously take anything on GH into account when making decisions.

 

[Dakota2]

Sucks to have lost him, but based on his other offers I feel as though we were taking a chance on him, not vice versa. Looks like the best offers he has outside of the U are Georgia Tech, UCF, and Georgia Southern. Being from Georgia, and putting up the numbers he has, I am curious why the big dogs haven't come barking for him. Wish him the best moving forward

Did you see the film of his Georgia title game? A lot of schools might be concerned they will never be able to put receivers out there with him who are as good as his high school receivers.

 

[fmlizard]

The irony is God doesn't make decisions for people. The duality of free will and God is in control is an absolute mind bender, but that hasn't stopped people from engaging in this kind of circular reasoning before.

God must be too busy ensuring a 17 year old kid attends the right college for football and that is why He doesn't have time to intervene on more pressing things like wars, dictators and famine that have real life and death consequences for LOTS of people. But hey, throwing a perfect spiral 50 yards is super important, too <insert sarcasm>.

Yep, makes total sense.

Also, most sports are zero-sum. If you believe it's "God's Plan" for you to win, it must be the same for your opponent to lose. Or to not get the starting job. Or to tear up a knee. It requires belief that God favors some of his children a lot more than others.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

One of these days it would be refreshing to hear a young man say he made a choice or had a change of heart or was offered money or a starting role and it wasn't "God"

"God is in control" is the furthest thing from a Nekton Mentality in life. Gophers can do better.

Yeah the God excuse / is really tiresome.

For a given individual, who knows, I wouldn’t call them out.

But as a collective it seems like an excuse or dishonest.

As PJ says “A lot of people want things but most aren’t willing to do what it takes.”

That’s totally on the individual.

 

[Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0]

Did you see the film of his Georgia title game? A lot of schools might be concerned they will never be able to put receivers out there with him who are as good as his high school receivers.

That's hilarious!

 

[mngolf]

Yeah the God excuse / is really tiresome.

For a given individual, who knows, I wouldn’t call them out.

But as a collective it seems like an excuse or dishonest.

As PJ says “A lot of people want things but most aren’t willing to do what it takes.”

That’s totally on the individual.

It's taking the blame off of themselves. Can't be my fault, must be God's plan.

 

[DarthGopher]

Also, most sports are zero-sum. If you believe it's "God's Plan" for you to win, it must be the same for your opponent to lose. Or to not get the starting job. Or to tear up a knee. It requires belief that God favors some of his children a lot more than others.

1000%. It feeds into the fallacy that if bad things happen to you, it is because you "deserved" it somehow. That is not how it works or even is supposed to work. However, it is an awfully effective profit model. It excels at keeping the tax free coffers full of people's money who are desperately seeking confirmation of their salvation.

It is possible, however unlikely, Aaron walked out of his house, saw a bush on fire and heard a voice inside say, "Aaron, don't go to Minnesota". My guess is it was some combination of cold feet, new suitors with promises of money, parental influence or any of several other outside things that got him to rethink his commitment.

I'm going with the second scenario.