I tend to agree with everything you're saying, but the empirical evidence is running exactly counter to that. The U secured two new commitments after Kill's seizure, and there will be 4 commits visiting this weekend. If people were really that worried about it, commits would be dropping like flies, not coming on board right after the incident.
All I'm saying is that I don't think it's unreasonable to believe this will affect some kids. The fun part of that assertion is that it's difficult to disprove - the fact that a couple of kids committed means little to nothing. In fact, one could argue that for kids that were 90% to 100% already on Minnesota, last Saturday's events might actually propel them to commit ("he's a warrior, I'm a warrior, I believe in him, I'm with this program!"). At the same time, the claim is tough to prove with any solid measurement. I doubt we'll ever have kids getting interviewed when they commit to another schools saying, "yeah, Minnesota was interested in me, but I didn't consider them because their Coach has medical issues".
Nonetheless, I can absolutely see a scenario a few years down the line (or sooner) if things don't work out how Gopher fans wish, where people point to Saturday and Kill's overall health as one of the reasons why he didn't work out as the head coach of Minnesota. Perhaps now is time to ask the questions (if they haven't been asked already - I honestly have not read much on this and haven't heard anything on TV or the radio). Did the University have Kill provide a comprehensive list of his history of seizures and what did it say (i.e., including seizures when not in public)? Why did they make a 'risky' hire? Right or wrong, this will get tossed back in the face of the University if the team doesn't win.
Someone had brought up the Michigan State coach who had a 'mild heart attack' and went on to say that Sparty's recruiting has been good and therefore there was no impact. Going back to what I said above, how can this be proven? Might it have been better without the HC's medical issue? Then again, not an analogous situation. Dantonio was older than Kill, already Michigan State's head coach before the issue first arose, the cause and appropriate treatment was understood, hadn't happened multiple times before he arrived at Michigan State, etc.
Kill has been having seizures for more than a decade. He just turned 50. They don't know what the cause(s) was of Saturday's seizure. Tough young men were on their knees crying. Fans were crying. I'm scared for the guy. Sometimes medical conditions and certain professions aren't a great mix. This might be one of them. At a minimum, it's not unreasonable to believe that this will negatively affect some kids.
GoAUpher said:
All I've been saying is that no one knows how big of a deal this is and there is no way to prove it one way or the other right now.
I agree with this, but I first posted in this thread because that is not all that you were saying earlier:
GoAUpher said:
This only becomes a big problem if it happens frequently.
I suppose I just feel that the longer term implications could be more significant than you do. I hope that doesn't become the case, but this is not just a "get through Saturday's game and everything is back to normal like it never happened" issue.