DeMatha Running Back Doesn't Really Commit:
So you're DeMatha running back Marcus Coker and you wake up one morning and learn that you've committed to play for Minnesota. Small problem omitted from various reports - included the one I linked, which includes no attribution - Coker didn't really accept a scholarship offer to play for the Golden Gophers
"All he did was commit in his mind to a visit to go to Minnesota, that's what he committed to. He has not committed to go to Minnesota," DeMatha Coach Bill McGregor said. "I'm out of the office. [DeMatha trainer] Wendy [Norris] called me, saying, 'Have you heard about Marcus?' She said it was all over the Internet that he's going to Minnesota. But that's not what he committed to. I talked to his mother and she said he did not commit but that he committed to go to a visit to Minnesota.
"I talked to [Minnesota assistant coach] John Butler yesterday and he knows he did not commit to go there, that he committed to a visit. So I don't know how it got out. I even got a phone call from an alum in Minnesota saying it was great that Marcus Coker was going to go to Minnesota."
Just a guess? Someone in Minnesota's football office leaked word to one of the Internet sites that follw the Golden Gophers. It's obvious McGregor wasn't the source of information, and unlikely Coker provided it either. You think Minnesota - or any other team - might want it known that it had just gotten a commitment from a highly-regarded player from one of the nation's top high school programs?
Thanks to the NCAA's archaic rules prohibiting college coaches from commenting publicly on recruits, Web sites covering recruiting have become a lucrative cottage industry with little oversight or regulation as they become unofficial mouthpieces for college athletic departments. Sometimes these sites have great information, other times not so much.
"It just shows you how invalid sometimes the Internet really is," McGregor said. "One Web site picks it up, then another and it goes all over. You know, I think there is a lot of information out there, but you have to check what is valid and what isn't valid."
Posted by Josh Barr, Washington post
So you're DeMatha running back Marcus Coker and you wake up one morning and learn that you've committed to play for Minnesota. Small problem omitted from various reports - included the one I linked, which includes no attribution - Coker didn't really accept a scholarship offer to play for the Golden Gophers
"All he did was commit in his mind to a visit to go to Minnesota, that's what he committed to. He has not committed to go to Minnesota," DeMatha Coach Bill McGregor said. "I'm out of the office. [DeMatha trainer] Wendy [Norris] called me, saying, 'Have you heard about Marcus?' She said it was all over the Internet that he's going to Minnesota. But that's not what he committed to. I talked to his mother and she said he did not commit but that he committed to go to a visit to Minnesota.
"I talked to [Minnesota assistant coach] John Butler yesterday and he knows he did not commit to go there, that he committed to a visit. So I don't know how it got out. I even got a phone call from an alum in Minnesota saying it was great that Marcus Coker was going to go to Minnesota."
Just a guess? Someone in Minnesota's football office leaked word to one of the Internet sites that follw the Golden Gophers. It's obvious McGregor wasn't the source of information, and unlikely Coker provided it either. You think Minnesota - or any other team - might want it known that it had just gotten a commitment from a highly-regarded player from one of the nation's top high school programs?
Thanks to the NCAA's archaic rules prohibiting college coaches from commenting publicly on recruits, Web sites covering recruiting have become a lucrative cottage industry with little oversight or regulation as they become unofficial mouthpieces for college athletic departments. Sometimes these sites have great information, other times not so much.
"It just shows you how invalid sometimes the Internet really is," McGregor said. "One Web site picks it up, then another and it goes all over. You know, I think there is a lot of information out there, but you have to check what is valid and what isn't valid."
Posted by Josh Barr, Washington post