Recruiting becoming a kid's game

DESTIN, Fla. - The question was simple and direct to Florida football coach Urban Meyer.

Would Meyer actually try to get a commitment from an eighth-grade prospect, something that Kentucky basketball coach Billy Gillispie has done?

“Depends how fast he can run the 40,” Meyer said with a laugh.

He was kidding. Sort of.

Gillispie raised eyebrows by commitments in early May from two 15-year olds — eighth-grader Michael Avery of Lake Sherwood, Calif., and ninth-grader Vinny Zollo of Greenfield, Ohio. He also offered a scholarship to Jeremiah Davis III, who just completed his ninth-grade year at Muncie (Ind.) Central.

Gillispie said he doesn’t worry about some of the public backlash from such figures as NCAA President Myles Brand, who told the Lexington Herald-Leader he hoped recruiting middle-school players is “nothing we want to be widespread.”

Gillispie makes no apologies for getting commitments from kids who probably can dunk and aren’t old enough to shave.

“It’s becoming more commonplace to recruit younger and younger players,” Gillispie said. “I saw the best young players I’ve seen in my life (a couple of weeks ago at a tournament in Akron, Ohio where he spotted Avery). I never saw so many players that big and that advanced.

“The recruiting timetable has changed. Five years ago, football recruiting would start after the spring of their junior year. Now, the top football programs probably already 15 to 20 commitments for their next recruiting class before the start of season.”

Meyer doesn’t disagree.

“I’m caught in a business that’s going real fast,” Meyer said. “We’re already talking about the sophomores who are becoming juniors. There are some teams with 20 commitments now (from rising seniors) for the upcoming recruiting class. There are many good players who have committed.”

It is Gillispie ’s view, one shared by fellow SEC basketball and football coaches, that basketball players are developed at an earlier age than football prospects.

One reason is the elite basketball players, even in junior high, play at a higher level of competition when they play on summer AAU teams that travel the nation.

“You can look at some of those eighth-graders and say, ‘That cat is going to be a player,’ ” Mississippi State basketball coach Rick Stansbury said. “If you get a commitment from one that age, there’s a lot less traffic and lot less hoops to jump through.”

Ole Miss basketball coach Andy Kennedy said he doesn’t blame anyone for recruiting anyone in the eighth or ninth grader. Yet they do come with a warning label.

“If you have an opportunity to be around a kid a lot, if you had a chance to see him play and understand his personality, it might not be as big a grasp as people think,” Kennedy said. “But for us, I would worry about trying to hold that commitment for four years. That’s quite a chore, and not something I’d like to do at this point.”

Alabama football coach Nick Saban, regarded as one of the nation’s most relentless recruiters, admitted there are some drawbacks to fast forwarding the recruiting process.

“We need to evaluate character and attitude, academics and athletic ability,” Saban said. “Coaches are trying to get a (recruiting) jump on the other guy, but in doing that sometimes you make some mistakes.”

Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville said it’s “foolish” for a football coach to offer a scholarship to an eighth- or ninth-grader.

“We see our guys physically change tremendously from the time we get them until the time they graduate,” Tuberville. “In football, we have to build more of our players than basketball.”

LSU coach Les Miles remembers seeing when current New England Patriots Junior Seau when Seau was a high school sophomore in the mid -’80s in San Diego.

“He looked like a 100 other guys when he was a sophomore,” said Miles, who was a Colorado assistant at the time he saw Seau. “Then, suddenly as a junior, he was one of the best players in the San Diego area.”

Gillispie agreed there’s a risk in getting a commitment from a kid still using acne medicine.

“You do try to project a young kid, and there is a lot of gamble,” Gillispie said. “But there is a lot of gamble with everyone, including seniors. About 75 to 80 percent of the top-level players are committed to a school going into their senior year. Some are great prospects who become great players. Some are great prospects who don’t become great players.”

Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer said most coaches agree it doesn’t look ethical to recruit someone 14 or 15 years old, but he won’t shy away from it.

It’s almost like everybody else is, so you have to,” Fulmer said. “That’s the world we live in. Ninth-grader is a stretch, but recruiting sophomores is real. That’s where we are.”

Fulmer said he once offered a ninth-grader, an offensive lineman named Jeff Smith who became an All-SEC standout en route to a standout NFL career.

“I kidded Jeff that he came to our summer camp so many years that we owed him a scholarship,” Fulmer said. “When he was in the ninth grade, he was 6-3, 280 pounds. He could run, move his feet and was a good person. So I offered him. There are some guys you can project.”

Ole Miss football coach Houston Nutt said that the general public doesn’t quite understand the competitive recruiting game.

“They say, ‘Why in the world would somebody offer (a scholarship to someone 14 years old?’ ” Nutt said. “It’s that’s the world that we’re in. You want to be first, you want to say, ‘We offered him first.’ ”

Still, coaches walk the fine line offering a scholarship to someone who can’t yet legally obtain driver’s license.

“It’s a big landmark in a kid’s career to get a scholarship offer,” Georgia football coach Mark Richt said. “If he gets one in the ninth grade, it’s not super healthy for his motivation.”