Neo
02-05-2005, 10:27 AM
USC signee irks Beamer
Posted Saturday, February 5, 2005 - 12:00 am
By Rick Scoppe
COLUMBIA BUREAU
rscoppe@greenvillenews.com
COLUMBIA — It didn't take coach Steve Spurrier long to ruffle a few feathers as the University of South Carolina's new football coach.
Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer was upset when the Gamecocks landed Jonathan Hannah, a highly regarded tight end/defensive end from Hope Mills, N.C., who committed to the Hokies on Jan. 24 but signed a national letter of intent with USC when the national signing period began Wednesday.
"I don't think once kids commit, other people should try and keep recruiting them," Beamer said when asked about Hannah during a teleconference Wednesday. "I don't think we as football coaches should go around trying to make kids break their word."
Beamer said it was "one thing" if a player commits then calls a school telling it he'd made a mistake. But, Beamer said, it's another "if he commits, and people keep recruiting him and bashing the school they committed to. It's wrong."
Ironically, Virginia Tech signed a player — 6-foot-3, 300-pound offensive lineman Sergio Render of Newnan, Ga. — who committed to Florida State on July 12 but changed his mind in December.
Spurrier responded to Beamer's comments Friday, saying he was "dead wrong," noting USC also lost a player who committed — wide receiver Eric Sledge — to the University of Florida.
"We wished him the best and moved on and didn't call him back," Spurrier said. "It's just part of the game of recruiting. I'm surprised that Beamer, who's really a good person, tried to make an issue of it. He shouldn't be complaining over there because a kid changes his mind. They change their minds all the time. For him to get mad about it when he loses a guy is sort of sour grapes.
"I think it's sad that college coaches make young men try to feel bad that 'you gave us your word and that you're lying and your word's no good,' " Spurrier said. "If that was the case, every person in America who's divorced, their word's no good ... because obviously 'til death do us part' doesn't hold up."
Spurrier said Hannah never told him or recruiting coordinator Rick Stockstill that he was firmly committed to Virginia Tech. Hannah had a basketball game Friday night and couldn't be reached for comment.
"We just stayed in touch," Spurrier said. "Two or three days before (signing day) he just felt like he had made a mistake and this was the best opportunity for him, simple as that."
Beamer was en route Friday to Key West, Fla., for NCAA rules committee meetings and couldn't be reached for comment, Virginia Tech sports information director Dave Smith said. Smith said Beamer's comments were nothing new.
"When he's said it in past years it's just been kind of dismissed because it hadn't really happened to him," Smith said. "So when he said it this year, it wasn't like this came out of the blue as far as his philosophy. It's going to be taken as if it's intended for Coach Spurrier because we lost a guy (to USC), but it's a general thing he's been saying for awhile."
Spurrier said his recruiting philosophy is that once a player says he's "made a firm commitment," he and his staff back off. Spurrier said after he was hired by USC, the father of quarterback Jonathan Crompton of Waynesville, N.C., called him about his son, to whom Spurrier talked.
"He seemed interested. Then the next day I called him back and he said, 'Coach, I just want you to know I'm firmly committed to Tennessee,' " Spurrier said. "I said, 'Well, if you're firmly committed, we don't need to go any farther, do we?' He said, 'No sir.'
"I said, 'I wish you the best except when we play you.' So that finished that recruiting right there."
Crompton's father, Davis, said Spurrier was "really professional and respected Jonathan's feelings to the utmost. ... The only thing was when we were in Texas for the (U.S. Army National) all-star game he left a message on the telephone and said, 'If you change your mind,' and that was it."
Also, Spurrier took exception to any "bashing" of Virginia Tech by USC coaches. "The good recruiters, the guys that I think are most successful are guys that don't bash other schools," Spurrier said. "You go around bashing other schools and then you're hiding something that you don't have at your school."
http://greenvilleonline.com/news/sports/2005/02/05/2005020558021.htm
Posted Saturday, February 5, 2005 - 12:00 am
By Rick Scoppe
COLUMBIA BUREAU
rscoppe@greenvillenews.com
COLUMBIA — It didn't take coach Steve Spurrier long to ruffle a few feathers as the University of South Carolina's new football coach.
Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer was upset when the Gamecocks landed Jonathan Hannah, a highly regarded tight end/defensive end from Hope Mills, N.C., who committed to the Hokies on Jan. 24 but signed a national letter of intent with USC when the national signing period began Wednesday.
"I don't think once kids commit, other people should try and keep recruiting them," Beamer said when asked about Hannah during a teleconference Wednesday. "I don't think we as football coaches should go around trying to make kids break their word."
Beamer said it was "one thing" if a player commits then calls a school telling it he'd made a mistake. But, Beamer said, it's another "if he commits, and people keep recruiting him and bashing the school they committed to. It's wrong."
Ironically, Virginia Tech signed a player — 6-foot-3, 300-pound offensive lineman Sergio Render of Newnan, Ga. — who committed to Florida State on July 12 but changed his mind in December.
Spurrier responded to Beamer's comments Friday, saying he was "dead wrong," noting USC also lost a player who committed — wide receiver Eric Sledge — to the University of Florida.
"We wished him the best and moved on and didn't call him back," Spurrier said. "It's just part of the game of recruiting. I'm surprised that Beamer, who's really a good person, tried to make an issue of it. He shouldn't be complaining over there because a kid changes his mind. They change their minds all the time. For him to get mad about it when he loses a guy is sort of sour grapes.
"I think it's sad that college coaches make young men try to feel bad that 'you gave us your word and that you're lying and your word's no good,' " Spurrier said. "If that was the case, every person in America who's divorced, their word's no good ... because obviously 'til death do us part' doesn't hold up."
Spurrier said Hannah never told him or recruiting coordinator Rick Stockstill that he was firmly committed to Virginia Tech. Hannah had a basketball game Friday night and couldn't be reached for comment.
"We just stayed in touch," Spurrier said. "Two or three days before (signing day) he just felt like he had made a mistake and this was the best opportunity for him, simple as that."
Beamer was en route Friday to Key West, Fla., for NCAA rules committee meetings and couldn't be reached for comment, Virginia Tech sports information director Dave Smith said. Smith said Beamer's comments were nothing new.
"When he's said it in past years it's just been kind of dismissed because it hadn't really happened to him," Smith said. "So when he said it this year, it wasn't like this came out of the blue as far as his philosophy. It's going to be taken as if it's intended for Coach Spurrier because we lost a guy (to USC), but it's a general thing he's been saying for awhile."
Spurrier said his recruiting philosophy is that once a player says he's "made a firm commitment," he and his staff back off. Spurrier said after he was hired by USC, the father of quarterback Jonathan Crompton of Waynesville, N.C., called him about his son, to whom Spurrier talked.
"He seemed interested. Then the next day I called him back and he said, 'Coach, I just want you to know I'm firmly committed to Tennessee,' " Spurrier said. "I said, 'Well, if you're firmly committed, we don't need to go any farther, do we?' He said, 'No sir.'
"I said, 'I wish you the best except when we play you.' So that finished that recruiting right there."
Crompton's father, Davis, said Spurrier was "really professional and respected Jonathan's feelings to the utmost. ... The only thing was when we were in Texas for the (U.S. Army National) all-star game he left a message on the telephone and said, 'If you change your mind,' and that was it."
Also, Spurrier took exception to any "bashing" of Virginia Tech by USC coaches. "The good recruiters, the guys that I think are most successful are guys that don't bash other schools," Spurrier said. "You go around bashing other schools and then you're hiding something that you don't have at your school."
http://greenvilleonline.com/news/sports/2005/02/05/2005020558021.htm