2022 MSU FOOTBALL RECRUITING Discussion Thread

[Dawgology]

No.

Ask the people in the Byhalia area how they feel about the Ole Miss coaching staff after they dropped Makylan Pounders a few days before signing day.

Y'all are in spin mode, and I get it, but this is a terrible look and pretty much assures we won't be getting a kid from Biloxi any time soon. That's coming straight from a coach on staff at BHS.

Gosh…they must have lost the Sugar Bowl this year because they didn’t have the support of Byhalia…

[KOdawg1]

Gosh…they must have lost the Sugar Bowl this year because they didn’t have the support of Byhalia…

I mean, that's a weird conclusion to come to but okay

[Leroy Jenkins]

No.

Ask the people in the Byhalia area how they feel about the Ole Miss coaching staff after they dropped Makylan Pounders a few days before signing day.

Y'all are in spin mode, and I get it, but this is a terrible look and pretty much assures we won't be getting a kid from Biloxi any time soon. That's coming straight from a coach on staff at BHS.

You cannot sign a grade risk kid anymore. If you accept the LOI they count against your grant allocation, irrespective of if they make it to school or not. That scholarship is gone for the term. If you cant get accepted into school you cant play football, end of story.

You are the one spinning here, the blame rests on the kid and the adults in his life who allowed him to (potentially) fail. This ain't the place for clutching pearls. Pounders story is completely different because he was a qualifier.

Somewhere there is a player who will get this scholly because he did the work.

[Commercecomet24]

You cannot sign a grade risk kid anymore. If you accept the LOI they count against your grant allocation, irrespective of if they make it to school or not. That scholarship is gone for the term. If you cant get accepted into school you cant play football, end of story.

You are the one spinning here, the blame rests on the kid and the adults in his life who allowed him to (potentially) fail. This ain't the place for clutching pearls. Pounders story is completely different because he was a qualifier.

Somewhere there is a player who will get this scholly because he did the work.

This. And just about every school has dropped a kid for this very reason. Heck even Saban has dropped kids right before signing day. It's part of it. If you don't put in the work in the classroom you don't reap the benefits. They knew this was coming because of the lack of production in the classroom.

[Hambone]

Now Commerce you have to know that in todays age you cannot accept liability for your own actions. It’s always someone else’s fault.

Does the timing stink, absolutely. But, maybe this helps pursuance the next player in this situation to work a little harder.

[KOdawg1]

This is the last post I'll make on the topic because we're cluttering the recruiting thread and signing day is next week.

I'm not arguing that we shouldn't have dropped the kid bc he was a grade risk. That's what y'all are missing. No where have I said that. I'm arguing that the timing of it is wrong. You knew he was a grade risk in December. So you told him to sign in February. Then 5 days before signing day, you offer him a blue shirt. Obviously that option had not been discussed given the fact he took issue with it. Now him taking issue with it is another argument. I would've probably taken it if it were me and I felt I could get eligible. But the blue shirt should've been offered in December. His grades didn't magically change one way or the other in a month, especially since half that time was Christmas break. Luckily, for him (and us) it looks like he's gonna land on his feet at South Alabama. That's great.

In my opinion, it was a bad look, but it's all water under the bridge now.

[KOdawg1]

You cannot sign a grade risk kid anymore.

You are the one spinning here

See post above.

No spinning here.

[KOdawg1]

This. And just about every school has dropped a kid for this very reason.

See post above.

[Interpolation_Dawg_EX]

So Steve always toes the company line but on his latest podcast he basically back door called out the coaching staff for the timing. Interesting.

[Hambone]

What’s the feel on Ajay Allen?

[KOdawg1]

What’s the feel on Ajay Allen?

No one really knows I don't think. Could be us, TCU, or Nebraska. I'd love to get him because he's talented

[BayouDawg]

So Steve always toes the company line but on his latest podcast he basically back door called out the coaching staff for the timing. Interesting.

I think its because the recruiting insiders need good relations with the high school coaches so they put that out there to stay on the high schools good side. Thats just my estimated guess as to why he wouldnt tote water for state though so its probably wrong.

[MetEdDawg]

This is the last post I'll make on the topic because we're cluttering the recruiting thread and signing day is next week.

I'm not arguing that we shouldn't have dropped the kid bc he was a grade risk. That's what y'all are missing. No where have I said that. I'm arguing that the timing of it is wrong. You knew he was a grade risk in December. So you told him to sign in February. Then 5 days before signing day, you offer him a blue shirt. Obviously that option had not been discussed given the fact he took issue with it. Now him taking issue with it is another argument. I would've probably taken it if it were me and I felt I could get eligible. But the blue shirt should've been offered in December. His grades didn't magically change one way or the other in a month, especially since half that time was Christmas break. Luckily, for him (and us) it looks like he's gonna land on his feet at South Alabama. That's great.

In my opinion, it was a bad look, but it's all water under the bridge now.

As an assistant principal, I will tell you that grades can and do change in a month. Grades for first semester in a lot of public schools aren't finalized until January after we come back from Christmas Break. So as a college, you can take a kids word in December, but officially, as a school, you won't get notification of a students 1st semester final grades until the middle of January.

The school I work at in Alabama, we didn't finalize grades until January 11th. So you can get word of mouth from a kid, but as a college you don't get official grade reports until early to middle January.

I cut colleges a lot of slack in most cases in situations like this. When a students admittance into college rides on grades that are finalized 3 weeks before signing day, you can get put in some bad situations. I don't know the specifics of this one. But colleges can't technically get access to official grades until they are finalized. So it's entirely possible the outlook for this child didn't require a response from us until we were able to get that information officially.

Like I said, I don't know the specifics of this one, but I do know how grade reporting works and what colleges can and can't do in regards to accessing official grades of students, even if they are prospects.

[Cowboydawg]

As an assistant principal, I will tell you that grades can and do change in a month. Grades for first semester in a lot of public schools aren't finalized until January after we come back from Christmas Break. So as a college, you can take a kids word in December, but officially, as a school, you won't get notification of a students 1st semester final grades until the middle of January.

The school I work at in Alabama, we didn't finalize grades until January 11th. So you can get word of mouth from a kid, but as a college you don't get official grade reports until early to middle January.

I cut colleges a lot of slack in most cases in situations like this. When a students admittance into college rides on grades that are finalized 3 weeks before signing day, you can get put in some bad situations. I don't know the specifics of this one. But colleges can't technically get access to official grades until they are finalized. So it's entirely possible the outlook for this child didn't require a response from us until we were able to get that information officially.

Like I said, I don't know the specifics of this one, but I do know how grade reporting works and what colleges can and can't do in regards to accessing official grades of students, even if they are prospects.

Correct. You wait for the official grades and then you determine what the kid needs to do in the Spring/Summer to get qualified. In this case the staff pulled the plug us soon as they had all the information.

[Bdawg]

Don't have to use common sense. Just going off of what Steve Robertson, Paul Jones, and his coach at Biloxi have said. Think I'm gonna believe them over ED message board posters. Believe whatever you want to believe though.

I listened to Steve too. He only said he wished it happened earlier, but it's also on the kid to make the grades. If he makes the grades, he's at state right now. What's the parents and kid gunna tell Leach when he doesn't qualify? "Sorry we cost you a scholarship, but we won't talk bad about you now." Steve and them don't know everything. And if our coaches are that incompetent in being up front with a recruit, they really suck at recruiting. I find it really hard to believe they are that stupid(like I said, common sense.) I feel like we gave the kid his best opportunity for SEC play by sticking with him the longest until we just knew it was too risky.

[Bdawg]

If that?s the case, then our staff told him you can?t sign in December because of grades but you can sign in February because grades don?t matter then? According to Steve, Paul, and the Biloxi coach what did our staff tell Moss the reason was he could not sign in December?

Exactly, kid knew why he was held over. And I'm willing to bet, knew this could happen if things didn't improve.

[Bdawg]

So who else are other options right now besides Ajay, our OLman that has to graduate(Pines?) and I believe our one visitor(can't remember).

[maroonmania]

His grades didn't magically change one way or the other in a month, especially since half that time was Christmas break.

Not sure if you can say that. IF his eligibilty was highly dependent on his final grades for the Fall semester and IF those final grades were not available to our coaching staff until 2 or 3 weeks into January, then our staff may just now be realizing that he is very unlikely to get eligible. Now that his Fall grades are in they do pretty much know exactly what he would have to accomplish in the Spring to get eligible and it may be more than we think he can do. None of that would have been known in December. Bottom line is that if he was ready to sign in December and we would not let him, then I think that should have been all the indication he would have needed to start looking into other options. Its not like there are any other SEC or other P5 schools rushing in to take him.

[WhiskeyPirate]

Good player, bad grades but it’s the coaching staffs fault. BS. This happens every year to every program in all sports.

[SilentSteel16]

Who are the kids that secretly signed with us the 1st day but wanted to announce with their classmates. Also, I believe one was trying to surprise a relative or something. Who were they?