Recruiting story (1st hand) re. All visits or commit early?

May 3, 2011, 1:44 PM

I see further on down the board a fairly long post about recruiting and taking multiple visits and commitment. While some of the older folks (Long timers) have seen and heard this story before it has been a long time since I posted it but maybe it will give you some insight into what goes into the whole process from the kids or parents point of view.
For those who don’t know me my son (Ryan Mottl) was a four year All-American at Clemson from 1997 – 2000 and remains the third winningest pitcher in program history throwing the second most innings in program history. As such he had generated quite a bit of interest in the early days of his being recruited. And yes, this is a baseball story however, kids are kids and I think many of them when presented with opportunities react in much the same way.
After years of playing ones sport with the ultimate goal of being recruited it comes as a shock when it finally happens and the phone is ringing off the hook. With more than 100 schools calling at one time he was able to narrow it down to a workable number and from those he began setting up visits to Clemson, Miami, Kentucky, Alabama, and Hawaii. I will explain each one in a bit. After making his choices and being quite excited to begin the tour he opened the trips with one thing in mind. He WAS going to take each and every one!! It was just that simple and I could totally understand as a 17 year old, his thinking so I did not even pursue arguing. He really did not have a dream school as such to convey allegiance to so that was not an issue in his case or actually if he did it would have been Miami which was on the list. (My fault for going there in the early 70’s)
The most interesting part of it all was watching as each and every visit occurred and the most recent school immediately became the front runner. I don’t even remember the exact order except to say that Clemson was the first visit and he was pushed very, very hard to commit and drop his other trips. With the wealth of school and no true allegiance any threat to be made about pulling an offer would have been totally laughable.
The AMAZING part was that we could tell as each school continued to write and send letters and info that they KNEW exactly what was happening and their letter attempted to over-ride that “most recent visit” thing in the words. For example, Clemson began writing saying………”Remember when you were here……..type things” to give him that feeling once again of being in Clemson and seeing the campus, and visiting the facilities, etc……
With all that said this is how each visit played out……………………..
Clemson: To be honest we came up with the idea of Clemson initially by researching previous Top 25 Baseball Pools and obviously we were always in the mix. At the time I certainly had little to no knowledge of the school and can’t say if he did or not. But……he made the trip and TOTALLY came away loving it…..the place, the town, the people, the coaches, etc. Until his next trip, lol
Alabama: Alabama was funny because the Recruiting Coordinator followed our independent team around the country all summer prior to recruiting and in talking to me as the coach, it took him forever to make the connection that Ryan was my son. That made for a whole bunch of shady contacts however it was all clean. When the time came Ryan actually tried to cancel and they fell over backwards making alternate arrangements at great cost when I could not drive us there and once again…………he LOVED it!!!
Kentucky: Coach was really nice but I remain convinced that the ONLY reason he visited was to sort of humor me he might go somewhere close to “home”
Hawaii : All I will say is that 3 days in an ocean front hotel on Waikiki rooming na suite with a friend he had made traveling internationally to play is almost an unfair advantage. One of the only negative factors he and we learned about is the resentment towards mainlanders playing on scholarship and of course distance.
Miami: Almost cancelled because he had played at that point with so many people from around the country and internationally that he had heard a GREAT deal of stories about the school. Stories opf over-recruiting in HUGE numbers etc……. Again to be honest, he was initially swung to consider it by me as I went there in 1972 (Old, I know). So when we talked he decided to take the trip because we analyzed that being recruited by The Hurricanes had always been a benchmark that one had MADE IT in baseball circles. I also was good friends at the time with Turtle Thomas. The visit was great…………………and calling to turn them down was very, very hard for him.

The decision was finally made and I do totally believe that a lot of the credit goes back to the coach’s letter that kept reminding him of how he FELT when he visited Clemson.

I can guarantee that neither Ryan, nor his mom and I have never regretted even one second of his decision!
Hope you all enjoyed the story.

Steve

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A place should be able to ultimately sell itself. Miami and Clemson are totally different. If you are going to be happy in Miami then chances are you wouldn't have been at Clemson. Better to find that out upfront than later when they want to transfer.

The way I look at it is if a school extends you an opened ended offer but tells you that they are only taking X number at that position, call their bluff. If you are good enough to be offered this early then you are good enough for them to wait to make sure you are comfortable with your decision. Especially if you have multiple offers. The schools and coaches know what a verbal committment means. If they pull all other offers and that verbal goes somewhere else, thems the breaks for burning your own backup plan. Coaches have a good idea of how committed someone is to that school. And if a school feels like a prospect is dragging them along, pull the offer. Recruiting is like dating. It aint official until you sign your life away.

Plus a school does not have to offer you an official visit. If they feel that the player is committed somewhere else, they don't have to waste the money. Public verbal or not, we all knew that Clowney was going to USC...yet Dabo brought him in for an official. I didn't see us getting so high and mighty over that as we are holding this kid to.

I took other job interviews even when I had an offer letter in my hand that I was pretty sure I was going to take. I might have "committed" if Rivals would have given a crap about reporting that kind of stuff.

Recruiting story (1st hand) re. All visits or commit early?

Thanks for your post

Also, with baseball, you have the threat of a kid being

Actually, the latest...

Thanks ... I am out of the loop sometimes hahah.***

I think the issue...

"even a verbal one"? l0l!! that's the only kind...geeez***

I think the bigger issue...

If a girl makes a committment to go on a date with you

a commitment to attend a school would = engagement, not date

I think a better analogy would be it's like pressuring

hey... a kinky coot.***

The problem lies in the hands of the coaches

A kid...and yes, I say kid....is pressured to commit...

what, no visit to FSU?!?!

That would be one way to put it. Noles are my Gamecocks!******

I say take all the vists you can

Great post...Thanks for the insight***

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