Actually, I don't get so emotionally invested in recruiting that I feel the need to insult kids that decide to go somewhere other than PSU. But I guess this is just another instance where when one of our guys does it, it's ok, but if someone does it to us, it's wrong. Nordin is a "child", but Saquon Barkley made a smart decision in our book for turning his back on his Rutgers verbal and coming to PSU.
Actually, I don't get so emotionally invested in recruiting that I feel the need to insult kids that decide to go somewhere other than PSU. But I guess this is just another instance where when one of our guys does it, it's ok, but if someone does it to us, it's wrong. Nordin is a "child", but Saquon Barkley made a smart decision in our book for turning his back on his Rutgers verbal and coming to PSU.
Nordin is a placekicker. PSU also has a verbal commitment from Blake Gillikin, who is a punter from the Atlanta area and remains firm as far as I know.
In fact, Gillikin kicked some FGs over 50 yards this year, so he may be able to help in this area (bring him in for long FGs and use someone else for extra points and short FGs?).....so Nordin may not be a huge need.
If you have three official visits, you visit: 1. Pepperdine, 2. UC Santa Barbara, 3. Arizona State.
And who cares if Pepperdine dropped Football 10 years ago? You visit Pepperdine.
Trust me, there is NO other University like it. Every other co-ed either looks like an actress, model, pinup, or bikini contest winner.
Most girls at Pepperdine are generally and delusionaly majoring in "Pre-Law". They all saw "Legally Blonde" and think that getting into HVLS only requires them to be a resident of California. Like Hello!
UCSB doesn't have a football program.
He needs to feign interest in the Gauchos soccer program, THEN take his official visit to one of the greatest campuses in America.
UCSB doesn't have a football program.
He needs to feign interest in the Gauchos soccer program, THEN take his official visit to one of the greatest campuses in America.
I knew there was a reason why I have never put you on "ignore".
Thanks for the "thorough research".
I knew there was a reason why I have never put you on "ignore".
Thanks for the "thorough research".
Every once in awhile I say something worth reading.
I do agree with you: UCSB and Santa Barbara >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Pepperdine and Malibu.
Franklin should just get in a room with him and ask him straight up, "Listen ... I'm sensing you are not happy with you commitment to PSU. Is this the case? If so, would you like to backtrack on your verbal? We want everyone to be happy in Happy Valley and if being in Happy Valley is not going to make you happy then you probably shouldn't come. No hard feelings. If you are certain about your commitment, then you need to chill on all this self-centered nonsense. We want a team full of "WE"s not "I"s in Lasch. So whats it going to be boy ...YES or NO"
"Let me sleep on it, baby baby let me sleep on it. Let me sleep on it and I'll give you an answer in the morning"
Oh so sorry Marvin Lee Aday , I lost my mind for a moment and thought it was 1977!
Anyway this kid is not going to be worth the drama over the next 4 years regardless of how far he kicks the ball. He's self-centered team breaking trouble waiting to happen.
"Let me sleep on it, baby baby let me sleep on it. Let me sleep on it and I'll give you an answer in the morning"
Oh so sorry Marvin Lee Aday , I lost my mind for a moment and thought it was 1977!
Anyway this kid is not going to be worth the drama over the next 4 years regardless of how far he kicks the ball. He's self-centered team breaking trouble waiting to happen.
the>>>>>" is marginal, as in margin of all maginals, at best....I've been to both and they are unreal, then again I've seen UCLA and USC on a good day, and that's top notch also.
Don't apologize to Meat, apologize to Jim Steinman, he wrote that particular lyric.
Malibu is going to burn to the ground someday. Literally. Should have happened in 1993 (Topanga Fire), but the city got very very lucky.
Santa Barbara has wildfire danger itself, of course, but nothing like Malibu.
Just like Miami Beach with hurricanes .................... one of these years ..........
as we recruit talent among the elite, then JF needs to act exactly like Urban and Nick who set the standard. You keep charging forward making offers. your offers will greatly exceed the number of available positions, but you as the coach hold the cards. JF is a bit of a boy scout here. Saban would have at least two more kickers or other positions of need with established offers. whoever gets their letters in first wins the bid. JF will know the people who are definitely honest with their offers, and can insure they don't get left out. everyone else is survival of the fittest. I guarantee this is what Meyer and Saban do and they represent the target for us. nice guys finish last in recruiting (quote by Les Miles).
Baylor may have the coolest stadium in the country right now. They also have one of the coolest offenses. They also have cool uniforms (not my thing, but are very popular). On top of that, Baylor is a high end school with great educational opportunities, if one wants to take advantage of them. Highly doubt he ends up there, but Baylor is becoming a high end school for football.
Yes because what this kid does with his future is somehow a personal affront to you.
That kind of makes you, as an adult, the self absorbed a-hole you claim the teenage kid to be.
Baylor is a high end school? I never had that impression. I think it may have a decent med school/hospital in Houston/Dallas but I never thought the university in Waco was anything special.
There are 2 futures involved here, Nordin's and the PSU football program's, that are affected by this decision. Nordin has every right to do what he wants ... it is his future. But there doesn't seem to be an intersection between Nordin's desire and the program's any longer, not like there was a few months ago. His actions have made that perfectly clear. That being the case, I don't see why it is in incumbent up coach Franklin to continue pursuing this any further. I see no problem with PSU moving on from this kid and using the scholly elsewhere. We have the kicker/punter from GA, plus Davis, should improve our kicking next season over this past year.
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Who are you moving on with?
Kicker is one of our primary deficiencies. There are only a handful of kickers in the country (5 -10) that are talented enough to warrant a scholarship. Right now, Franklin has two of them and if Nordin goes elsewhere, you can bet the farm that the available scholarship will not be used for another kicker this year. So are you really convinced that it is a better practice to give up because you feel slighted than to try to close the deal and help the team. Its sour grapes...we'll win some and lose some, but once you start being vindictive to high school kids, you lose the high ground and create an unflattering reputation. To believe that PSU does need a kicker because he might not want us as bad as we'd like is shortsighted.
I think Gillikin can do both, but yes, if we have a shot at a great kicker then by all means.
With that said, stop recruiting New Jersey kickers, too much record of failure at this level, especially at PSU.
He's a place kicker. The kid from Georgia is the punter.
TWO VERY DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES. Saquon had not started a varsity football game when Whitehall went to Rutgers for a 7 on 7. He was between his Sophomore and Junior years. Rutgers, it could be said, took advantage of HIM and his naivete. This Nordin kid made a VIDEO of himself committing to Penn State. His family rented a plane to make that video.
Couple of things. First I'm not slighted by his actions, I'm being practical. My read on his actions is that he's going to Michigan and simply using us as leverage to get a scholly without having to grayshirt. He's not coming to Penn State, we are really no longer in the running. He's gone. That being the case we are wasting our time on him and the scholarship opening by holding a scholly for him at this time. As long as he's "committed" (cough cough), we have one less scholly to use (offer) right now whether it be for another kicker, a LB, a DT, whatever, who may really be interested. We still need players all over the field. We have a resource tied up in an unproductive project that will not come to fruition. Reassign it to a more useful pursuit. You may think we still have a shot. I don't. In the end he's going to Michigan whether on a 2016 scholarship or as a grayshirt in the following class.
My sense is maybe Baylor has been added to mix because he needs an alternative to MI to get what he wants from MI and maybe he's sensing PSU is coming to the end of their relationship with him (at least I hope that is where the staff is now). If there is no threat of him going somewhere else in 2016, then Harbaugh has no incentive to not just grayshirt offer him.
Second, the commitment from the punter from GA seems firm. Couple his punting and his ability to long placekick with Davis' late season production would seem to me be an improved kicking situation next season over the 2015 season. If we can add another worthy placekick this year, great. If not, we look next year.
Would it be great if Nordin was in this class and really committed, yes. But again in my opinion he's not coming. He's already gone. His actions scream "I'm not coming to Happy Valley". Forget about him and next recruit up for that scholarship. We need players in the pipeline.
PSU still has room to accept commits even if we "hold" one for Nordin. They aren't at the total or annual maximums so to believe that others will be turned away for Nordin is naive. We have recently had decommits from Hill and Colon that haven't been filled and we weren't finished taking recruits before their decommits. So we could take at least three recruits before we'd be forced to tell Nordin to crap or get off the pot.
Cutting ties is not practical...all it assures is that you don't get Nordin. We don't have any other kicker prospects to offer as a replacement, so there is not leverage or option B for Nordin's scholarship. So the question still is, who are you going to get with the scholarship? Without a plan, there is no reason to part ways with Nordin. Even if the chance is only 5%, that is still greater than 0%. We need kicking help now, not a year from now. If he isn't coming here, then it doesn't matter what Franklin does because we'll retain the scholarship anyway. The point is that we don't need to shoot ourselves in the foot. If Michigan only offers him a greyshirt and he doesn't want that, then we have a very good chance, but if we pull the offer then he ends up at Baylor or somewhere else because we got out panties twisted about how much we thought he liked us. There is no advantage at this point to cutting ties. Recruiting is fundamentally about getting someone to come to join your program, not about preventing them from doing so. Of course, there are situations like Hartsfield or McLean that school may walk away, but those are different animals.
Franklin and staff have invested time in recruiting Nordin and aren't going to just through it away because he has wandering eyes. Besides, Nordin and Gillikin are friends, so alienating Nordin could negatively impact Gillikin if he feels PSU didn't live up to the values of family and love that Franklin preaches. There are many more negatives to cut bait than to simply let it play out.
Removing a player's scholarship because he visits or looks at another school is petty and I don't want to be associated with a coach that can live with competition. It is no different than the coaches that refuse to release a recruit for a transfer just wind out the clock on his eligibility.
Cutting ties is not practical...all it assures is that you don't get Nordin. We don't have any other kicker prospects to offer as a replacement, so there is not leverage or option B for Nordin's scholarship. So the question still is, who are you going to get with the scholarship? Without a plan, there is no reason to part ways with Nordin. Even if the chance is only 5%, that is still greater than 0%. We need kicking help now, not a year from now. If he isn't coming here, then it doesn't matter what Franklin does because we'll retain the scholarship anyway. The point is that we don't need to shoot ourselves in the foot. If Michigan only offers him a greyshirt and he doesn't want that, then we have a very good chance, but if we pull the offer then he ends up at Baylor or somewhere else because we got out panties twisted about how much we thought he liked us. There is no advantage at this point to cutting ties. Recruiting is fundamentally about getting someone to come to join your program, not about preventing them from doing so. Of course, there are situations like Hartsfield or McLean that school may walk away, but those are different animals.
Franklin and staff have invested time in recruiting Nordin and aren't going to just through it away because he has wandering eyes. Besides, Nordin and Gillikin are friends, so alienating Nordin could negatively impact Gillikin if he feels PSU didn't live up to the values of family and love that Franklin preaches. There are many more negatives to cut bait than to simply let it play out.
Removing a player's scholarship because he visits or looks at another school is petty and I don't want to be associated with a coach that can live with competition. It is no different than the coaches that refuse to release a recruit for a transfer just wind out the clock on his eligibility.
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Again this has nothing to do with him visiting another school. We have other players visit other schools and I'm not suggesting we stop pursuing them. For Nordin your working under the premise that there is a chance he will come to PSU. I don't hold that false hope. That chance doesn't exist. All we are is leverage. Nothing more. Any further effort expended in pursuit of it is wasted effort on our part. We should face facts and move on. We have other positions to fill.
The staff can recruit Nordin and other players in case he goes elsewhere. The work has largely already been put in, so to backout now would be foolhardy. Every year the staff recruits hundreds of player simultaneously so I think they can handle touching base with Nordin a few times between now and LOI day. Especially since we are in the recruiting dead period. The fact that the staff recruited and took commitments from two kicking specialists should tell you how highly the staff prioritizes improving the special teams. It is rare to take a scholarship kicker and almost unheard to take two in the same class. You don't recruit off of emotions but rather based on need.
Franklin doesn't have to say anything. he can just keep offering others, and then at signing date simply fill the team to the limit. if he is over the 25 limit, then all he has to do is pull the ones that were "looking around" and didn't get their letters in timely. leave them at the altar.
I think Urban and Nick doe this on a regular basis.
Pulling the offer at the last minute is a sure-fire way to piss off parents and HS coaches. You do that a few times especially at the last minute and you are asking for trouble. If you get more LOIs than the 25 limit, you try to fit them in by counting them towards a previous years limit or telling them to greyshirt. Surprising a recruit is not a good thing, especially when you cannot talk to the media about recruits as you will surely get hammered.
He doesn't want to be here. Why that doesn't matter to some of you baffles me.
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