USC Recruits 7th Grader
Via Gather:
David Sills, a seventh-grader at Red Lion Christian Academy in Bear, Delaware has got a great arm and seems to know the game of football. Even his quarterback coach thinks he’s got big talent, but being recruited at the age of 13 seems a bit overkill.
Lane Kiffin, the new coach at USC has offered Sills a football scholarship for school and in return Sills has verbally committed to the school. This just after taking Pete Carroll’s job and getting his feet wet with the new football job.
Okay, it looks like the kid has real talent, but… what were the USC coach and David’s parents thinking? Verbally committing a 7th grader so far in advance seems risky. First, heaven forbid, David might change his mind. Second, couldn’t publicly committing to USC limit the 13 year old’s choices and potential (if all goes according to plan) for a better deal from another school? And, if the parents are set on this path – which the verbal agreement would imply – then why not get the deal in writing… along with a clause that states if David commits to USC now then, no matter what, he gets a full scholarship.
h/t Jason330 (Thanks, J!)
Yeah, I agree. I hope this kid gets a scholarship even if he stops playing football. But WTF? I really hope the NCAA cracks down on this. College teams really shouldn’t be able to recruit 7th graders.
This is nuts. Why not have a “baby NFL draft” so coaches can poach toddlers at really develop them. If schools want to reach kids that early, they should A) make the scholarship contingent on certain academic achievements, such as ensuring the kid can READ when he graduates and B) if the kid reaches said academic milestones, and can’t perform sufficiently on the gridiron-or just don’t want to play ball – he can still GO TO SCHOOL to get an EDUCATION. What a crazy notion
What we have here is/are a couple of attention whores getting their names in the papers. I’m talking about Sills’ family and the oily U$C Head Coach Lane Kiffin. It is 100% publicity, 0% substance.
There is no such thing as a binding verbal NCAA commitment, and neither side is obligated to honor it. This past week was the official signing of Letters of Intent for senior football players to commit. Just in the last days before signing, dozens of long-term verbal ‘commits’ flipped to other schools. Many had press conferences, which is just what you’d expect when coddled athletes, even as young as elementary age, have had several years of being told how great they are.
Lane Kiffin has already become notorious despite only having one, count ’em, one year as a college head coach. He had been fired as HC of the Oakland Raiders when the Tennessee Vols came a’calling. Already a program under a cloud due to major academic irregularities regarding athletes (grad assistants basically writing papers for the ‘student-athletes’), Rocky Top was ideally suited for a young braggart like Kiffin. During his first week there, he committed several ‘minor’ NCAA violations for illegally contacting recruits. He claimed ignorance of the rules. Soon, thereafter, he claimed that Florida HC Urban Meyer had illegally contacted Tenn. recruits, a charge he had to retract when it turned out not to be true. During the season, several other issues surfaced, including one of several Tenn. ‘hostesses’ personally visiting high school recruits. Notwithstanding Kiffin’s braggadocio and sleazoid tactics, Tenn. went 7-6 in 2009, including being blown out by Va. Tech in bowl game.
Still, Tennessee was having a great recruiting season with Kiffin and Ed Orgeron (more on him soon) beating the bushes. And then, long-time U$C Coach Pete Carroll hastily departed the Trojans for a head coaching job with the Seattle Seahawks. Carroll’s departure also may have been hastened by a major NCAA investigation into HIS program, and special favors, including ‘off-the-books’ housing provided to star players.
U$C hastily contacted Kiffin, who hastily skipped out of Rocky Top for his ‘dream job’ w/o even letting his assistant coaches know, except for his dad, Monte Kiffin, who was the defensive coordinator, and his recruiting guru, Ed Orgeron.
Now here’s everything you need to know about Lane Kiffin: The day he took the USC job was the day BEFORE semester classes were due to begin at Tenn. Several football players, JUCO transfers and HS kids who had already graduated, had already enrolled and were set to begin classes. Kiffin and Orgeron contacted those players and urged them NOT to attend class, but rather come with them to USC. Had they attended a single class, they were officially ‘students’ at the university. This appears to be in clear violation of NCAA regs, and will be added to the long list of ‘issues’ already facing Southern Cal. Even by cesspool college football standards, Kiffin has quickly become the poster boy for snake-oil salesmen.
Which brings us to the Sills kid. Kiffin has a history here as well. One of the first things he did at Tenn. was to offer an 8th grader. He is desparate for attention. He clearly found a willing accomplice with the Sills family and the Sills kid. Whether the kid is a willing participant, unwitting pawn, or something in between, the parents should be utterly ashamed of themselves. Instead of acting as parents, they have chosen to throw themselves into the spotlight for their 15 minutes of fame. In so doing, they have guaranteed that their son will not have a normal high school experience.
Like Kiffin, they are shameless. They deserve each other. And I’m sure that both the parents and Kiffin couldn’t care less how this impacts the kid. Pathetic.
How do you really feel? You left out one villain; Steve Clarkson. See the highlight reel Clarkson put together to sell his product and while you do so remind yourself that Sills is 13 years old.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUb8F8Ltru0
This really is pretty pitiful. And that video is stomach-turning. I’d bet that there are way more people worried about this kid’s sports future than in his scholastic future.
I wish that we lived in a world that targeted young, talented people for for better cultivation of potential skills in science, engineering, the arts with the same kind of energy and *money* as these sports guys get cultivated.
Yeah, Clarkson’s probably angling for a ‘package deal’, where he comes along as an assistant coach or something.