Now that I have your attention, go read the excellent New York Times article from which I took the title quote. It’s about the recruiting of a star high school football player, and let’s just say that the University of Texas’ PR department is probably displeased with the Gray Lady this week.
(Hat tip: Infinite Sportswriter Theorem.)
UPDATE: Texas fans and supporters are questioning the veracity of the recruit’s claims about Texas – shocking – and the Texas section of rivals.com has a retort (but not a disproof – more of a claim that the Times writer is biased against Texas) here.
UPDATE #2: The recruit himself is now backing away from some parts of the English-class essay that was quoted in the Times article.
As a double-Texas grad (undergrad and law), let me point out that it’s also possible that the UT PR department (or at least the separate athletic department PR department) is secretly thrilled. Is there nothing in that quote that makes a 17 year old boy want to come to Texas? I’m sure bland corporate denials and statements of displeasure will be issued, but I imagine that this kind of exposure is not necessarily a bad thing for recruiting.
Kevin C – UT’s approach didn’t seem to work out too well with respect to this recruit.
Keith, thanks for the hat tip.
Also, if this young man’s high school English paper were to be developed into a full-length novel, would it have a chance to crack the next iteration of the Klaw 100?
Keith, I am interested in your takeaway here. Part of me wants to say that all of this kind of stuff goes on because the market for top football players in the NCAA is so highly and poorly regulated (amateurism and all that). Under that view, we have these illicit (and some would say immoral) activities because the athletes can’t openly and clearly negotiate for the most advantageous situation for themselves along many dimensions (pay, perks, etc.).
On the other hand, I can see the opposite side. Under this view, what went on here is that the schools, because they couldn’t just compete to pay the player the most money possible, were forced to show the recruits their true colors. Thus, is it possible that the insanely anti-market regulatory regime adopted by the NCAA actually allows the players to make a better decision by forcing the schools to imagine (since it has to be underground to certain extent) what players will want and, in doing so, more accurately give players an idea of the culture in a given program.
Thoughts?
Keith, any girls romancing each other on your visit to Harvard.
I just wanted to make clear that I am putting to the side the question of the merits of the amateur system and most of the attendant issues.
A great article on what seems to be a special kid (for reasons beyond athletic prowess). What boggles my mind is the perception (and sometimes truth) that students, both those who are athletes and those who are not, choose schools based on girls romancing each other, how “hot” the student body is, and other related factors. Obviously, college is a comprehensive experience and a variety of factors should inform the decision making process, but are people REALLY wooed by these things? Are blue-chip athletes who could probably have their choice of college saying, “I really wanted to go to School X but School Y had a girl sit on my lap?” If it’s true, it’s ridiculous; and if schools are catering to this, whether or not it is accurate, that is a deplorable practice.
After Texas beat Baylor that weekend, McFarland and his mother ate dinner at (Texas Coach Mack) Brown’s home. Flat-screen televisions were in every room, and there were two outside. “Whose house do you like better, Bob Stoops’s, Les Miles’s or mine?” Adams recalled Brown saying.
What would you expect but deplorable practices from a coach who brings a recruit to his home for dinner, tries to impress him with flat screens in every room and asks him to compare his home to the other coaches’ homes?
I still can’t believe Vince Young left for the NFL early. Who’d take a pay cut to go to the NFL?
Keith, thanks for forwarding this…interesting stuff that helps confirm that college football sucks(because of these clowns that coach…how can these coaches really be role models???).
The scary thing is that this is just the tip of the iceberg…McFarland ‘seems’ like a good kid…one that is ready to make mature decisions. assuming he is a good kid….what do most of these recruits choose to do during these recruiting trips? (ummm, girls on laps = where do I sign?)
Unfortunately, I’m engaged…if anyone has les miles’ or mack brown’s contact info please let me know…vegas will be much more fun if they can help with the logistics
who needs a playoff? just give me recruiting stories…
Extremely well written, enjoyed it very much
Thanks, Keith, really enjoyed the article. It didn’t say if the kid declined the drugs or not, perhaps it is assumed. I guess that part surprised me the most – money and girls won’t necessarly ruin an athlete (tho it could) but drugs, especially cocaine, could destroy him and then what does the University have? And don’t tell me the University doesn’t know all about these parties and what goes on at them…
Regarding the updates:
1.) How can ANYONE question the veracity of what the recruit said he saw unless they were there themselves? Perhaps they can speak to how pervasive or representative of typical parties those events are, but it would be impossible for anyone who was not there to legitimately question what the young man reported. Naturally, as you said, they cry “bias”. Sigh. I went to parties in high school that were very much like what the recruit described. How can anyone deny the possibility that parties like those happen at their university, even if they were the exception or only happened to entice recruits?
2.) I wonder if the recruit took certain creative licenses with his writing piece? Perhaps he did exaggerate or dramatize certain events in the paper since he was writing the piece for his class, not to be a definitive statement regarding Texas’s recruiting tactics that would be published in the biggest newspaper in the world. It’s also possible that he did not intend to get caught in all the hoopla that this story may now be generating and is distancing himself from it.
Either way, I think anyone who was implicated in this story needs to first look in the mirror and examine their own actions and we need to let this young man move forward with his life.
Am I the only one that thinks this kids mother could have been working for Oklahoma. It seemed to me he wanted to go to USC first, then Texas, but she wanted him to go to Oklahoma because it made her feel better. I was recruited to play football in college, women romancing each other aside, so I have seen this sort of thing to some extent. This kid is going to Oklahoma because his mother liked the coaches better. She was upset because she couldn’t pick up the phone and talk to the Head Coach at the University of Texas? In all seriousness does anyone think that is wrong? He’s under more pressure than any other public official in the state and I guarantee she couldn’t get the governor on the horn. I feel bad for this kid and wouldn’t be shocked if he signed on the dotted line with the long horns when it came time.
Keith, good follow-up finds.
With respect to the rivals.com retort, for a guy who is so upset about the “very little attention paid to specific details,” he doesn’t seem too worried about basing counter-claims on statements such as:
“Although our sources couldn’t recall with 100 percent certainty, it was believed that McFarland traveled to Dallas on that weekend with his mother.”
I also noticed that no one has yet questioned the claim that Stoops sat through “Beauty Shop” in its entirety.
that rebuttal was strange. I read the article as a story of the recruiting process through the eyes of one mother and son. The mom obviously wanted him to go to OU, and he probably kind of wanted to go to texas, but ended up doing what his mom wanted him to do. The article wasn’t meant to be an in-depth investigative piece on recruiting violations at UT. That’s why the author didn’t go digging up secondary and tertiary sources. And after reading the article, i certainly take everything the mom said with a grain of salt.
The funny thing is that it doesn’t really matter where he goes to college. Whether he’s at texas or oklahoma, he is either going to have his head screwed on straight, succeed in a big time program, or not. It’s completely up to him.
Chris-
Those are really good points. The rebuttal was especially strange because it would quote something from the story, wildly exaggerate what the author was trying to accomplish with that passage, and then get up in arms about how over-the-top the article was. It also used unnamed “sources”, I-just-wrote-it-so-it-must-be-true statements, and “Trust me, I know this” arguments. It is likely that the original NYT article didn’t paint a comprehensive picture of recruiting at either OU or UT, but I do not think it set out to do that.
As a college football fan, and someone who is always following my alma maters’ (is that right?) recruiting processes (I attended none of the schools from the article), its always insightful to read an article like this. The mom’s reaction to certain things seemed irrational to me at times, where recruiters from UT were just trying to do what they could to make sure “J-Mac” would commit. At the same time, I seriously doubt this article paints a complete and unbiased article, considering the source(s) of information are the recruit and family who are obviously going to spin things in favor of the school they chose.
That said, the number of variables that influence a kid’s decision on which college to attend is unfathomable, and I have long since stopped wondering why so-and-so recruit chooses X University over mine. This recount just reinforces why recruiting is such a crapshoot and is also an extremely difficult and stressful part of college coaching.