Advantage of the silent commit

[chicolby]

I'm sure this has been addressed on here before so sorry if I missed it. But, what is the advantage of a silent commit? Is it for the player so he can still visit other schools?

Is it for the team to build a crescendo of excitement at their desired timing?

I just don't see why keeping a commit silent is an advantage for anyone. Insights?

 

[Tulsa Tom]

It doesn't help the school...period. The player gets to hold a spot while continuing to look around.

 

[litespeedhuskerfan]

Stud 4 stars who reside in California or (insert cool state here) might not want their posse to know where they are going. As hard as it is for us Nebraskans to believe, Nebraska isn't looked at as an enviable place to live, and since our football team has blown chunks for the better part of 15 years (all of the current high schooler's lives we're recruiting these days) they may wish to avoid the hard time they would receive by announcing early. That is just one of many reasons I am sure, but for Nebraska, it's prolly #1 or #2 on our silent commits list. Also a sign of the times, as people in this day and age want E-Bay prices but with retail brick and mortar store warranties. In short, they want it all more than ever, and reserving your spot with the freedom to keep looking around accomplishes that. It's also partly generational, look at the disaster that is University of Missouri for a great example.

 

[BigRedPimp]

Another could be that schools like NU want to keep it quiet so as not to trigger other certain schools to then start recruiting said player. Some staffs are better at identifying talent than others.

 

[TheBeav815]

I don't really get the point of being a silent. It strikes me as trying to date a girl and keep her a secret. If you're not proud of her, then why are you with her?

 

[Lincoln100]

It doesn't help the school...period. The player gets to hold a spot while continuing to look around.

Spot on, because those who verbal stop looking around and stop getting recruited by other schools, or not

 

[Tulsa Tom]

Another could be that schools like NU want to keep it quiet so as not to trigger other certain schools to then start recruiting said player. Some staffs are better at identifying talent than others.

Silent commits nearly always are known to have committable offers. It's not like other schools don't know we are recruiting them.

 

[tro80]

Except that our silent commits were already highly recruited, so we weren't hiding anyone that way.

The only thing I saw where I understand why the kid wanted it to be silent was where the kid was recording his announcement to be aired at a later time and therefore needed to stay silent to not blow the big announcement. If I were a coach, I might accept that explanation (although frankly that's not my style). Its a good thing I am not coaching, because I would not accept a kids commitment if he is still looking around. I would tell the kid, we want you and we hope you come here, but don't commit if you are still looking around. If you do look around after committing, we will no longer consider you a commit and we are going to keep looking also. Granted, you aren't going to sign a lesser player to take that spot as long as the kid is still looking at coming, but you can't close off your other options and let the kid play you to the point that you end up without someone in that slot. But my personality doesn't really mesh with chasing highschool kids around anyway - so good thing my livelihood isn't dependent on that.

 

[chicolby]

Except that our silent commits were already highly recruited, so we weren't hiding anyone that way.

The only thing I saw where I understand why the kid wanted it to be silent was where the kid was recording his announcement to be aired at a later time and therefore needed to stay silent to not blow the big announcement. If I were a coach, I might accept that explanation (although frankly that's not my style). Its a good thing I am not coaching, because I would not accept a kids commitment if he is still looking around. I would tell the kid, we want you and we hope you come here, but don't commit if you are still looking around. If you do look around after committing, we will no longer consider you a commit and we are going to keep looking also. Granted, you aren't going to sign a lesser player to take that spot as long as the kid is still looking at coming, but you can't close off your other options and let the kid play you to the point that you end up without someone in that slot. But my personality doesn't really mesh with chasing highschool kids around anyway - so good thing my livelihood isn't dependent on that.

I agree with this and should more schools adopt this philosophy, it would likely begin to turn the tide of power back to the schools.

These players are so courted you can't blame them for thinking they are on top of the world. But just as Iowa told Fant, if you go to Minny, your scholarship may not be here when you return... That is how schools should operate. But alas, someone will always kiss ass more and will ruin the opportunity.

 

[spinner4]

I can think of only a few advantages

1.) Barry Turner always comes to mind when talking about a silent commit. He had a ton of pressure to go to Tennessee since he was from Nashville. He committed on his visit to John Blake but needed to keep on the D L so him and his family wouldn't take a ton of crap for not being a vol.

2) Sabotage. Mike Riley would never play this game but this has happen in recruiting (or at least I've herd rumors of this). Example, kid commits to Oklahoma. Stoops has him remain silent so the commit can go on the other 4 OV and recruit for Oklahoma. Then the commit visits the other schools on the same weekend that "just so happens" to have other OU targets are visiting. The silent commit complains the whole time that this school doesn't have what OU has. Also, now the silent commit has some kind of knowledge on the other targets. Some kid was kicked out of his visit to Michigan a few years back because of this. It's dirty but it happens.

 

[z28craz]

Today's recruits are Millineals... Don't get me wrong, I love our players and recruits. But I'm a business owner, so all I can say is, today's recruits are Millineals... So I'll leave this here because there is much truth here and probably sheds a little light on why they do what they do from a commitment standpoint.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/generation-y-unhappy_b_3930620.html

 

[hddude55]

Today's recruits are Millineals... Don't get me wrong, I love our players and recruits. But I'm a business owner, so all I can say is, today's recruits are Millineals... So I'll leave this here because there is much truth here and probably sheds a little light on why they do what they do from a commitment standpoint.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/generation-y-unhappy_b_3930620.html

Please educate me further on those Millineals. Sounds like critters that might infest those big old flour mill buildings.

 

[dinglefritz]

Please educate me further on those Millineals. Sounds like critters that might infest those big old flour mill buildings.

funny, but we all knew what he meant and he made a good point.