Archive for April, 2011

One of the most heralded basketball recruits in Georgia State’s history has been granted a scholarship release.

Power forward Jervon Pressley of Charlotte signed with Georgia State in the November’s early signing period but asked to be released from his letter-of-intent after coach Rod Barnes was terminated. The request was honored by new coach Ron Hunter, according to Ben Moore of PantherTalk.com:

When Coach Rod Barnes was relieved of his duties on February 26, it was a near lock that Pressley would not step foot on the downtown Atlanta campus.  Pressley and his mother had a tremendous relationship with Coach Barnes.  She also felt that Barnes would take care of Pressley in Atlanta.

Pressley has had struggles with his academics at Waddell, and there have been rumblings that Pressley had a good amount of work to do to meet the terms of his scholarship offer.  In fact, he is still looking for a qualifying SAT score according to one recruiting expert I’ve spoken …

Continue reading Georgia State’s new coach grants scholarship release to top basketball recruit »

Has the NCAA banned colleges from subscribing to Rivals, Scout, 247Sports, ESPN and other subscription-based recruiting services?

Yes, that seems to be a possible conclusion after a Twitter debate on Friday ignited by John Infante, author of the “Bylaw Blog” on the NCAA’s website. He sent out Twitter feeds about the topic on Friday. One of the preface tweets was “Bombed. Dropped.”

What’s the deal? Apparently, it’s that “Rivals provides video of nonscholastic competition that is not available to the general public.”

And the news may get worse for colleges with current or past subscriptions, according to CBS’s Bryan Fischer, who wrote “Every single school just had to report a secondary violation ‘if they were or ever have been subscribed’ to Rivals.” Fischer also speculates that this rule also applies to colleges paying for monthly memberships to Scout, 247sports, ESPN, etc.

Fischer said he has emails sent out to colleges about the topic:

The academic and membership affairs …

Continue reading NCAA bans college coaches from Rivals, Scout, 247sports, etc.? What? »

THE MAILBAG:

Those of you who visit The College Recruiting Blog regularly know I’ve been trying to run down 5-star prospect Keith Marshall to do a report on him. The 5-foot-11, 190-pound running back from Raleigh, who is a top target for Georgia as well as most of the SEC and ACC, is not a big fan of telephone interviews. Or, to be exact, his parents aren’t.

Keith Marshall prefers to run the football and correspond via email. (Photo provided by 247Sports.com)

And that’s fine. I understand it. As a father, I could see why I wouldn’t want my 17-year-old son saying whatever he wanted to whichever media outlet happened to call every night. I think back to that time long ago when I was 17 and the things that were generally on my mind and, well, let’s just say it’s a good thing nobody was interested in interviewing me.

I ran into this email-only policy just last year when Tucker linebacker James Vaughters was being recruited by half the nation. His father, Jonathan, preferred that …

Continue reading Mailbag: 5-star RB Keith Marshall includes UGA among his Top 12 »

THE TEN AT 10:

1. There is irony in recruiting, just as there is in everything I suppose. For instance, Joseph Scelfo is an offensive lineman and college football prospect from North Oconee High School just outside Athens. His father, Chris Scelfo, was once the head coach at Tulane but was fired. Now Joseph Scelfo is being recruited to play football for the Green Wave.

Scelfo

“I have no hard feelings toward them,” Joseph said from New Orleans, where he’s visiting Tulane this week while spending time with old friends.”My Dad has no hard feelings either. He doesn’t have any hate for them or anything. He served his time there, he did good there and his time is done now. He supports me in whatever I want to do. My options are open”

Want more irony? Joseph has only two scholarship offers so far. One of them is from UAB (the other Syracuse). His UAB offer came directly from Blazers line coach Will Friend. But Friend left UAB and now coaches offensive line at Georgia. Joseph said he …

Continue reading Ten@10: Recruiting somewhat ironic for son of Atlanta Falcons coach »

THE TEN AT 10:

1. Go ahead and add two more names to Georgia’s list of football commitments for the Class of 2012. That’s five in all if you’re keeping count.

Jalen Fields and Lonnie Outlaw haven’t held any press conferences or issued any kind of announcements or anything like that. But the rising sophomores at Georgia Military College confirmed this week that the offers they accepted with the Bulldogs in 2010 still stand. And they intend make good on their ends of the deal.

Former Dalton DE Jalen Fields says he can't wait to graduate from Georgia Military College and enroll at UGA. (Special photo provided by Jalen Fields)

“Yes, I’m planning on re-signing with the University of Georgia,” said Fields, a 6-5, 250-pound defensive end from Dalton.

“I’m keeping my commitment with Georgia,” said Outlaw, a 6-7, 210-pound wide receiver from Wilcox County. “There’s not going to be a change unless something comes up.”

Both players added that caveat to their pledges. Each said he would …

Continue reading Ten@10: Add two more to Georgia’s list of 2012 commitments »

THE MAILBAG:

Robodawg asks: Chip, I was glad to hear of Georgia basketball’s pickup of Nemanja Djurisic. Is his signing likely to wrap up this year’s class? And can you give a quick run down of how the next class is looking?

Chip: As far as I can tell, recruiting for the 2011 class is likely complete for the Bulldogs. Djurisic, a 6-8 forward from South Kent, Conn., by way of Montenegro, will officially become the fourth member of the class — joining 6-6 guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope of Greenville (Ga.) High; 6-10 forward Tim Dixon of Oldsmar (Fla.) Christian School and 7-foot center John Florveus of Hillsborough (Fla.) Community College — when he signs during the spring period later this month. Since they will lose only seniors Chris Barnes and Jeremy Price to graduation, that actually puts them one over the NCAA limit of 13 players on scholarship, depending on what juniors Travis Leslie and Trey Thompkins decide to do as far as entering the NBA draft. Georgia did place on …

Continue reading Mailbag: Who gets Kevin Ware, two-sport players and Mark Richt on ‘Survivor?’ »