Detroit fishwrap comment of the day

The Freep has a weird fascination with Terrelle Pryor, as they run a piece on the kid every day he doesn't make a decision. Today's cut and paste job is lifted from the Buckeyes' mouthpiece, the Columbus Dispatch.

ESPN ANALYST: 'Every day that Terrelle Pryor doesn't commit to Ohio State is not good'

Will the insane recruiting coverage EVER end? It's a rhetorical question, as we already know the answer. It's an emphatic, disgusting, creepy NO!

Freep commenter TeeItUp agrees...

Enough is enough.

I still don't think he's coming to Michigan, but the coverage has got to stop until he decides.

Fuckin' A.

I understand in our world with totally fucked up sports priorities, Pryor's recruitment is a story. Is it a story worth continually beating readers over the head till we bleed from the ears? To sane college football fans, no.

But in the strange world of recruitniks, who must get off on this like other fetishists get off on BDSM, midgets, clowns, or feet, they just can't get enough breathless coverage. Coverage of a 17 year old kid whom I'm guessing, if he's anything like me or my buddies were at that age, more worried about getting laid, or getting carded at the party store, than what college he's going to attend.

I now know that it would be impossible for me to be a college coach, as I could never. ever resort to begging an immature kid (and his often clueless parents) to play ball for me. And that's exactly what recruiting is, a glorified form of begging. 40 and 50 something football coaches selling themselves to teenagers is so...so...unseemly and undignified.

There's one word for it...Ewww.

Money can make up for having to suck up to know-it-all high schoolers, but it comes at the cost of self-respect.

No wonder most grown men can't or won't stay in college coaching for the long haul, decade after decade, like a Bo or Woody. You can only take for so long that your livelihood, and possible future success, is in the hands of brain-dead high school kids.

To catch a recruitnik

As if we haven't had our fill of MSM articles about college football recruiting, and the media couldn't stoop any lower, the Freep comes through, and lowers the bar. The headline says it all...

2009's TERRELLE PRYOR?: Dual-threat QB Russell Shepard has U-M at the top of his list

You've got to be kidding me. Signing day was less than a week ago, hyped to no end, and here we have an fawning article about a possible 2009 recruit? Worse, it compares him to a 2008 recruit that hasn't yet committed? Just kill me right fucking now.

Shepard, a lifelong University of Texas fan, visited the Longhorns over the weekend. But even though he got a scholarship offer from his favorite team, he told the Austin American-Statesman that he may have a different favorite than many would think.

“I would say Texas is still up there, but Michigan is really at the top of my list, especially if they don’t get Terrelle Pryor,” he told the paper. “I feel like I could go there and play right away. I’m also looking at Florida and LSU. Both of those schools have pretty good depth-chart situations for me.”

The kid hasn't even played his senior season, and he's getting major ink from the MSM. They should be ashamed. Then again, has the MSM ever shown any shame? They would rather pander to the recruiting zealots, who eat this shit up to no end, and have major issues of their own.

If this odd fascination with high school kids keeps up, we'll see an episode of "Dateline: To Catch a Predator" focus on the delusional yahoos who actually spend time and money paying close attention the outright bullshit slung by the likes of Rivals and Scouts, Inc.

Tell me your 40 time. Oooo, that's sooooo cool! How much can you bench press? How many reps? Oh my. I'm really hot to hear more! Can we meet? I'll tell you all about my school. It'll be soooo much fun!

Next thing you know, these recruitniks will be asked to sit down and chat. A certain Mr. Hansen would LOVE to talk with you...

Are you here for Russell? Let's sit down and chat...

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say these recruiting fanatics are one small step removed from meeting Chris Hansen face to face. All that's missing is their knocking on a recruit's door with college catalogs in one hand, and a six pack in the other.

We're headed into stalking territory with these young football players. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, it's CREEPY to be so captivated by the recruiting of high school kids.

Detroit fishwrap comment of the day - Recruiting news is creepy

I'm quite happy I was away from both the web, and the media in general, yesterday. When I logged into my Google Reader last night, I was overwhelmed by the massive amount of recruiting news in my RSS feeds. It was both disturbing and funny. Then again, the whole fascination normally sane adults have in college recruiting is creepy.

The Freep has an ENTIRE section devoted to signing day. A Freep commenter named tater responds to an article detailing Rich Rodriguez's thoughts from his signing day presser.

Recruiting Florida is a great thing. USF has become a sorta top-25 program by recruiting kids from Florida who didn't get serious offers from top-25 schools.

The best recuiting story for this year comes from Florida:
EIGHT Miami Northwestern players signed en masse with Miami yesterday. This is even better than the seven from Lakeland who signed with Florida last year. The quality is slightly higher and the players are staying home.

Who has the energy or the need to track college football recruiting this closely? Why would you even care? I barely know, or to be honest, give a shit, whom Michigan signed, let alone what's happening a continent away. Those whom are so into recruiting they can tell you the 40 time some some bumpkin kid from Backwater, USA? They have issues.

In the early, primeval days of TWFE, I wrote that one of my biggest pet peeves was the coverage of college football signing day, and the recruiting process in general.

I have NO IDEA who these kids are and why I should be excited. None. I honestly believe that the so-called recruiting "Experts," such as Tom Lemming, Rivals.com, Scouts Inc., and others of their ilk, don't either. They are just making it up and slinging player BS as they go along. It's pure guesswork on their part. Highly paid NFL scouts and front office people have trouble projecting how well a much more mature college player's ability will translate to the next level. The Lions' drafts are a prime example. Take a look at the crapshoot that is the MLB draft, the success of high school players are basically a flip of the coin, and it's not much better for college players. The NBA have washed their hands of high school kids altogether. So I'm expected to take the word of some wannabe working out of his basement projecting the skill level of 17 year old high school kids? That takes a level of disbelief that I just don't have.

I wrote the preceding diatribe 2 years ago. Unfortunately, nothing has changed. If anything, it's gotten worse.

The Free Press seemingly leads with the latest in the Terrelle Pryor saga every God damn day. The college blogs and message boards post every and any sliver of unsubstantiated gossip regarding recruits. The 4 letter made a day of it, with breathless coverage on The Ocho ESPNU. I have Detroit sports talk radio on in the background, and a day later, they are STILL talking about the results of signing day.

It's all bullshit.

"Experts" are dissecting 17-18 year old high school kids who aren't even close to being physically and emotionally mature. Yet these kids are being hounded like Britney Spears after her latest meltdown. They are stars before they even set foot on campus.

This is what bothers me the most about what's become a big business. If highly trained and paid scouts from the NFL, MLB, NHL, and the NBA have trouble projecting the skills of these kids, how can you believe the rankings of some self-designated high school recruiting "expert?"

For all anyone knows, Terrelle Pryor may not be the next Vince Young, and end up as the next Ron "He'll win 4 Heismans" Powlus. There is no sure thing when you are talking about HIGH SCHOOL KIDS!

Recruiting coverage is nothing more than a sideshow full of scary geeks, all desperate for attention.