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For Coker, recruiting is a disarming experience

Sporting News, The, June 30, 2006 by Matt Hayes

It happened again last week. And sure enough, it's Larry Coker's fault.

Daniel Stegall followed Pat Devlin, who followed Derek Shaw, who started this whole mess that somehow has made a coach who is averaging 10 wins a season at Miami look like a bumbling, blundering fool.

All because an 18-year-old high school kid had an 11th-hour change of heart.

"Thirteenth-hour," Coker says.

And this is the problem with coaching these days. It's not enough to win on the field; your guy in the headset has to win off it, too. College football creates such passion and is so all-consuming that something has to fill those eight long, dreary months of offseason.

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That something is recruiting.

Let's reintroduce Shaw, Devlin and Stegall--three quarterback recruits who committed to Miami over the past two seasons yet never experienced the sun and fun at The U. Shaw pulled out of his commitment late in the process last year and signed with Arizona State. Devlin backed out in February and signed with Penn State. Then there's Stegall, who informed Coker last week that he would play professional baseball instead of enrolling at Miami.

Three quarterbacks, three losses and a boatload of wacko fans who blame Coker and point to this disturbing coincidence as another example of Miami's plummet from the nation's elite. Forget that Shaw since has left Arizona State and that Devlin won't see the field until 2008 if former hotshot recruit Anthony Morelli plays to his potential at Penn State. Or that Stegall simply was a filler recruit, an arm Miami had to have after Devlin changed his mind.

Those three recruiting "losses" have left Miami with two scholarship quarterbacks, and heaven help the Canes if those two are injured. Because, of course, most teams can forge ahead with a championship run if they lose both quarterbacks. To say nothing of the fact that, for all we know, Shaw, Devlin and Stegall could've been stiffs at Miami.

Let me refresh your noggin with this jewel from noted recruiting expert Max Emfinger: Long ago, mighty Max claimed Emmitt Smith was a "plugger" and wouldn't be a productive college back.

Five years ago, Brent Rawls was considered by many a better quarterback prospect than a skinny kid from Santa Ana, Calif., named Matt Leinart. Rawls signed with Oklahoma and never was heard from again. Leinart became the best college quarterback ever.

"You can go down a list of guys who never made it," Coker says.

The problem is, Coker can't seem to get them to arrive. And this weird trend may not end. Next year around this same time, Coker will be sweating another quarterback recruit. He landed an early commitment for 2007 from Nick Fanuzzi, a dual-threat quarterback from San Antonio. Although Fanuzzi insists he will break the string of Miami commitments gone awry, he also is a talented baseball player and it's easy to see where things could be headed.

A 13th-hour change of heart.

BLOG ALERT

'Terry Hoeppner really believes he can win. Bless his soul.'

St. Tom Dienhart stops just short of issuing last rites to the Hoosiers at sportingnews.com

INSIDE DISH

Coach Ron Prince, who was considered AI Groh's top recruiter at Virginia, wants Kansas State to become a program that can recruit nationally instead of relying heavily on junior colleges for skill and impact players. For a program in the middle of nowhere seeking quality exposure, marquee nonconference games are the next best thing to winning a conference championship. To that end, Prince has added home-and-home games against Louisville and UCLA and is a few formalities from adding a series with Miami. > Credit Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe for changing his philosophy in an effort to make QB Ben Mauk more comfortable in the passing game. A onetime megarecruit, Mauk has struggled in two seasons at Wake Forest, in part because of his inability to operate within Grobe's I-formation offense. The Deacs will use more shotgun sets to simplify Mauk's reads and to limit sacks and interceptions. > Welcome to Major Applewhite's world. A year after overseeing the transition from the option to a West Coast scheme while he was the quarterbacks coach at Syracuse (and watching it fail miserably), Applewhite will be the offensive coordinator as Rice goes from the option to the spread. That transition, too, will fail. Initially, that is. Rice's three returning quarterbacks are option quarterbacks, which will give incoming freshman Pierre Beasley a chance to win the job. Beasley was a fallback recruit for many BCS schools but has a BCS arm and body.

For Coker, recruiting is a disarming experience

Sporting News, The, June 30, 2006 by Matt Hayes

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