The TRich Saga

Class of 2012 commit Terry Richardson wants to take official visits.  Coach Hoke doesn't want him to do that.  There are two major questions here.  Question #1:  Is he going to actually go on any visits?  If the answer is no, then there is no problem.  If the answer is yes, then we come to Question #2:  Will Coach Hoke pull his scholarship offer and pursue other candidates? 

Let's break this down a little bit.  Richardson is the highest ranked prospect in this class according to some recruiting services.  He has been interested in taking visits all along and really wants to go through the whole recruiting process.  He wants to take free trips to major schools and get wined and dined by the big boys.  Who can blame him?  He's 17 years old and may be wanted more right now than he ever will be again in his life.  He has the opportunity to take free trips to Alabama or LSU or Florida or USC and get to go to a high profile game and get told how awesome he is etc.  Hell, I want to do that too.

On the other hand, he also really wants to go to school and play football with his two lifelong friends James Ross and Royce Jenkins-Stone.  They are probably the reason he committed to Michigan in the first place.  That's not to say that he doesn't like Michigan a lot and want to go to school there, but it certainly played a role.  If you recall, the coaches put a lot of pressure on Richardson to commit and he didn't like it.  He ended up committing anyway, but I imagine it was presented to him as 'Hey, your two best friends are committed here, we're the hometown team, this is the greatest University in the world and we've got a spot for you but if you don't take it now we may not have one for you later' type of thing. 

This brings us to the second part of this.  If he does decide to take a few trips, does the coaching staff pull his offer and part ways with him?  Well, that's exactly the stance this coaching staff seems to be taking.  Word is the coaches will not allow committed prospects to take official visits to other programs.  If that were to happen, supposedly the player will lose his scholarship offer and the coaches will look elsewhere to replace him.  It's the old recruiting adage of 'a committed player that is taking visits isn't really a commit'.  I kind of have mixed feelings about this.  On one hand, the coaches are trying to do what is best for their program.  They have to look at it as a two way street.  They have offered the kid a scholarship which is a commitment to the kid in a manner of speaking.  If the kid verbally commits to the school, he essentially is saying that he accepts the school's commitment and offers his own in return.  If the kid then says that he is going to go and visit school X, then he is kinda going back on his word and can potentially switch his commitment to the other school.  It happens all the time.  Is it wrong then for the coaches to then say, 'okay well you want to go visit school X so I guess you're not really committed so I'd better go find someone who is'?  Another point worth mentioning is that the coaches have to be careful here because if they have told their commits that they can't go on visits and then they let Richardson do it, then they run the risk of losing some credibility.  This is the murky waters that is recruiting.

Richardson isn't saying what is going to happen, but he has spoken to the coaching staff about all this.  It won't be a secret if he does go on any visits so we will find out at some point.  It is worth noting that the Michigan coaching staff reopened the lines of communication with MA CB Armani Reeves and news has been picking up about NJ CB Yuri Wright in the last few days. Is this a sign that they have told Richardson that if he goes on a visit he is out?  Or are they looking to take another CB in this class?  Just a contingency plan?  Who knows, but it makes for some pretty good drama.  For what it's worth, I like Richardson's game a lot, but I think he is a little over rated.  Don't get me wrong, he is very good, I'm just not sure he's top 50 in the country good based on what I've seen.  I think Wright is the best of the three, but I wouldn't be upset with any one of them.  We'll see what happens but in the mean time, stay tuned and Go Blue.