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Post by stuffcoachessay on Jan 25, 2019 9:32:43 GMT -6
Any funny stories or things you never expected to hear on or leading up to Signing day?
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Post by MICoach on Jan 25, 2019 9:48:06 GMT -6
Division 3 kids signing pieces of loose leaf paper while their D1 and D2 kids signed letters of intent. A school I worked at did a full class signing day for everyone in the class who was going to play anywhere. Kills me every year - I played D3 so no judgement there, it just cracks me up that they give the a piece of paper to sign.
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Post by larrymoe on Jan 25, 2019 10:08:24 GMT -6
D3 signings make me want to puke.
And I was a 2 sport D3 athlete.
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Post by jgordon1 on Jan 25, 2019 10:13:51 GMT -6
We do that and I say why not..They are committing to a place just like any other athlete...They will put in basically the same work but for fewer accolades....Also most of the kids "signing" at D2 schools and lower FCS schools are basically getting $5000 off the ridiculous sticker price of admission and it would actually be cheaper to walk on to a state school but yet....they "sign" ...The ones that make me sick are the kids that "sign" and you know they will never make it past year 1.
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Post by larrymoe on Jan 25, 2019 10:23:10 GMT -6
We do that and I say why not..They are committing to a place just like any other athlete...They will put in basically the same work but for fewer accolades....Also most of the kids "signing" at D2 schools and lower FCS schools are basically getting $5000 off the ridiculous sticker price of admission and it would actually be cheaper to walk on to a state school but yet....they "sign" ...The ones that make me sick are the kids that "sign" and you know they will never make it past year 1. Because it's the literal manifestation of our society's need to over glorify every day, non consequential events? You can never have played a sport in your life and make a D3 team.
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Post by jgordon1 on Jan 25, 2019 11:30:10 GMT -6
using that argument, I would pretty much say that participating for any football team is non consequential except maybe for the athlete involved....OH and the coach that wants to boost his program and his ego as well.
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Post by MICoach on Jan 25, 2019 12:02:41 GMT -6
I think it's pretty cool for school unity - we would have players from football, volleyball, soccer, track, lacrosse, baseball, etc. all together for signing day.
I just think the people in charge should find some way to take the physical signing less of the event and maybe do like a school newspaper press conference or something.
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Post by fshamrock on Jan 25, 2019 12:54:28 GMT -6
we had a kid that was tough as hell but not real big start at DT for us, signed with a D3 or NAIA place up in Minnesota, so we are a special kind of dumb so we allow each kid who signs to actually say something during the ceremony
this kid, who as far as we knew was a decent hard working kid, never complained, goes into a tirade thanking his "haters" who didn't think he could ever make it for motivating him to achieve greatness, he proceeds to call out by name coaches on our staff who told him he was too small. It was crazy and made us look really bad, particularly since none of the coaches he mentioned had ever had anything but nice things to say to him....I mean we loved the kid.
Anyway, he had in his head that we all doubted him, somehow we showed that by starting him all year......kids are so dumb sometimes it's painful
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Post by wolverine55 on Jan 25, 2019 13:30:07 GMT -6
When this topic comes up, I always point out that it's not always the kids and families that want the attention, it's the colleges too. I was once pretty close with a student who was a decent small-school basketball player and was given a scholarship to a local junior college. He didn't want to do the "signing day" thing and it was actually the college that told him he had to.
I do cringe a bit at the D3 signings simply because they aren't binding. The school I currently teach at does the school-wide signing day for all athletes making a commitment. A few years ago, we had six total athletes "signing". One girl signed with a JUCO and is currently playing NAIA basketball. The other five were all commiting to a D3 for women's soccer, men's soccer, two football players, and I forget the fifth one. Anyway, 3 of those 5 ended up not even enrolling in the school that fall.
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Post by Defcord on Jan 25, 2019 13:33:46 GMT -6
When this topic comes up, I always point out that it's not always the kids and families that want the attention, it's the colleges too. I was once pretty close with a student who was a decent small-school basketball player and was given a scholarship to a local junior college. He didn't want to do the "signing day" thing and it was actually the college that told him he had to. I do cringe a bit at the D3 signings simply because they aren't binding. The school I currently teach at does the school-wide signing day for all athletes making a commitment. A few years ago, we had six total athletes "signing". One girl signed with a JUCO and is currently playing NAIA basketball. The other five were all commiting to a D3 for women's soccer, men's soccer, two football players, and I forget the fifth one. Anyway, 3 of those 5 ended up not even enrolling in the school that fall. Ha...signings are like engagements. Nothing worse than the guy that has like 7 fiances cause he thinks saying it makes him cool. Dude you get one fiance in life. That's it...all others are girlfriends.
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Post by wiscohscoach on Jan 25, 2019 14:40:09 GMT -6
We do that and I say why not..They are committing to a place just like any other athlete...They will put in basically the same work but for fewer accolades....Also most of the kids "signing" at D2 schools and lower FCS schools are basically getting $5000 off the ridiculous sticker price of admission and it would actually be cheaper to walk on to a state school but yet....they "sign" ...The ones that make me sick are the kids that "sign" and you know they will never make it past year 1. Because it's the literal manifestation of our society's need to over glorify every day, non consequential events? You can never have played a sport in your life and make a D3 team. Yeah that's not true. Maybe at the {censored} D3 schools, but not the good ones. No chance.
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Post by fantom on Jan 25, 2019 15:32:51 GMT -6
There's a practical reason for publicizing those D.3 "signings". In an area that has school choice kids and parents pay attention to how many guys get placed in college. If there's a perception that your kids aren't moving on you might be asked to move on.
BTW, I played D.3. They didn't have signing ceremonies then but there was an article in the paper that I and a teammate had "signed". Hell, the only thing that I signed was the deposit check.
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Post by mrjvi on Jan 25, 2019 15:45:13 GMT -6
MANY of our Div. 3 "signees" end up home within a year.
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Post by agap on Jan 25, 2019 16:21:38 GMT -6
When I played D3, it took two years before there was anything in the paper.
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Post by larrymoe on Jan 25, 2019 16:28:59 GMT -6
Because it's the literal manifestation of our society's need to over glorify every day, non consequential events? You can never have played a sport in your life and make a D3 team. Yeah that's not true. Maybe at the {censored} D3 schools, but not the good ones. No chance. School I played at has made the D3 playoffs 2 of the last 3 years. If you have a pulse they'll allow you on the team and you get to wear a jersey.
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Post by larrymoe on Jan 25, 2019 16:31:13 GMT -6
There's a practical reason for publicizing those D.3 "signings". In an area that has school choice kids and parents pay attention to how many guys get placed in college. If there's a perception that your kids aren't moving on you might be asked to move on. BTW, I played D.3. They didn't have signing ceremonies then but there was an article in the paper that I and a teammate had "signed". Hell, the only thing that I signed was the deposit check. The HC of the school I went to didn't know I had chosen to go there until I showed up for practice. Turns out the DC/wrestling coach had recruited me entirely on his own.
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Post by wingtol on Jan 25, 2019 18:35:12 GMT -6
Because it's the literal manifestation of our society's need to over glorify every day, non consequential events? You can never have played a sport in your life and make a D3 team. Yeah that's not true. Maybe at the {censored} D3 schools, but not the good ones. No chance. D3 near us "signed" like 60 kids last year and they haven't been good for awhile. Looked at some of the power D3 teams rosters, looks like well over 100 guys throw in the JV team and it's prob 200. If you can afford it they got a spot for you somewhere.
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Post by larrymoe on Jan 25, 2019 18:56:08 GMT -6
I got one, I said this one before, get a call from a newspaper asking me what I thought of such and such for signing with a school to play football, I said it was great and such and such, then when it was over I said off the record, where was it, it was a d3 school, kid never asked me to talk to their coach, coach never called me or asked for film, I said to the reporter that will be a short career, kid didn't make it through the season, kid transfer to another d3 school and does track, supposed to be this great thing, yet that school doesn't get noticed around here Kid came up to me in the hallway about 4 years ago and says- "Coach are you busy Tues afternoon?" No, what's up? "We're having a signing ceremony for me." Really? To where. "I got a scholarship ship to go to (blah, blah NAIA school 2 hrs away)". No crap? Sure. Never got asked for film, never talked to a single coach. In fact, I've never talked to a single coach from there in my entire life. Found our they were "offering" dozens if not a hundred $1000 "scholarships" to up their student enrollment. Kid never made it to a game and came home before Thanksgiving. He was the worst OL I ever had to start in my 7 year run at that school. His dad was a piece of work too. At the signing his dad parades his youngest son over to tell me what a great athlete his son was in JFL the year before. I said, he was 15 and has been in 8th grade for 2 years now. I'll worry about him when he actually graduates. Dad was thrilled. Despite dad paying him to play, he never actually showed up to a practice.
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Post by Defcord on Jan 25, 2019 19:37:44 GMT -6
Yeah that's not true. Maybe at the {censored} D3 schools, but not the good ones. No chance. D3 near us "signed" like 60 kids last year and they haven't been good for awhile. Looked at some of the power D3 teams rosters, looks like well over 100 guys throw in the JV team and it's prob 200. If you can afford it they got a spot for you somewhere. I coached D3 for a few years. Some of the guys I worked with are still coaching that level. One is at a pretty good school in the Midwest and they were told they had to bring in 100 freshmen every year to keep their jobs. Another guy told me the deposit check ($800ish) went directly to the football program as long as the kid showed up for his first class so they brought in as many as the could and that was over 100 most years. I don’t know if those stories have been embellished but I respect those guys so I doubt it. It’s a really good experience for a lot of kids. I played two years and made a best friend but am still paying $190 for those opportunities 18 years later.
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Post by lilbuck1103 on Jan 26, 2019 7:17:06 GMT -6
There are some darn good D3 players and programs. Places that you might only play your last year or two.
Anyways, I don’t care if a kid wants to sign. It’s their deal, if they want to sign, etc. and celebrate - awesome. Not my job take that away from a kid/family if they want to do it and as a Coach what would one gain from stopping it?
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Post by coachwoodall on Jan 26, 2019 8:13:46 GMT -6
we had a kid that was tough as hell but not real big start at DT for us, signed with a D3 or NAIA place up in Minnesota, so we are a special kind of dumb so we allow each kid who signs to actually say something during the ceremony this kid, who as far as we knew was a decent hard working kid, never complained, goes into a tirade thanking his "haters" who didn't think he could ever make it for motivating him to achieve greatness, he proceeds to call out by name coaches on our staff who told him he was too small. It was crazy and made us look really bad, particularly since none of the coaches he mentioned had ever had anything but nice things to say to him....I mean we loved the kid. Anyway, he had in his head that we all doubted him, somehow we showed that by starting him all year......kids are so dumb sometimes it's painful not a signing day, but something similar at the banquet; seniors got to say what the program means to them to the underclassmen. SpEd kid that not only looked just like Erkle, but would have gotten taken to the wood shed by Erkle, railed on the coaches for 5 minutes.
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Post by stuffcoachessay on Jan 26, 2019 9:16:26 GMT -6
I once had a kid who had a D-2 offer and a D-3 Opportunity ask if he could do the "Hat" thing on signing day.....
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Post by spos21ram on Jan 26, 2019 10:52:57 GMT -6
Do you guys remember Kevin Hart, the kid who lied about being recruited? I think it was 2008. His high school had a school wide assembly, news crews were there. He did the whole hat thing. Turned out he made the whole thing up. How his high school coach, AD, or principal didn't catch the lie before it snowballed is beyond me.
Not that Kevin Hart.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Jan 26, 2019 15:58:00 GMT -6
I don't know if that Hart thing cost the coach his job at that school, but I know the coach was gone not long after. I coach pretty close to where that all happened. The kid ended up at a JC about a year later but I don't think it lasted long.
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Post by coachfrigo on Jan 26, 2019 17:17:45 GMT -6
Doesn't deserve a rally, but some top D3 schools, like Mount Union, will accept all walk ons. But actually getting on varsity and starting, it was tough. There were plenty of NFL caliber guys that kicked my freshman ass that didn't belong there, lol.
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Post by rosey65 on Jan 28, 2019 10:17:41 GMT -6
We do a signing. 75% of the kids never end up going to the school, but whatever....
Had a kid run his own recruiting, was signing with a small NAIA school. He and his parents had everything lined up, clothing from the school and everything. I go online to print off a logo to put in front of his "papers," and the first thing I see upon googling the school name was that the school is being shut down after repeated accreditation issues and lack of funds. We talked pointed it out to the kid, he said he had talked to the coaches that morning, they said everything was ok. It wasn't. The school was closed before the end of the school year.
He and his family just wanted to revel in the idea of a college athlete. They kept it up all year, he'd show up sometimes to work out with the rest of the college-bound kids. There wasn't anything we could do, other than make sure they never sent any money.
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Post by fshamrock on Jan 28, 2019 14:52:00 GMT -6
There's a practical reason for publicizing those D.3 "signings". In an area that has school choice kids and parents pay attention to how many guys get placed in college. If there's a perception that your kids aren't moving on you might be asked to move on. BTW, I played D.3. They didn't have signing ceremonies then but there was an article in the paper that I and a teammate had "signed". Hell, the only thing that I signed was the deposit check. The HC of the school I went to didn't know I had chosen to go there until I showed up for practice. Turns out the DC/wrestling coach had recruited me entirely on his own. holy crap that's hilarious almost my exact situation I get "recruited" by the wrestling coach because he was friends with my Dline coach in high school guy calls me once and says "hey man you can go to school here for 800 dollars a year" now that 800 bucks was the number you got to after considering my max pell grant for being po' and a federal stafford loan for 15k, but at 18 I wasn't worried about that and there was nobody around to tell me different so I jump all over it and proceed roll around my high school campus like I'm billy blue chip heading to fame and glory I shows up for the first days of practice and nobody has ever heard of me that coaches football, equipment handout was exactly like I did it for 7th graders back in the day, gimmie your name so I can write it on this clipboard then go grab you some stuff from these piles. Oh those shoulder pads don't fit? Just tie 'em up real tight man cuz we don't just have 'em laying all over. It was amazing, like I literally could have been some dude from a local town just roll into the field house at the right time and I'd have been allowed to practice that day. Didn't really seem like the coaches knew much about anybody else either, there were clearly a couple of guys that were local to that school they might have heard of, but the rest of us were just there to fill the coffers. I was immediately a scout offensive lineman which I worked really hard at until this senior nose who must have been 26 at the time got pissed that the scout center was working hard so he tore off the kids helmet and hit him over the head with it, kids was out cold and we all just moved the drill over and went again, so I took it pretty easy after that not even gonna lie. I was later moved to scout TE because I wasn't really much of a tackle at 235 and that was even more awesome because if I caught a pass, the defensive coordinator would get pissed and we'd run the play again strictly so I could get killed, if I pulled up short on the route I got screamed at......wow...I think the last straw was during a water break when we ran over to the old school cow thing from the hose and while we were over there the o-line coach pulled out his wang and relieved himself on the ground 3ft away from us I happened to run into the wrestling dude who "recruited" me at the chow hall (whoa that food was bad) and he's like "oh holy crap your _______ the kid coach _________ told me about, holy chit man I didn't know you actually came here, everything going okay?" and I was like "yeah man I don't think I'm gonna come back next year" and he was pretty much said ya nobody does I know that all of that probably isn't typical of small college football, there have to be some programs who do it right, just not that one
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Post by MICoach on Jan 28, 2019 16:25:24 GMT -6
Doesn't deserve a rally, but some top D3 schools, like Mount Union, will accept all walk ons. But actually getting on varsity and starting, it was tough. There were plenty of NFL caliber guys that kicked my freshman ass that didn't belong there, lol. I went to a middling D3 school and our coaches took everybody that wanted to "walk on." Looking back we kind of ended up with like a tier system of players. - At the top were the guys that the coaches actually wanted to be there - high school stand outs, some Juco and DI/DII transfers.
- Then guys that they recruited - at least watched some of their film, encouraged them to come to the school and play - but maybe weren't going to light the world on fire.
It would be a couple years before they'd be ready to contribute but had potential.
- And at the bottom were guys that kind of "walked on" or got themselves recruited, unlikely to stick around multiple years or get above JV
It wasn't quite a caste system - you could move between the levels if you put the work in and performed well (or didn't). The openness of the whole thing led to some oddities - 5'6" LB, 5'10" 190lb OL, 5'4" CB, etc... They have since had a change in coaching and don't carry a JV team, just guys they want on the team and expect to contribute. I think they're down from like 120 guys on the team to maybe somewhere around 75. I've got to think that sort of approach is better for the long term flourishing of the program?
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Post by wiscohscoach on Jan 28, 2019 16:26:59 GMT -6
Yeah that's not true. Maybe at the {censored} D3 schools, but not the good ones. No chance. School I played at has made the D3 playoffs 2 of the last 3 years. If you have a pulse they'll allow you on the team and you get to wear a jersey. School I went to had a roster limit of 105... and may have won it a few times. Needless to say, no you couldn't make it if you had a pulse. Some schools its different.
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Post by wiscohscoach on Jan 28, 2019 16:27:25 GMT -6
Yeah that's not true. Maybe at the {censored} D3 schools, but not the good ones. No chance. D3 near us "signed" like 60 kids last year and they haven't been good for awhile. Looked at some of the power D3 teams rosters, looks like well over 100 guys throw in the JV team and it's prob 200. If you can afford it they got a spot for you somewhere. Depends on the league.
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