Like most five-star talents in a 2,000 miles radius of Columbus, Ohio State had a keen interest in 2019 offensive tackle Devontae Dobbs, who hails from Belleville, Michigan.
So did every other program in the country. Dobbs, however, stayed home and committed to Michigan State on Monday.
According to Dobbs, who spoke with ESPN radio station 109.9 in Michigan on Thursday, the Spartans efforts were aided by the failed attempts of other schools' coaches whom he accused of lying and treating him like a man incapable of fetching his grandmother's cookies.
On Ohio State:
“I didn’t like recruiting because coaches lied to me. They did stuff that wasn’t ever going to happen. Places like Ohio State had coaches that told me, ‘You’ll come in and play a ton as a freshman.’"
Narrator: Ohio State has started a freshman along the offensive line before — junior guard Michael Jordan of recent note — and could lose as many as four starters to this year's line.
On USC, whom he says treated him like his grandmother:
When I was at USC, coaches walked around calling me ‘Big Daddy’ and they were grabbing juice for me. I’m used to doing that myself. My grandma was there and I was getting our food and drinks, but the coaches were trying to do it for us.
Middle-aged coaches calling teenagers "Big Daddy" is the most stereotypical thing to happen at USC since it banned locker room alcohol.
Dobbs saved perhaps his harshest barbers for Michigan, whom he called "robots" to their faces:
“It felt like Michigan thought they were superior and the big boss to Michigan State. They thought, ‘You have an offer from Michigan, so you should be going to Michigan since you have the offer.’ It was as if they didn’t need to recruit me or better their relationship with me. That was the first thing they did wrong.
“When I went up there to talk to them, I felt uncomfortable because of the way they acted, talked and just were.”
“The last meeting I was in, I told them they acted like robots and I just wasn’t comfortable around them. I said it wasn’t a place I wanted to be.”
Of course Michigan coaches don't realize 2019 prospects aren't old enough to remember Michigan treating State like little brother, so it comes across as arrogant to anyone not on the payroll.
And before anyone gets mad #online, it's important to remember high schoolers are renowned for their ability to "shoot from the hip" as we used to say in the 1960s. This is only one side of the story, yet still a glance into how recruits perceive universities' well-oiled pitches.
