Last night a Tweeter, who specializes mostly in plaintive whines to WWE divas to follow him back after taking pictures with them, decided to get into a back and forth with Ohio State players past and present about effort or heart or some other random bullshit; truthfully, the topic that was being discussed is irrelevant. What is relevant is that said dude got put on blast by about half of OSU Twitter for roughly an hour, and then slunk back into the shadows from whence he came.
One would hope that both he and college football fans at large would learn from this experience. You know, maybe something along the lines of "maybe trying to talk down to someone putting their health at risk for my entertainment is a supremely crappy thing to do" or "wow I probably shouldn't set myself up for a situation in which I am most assuredly going to get thoroughly owned in a very public manner" or "time to stick to what I know best: attending conventions and paying for posed photos."
Honestly though, people are dumb and don't learn from anything. Actually, let me rephrase. People learn from things, internet trolls do not. It's entirely possible that after a week or so of making his account private, our anonymous friend will be right back at it because dammit, his voice must be heard and to hell with the consequences.
Maybe you, too, have done the mental math here and decided that enduring the slings and arrows of internet disapproval is a small price to pay for the opportunity to lambast a recruit over his choice of college. And maybe you've heard countless people tell you why that's wrong and stupid and rude and whatever, but you and I both know that appealing to your sense of moral justice isn't going to do a whole hell of a lot. So let's try something different.
As we near signing day, it is entirely possible that you, sir or madam internet troll, could actually, seriously, legitimately screw this thing up for your favorite team. There is nothing you can likely do to positively impact your favorite team's chances with that five star quarterback with a rocket arm, but your dumbass exhortations might just do the opposite. Teenagers are by nature mercurial and impulsive creatures, and the more room you give them to say "aw screw this place," the more likely it is for them to say it.
Woodlawn (Birmingham, Ala.) linebacker Cassanova McKinzy revealed he signed with Auburn instead of Clemson partly because of the fast-food restaurant.
"(It was) kind of the environment and plus they had no Chick-Fil-A on campus," McKinzy said of his decision to not attend Clemson. "You had to go like, probably like 15 minutes off campus to go to like a real restaurant. Their café was kind of small."
The best part is that Clemson actually does have a Chick-Fil-A on campus, which only serves to reinforce my point. McKinzy had zero intention of going to Clemson, but any perceived negative in their corner just helped seal the deal.
A recent survey conducted by Galain of 179 college football players sought to identify the factors most important to college football recruits in making their college decision. Of the fifteen choices participants had to select from, the participants ranked a school’s academic reputation as the most important factor to their decision. The least important factor was their friends’ opinions about a school or program. Most interesting about the study’s findings, however, is the important role that a campus’ facilities play to a recruit’s decision. A recruit’s opinion of a team’s playing facilities ranked as the fourth most important factor, while campus living facilities and team facilities ranked sixth and eighth, respectively.
While I think it's possible that some of these players were fudging at least a little bit with their "academic reputation" answers, the relevant part here is that the opinions of their friends about the school or program was at the dead bottom of their list of reasons for choosing a school. Because of that, it's hard to believe that a complete stranger could do what their friends can't, but that isn't going to stop thousands of people from trying in the next month.
Exhibit C:
Former blue chip recruit Bama player told us he eliminated Michigan in his recruiting when a UM fan hit a hot dog out of his hands at OSU.
— The Solid Verbal (@SolidVerbal) January 7, 2017
Pretty self-explanatory, and frankly I'd have the exact same reaction.
It is tempting to believe that your opinions matter to players who will make a direct impact on how your favorite team performs, and we have platforms now that will give you the ability to delude yourself into confirming that suspicion.
Just don't forget that even though you may have finally found a way to tap into the brain of a nationally ranked defensive back who just narrowed down his choices to your school, BUFU Tech, and Rival College A&M, the series of ones and zeroes that you're sending through the internet will, more likely than not, add another crack to the delicate porcelain chair that coaches are desperately trying to get players to sit in.
Let Urban Meyer and company do their job, because for one, they're a lot better at it than you are. And secondly, you don't want to end up like Tennessee.
