Grayshirting

[SunDodger]

I've never heard of grayshirting before. Is this a normal thing for a newly hired coach to do? Or is this a rare occurance?

The reason I ask is this guys father is a friend and co-worker of mine. He's pretty pissed about the whole thing.



UW Football | West Seattle's Aaron Grymes picks Idaho over Huskies

After committing to the Huskies in August, new Washington coach Steve Sarkisian asked West Seattle High cornerback Aaron Grymes to "grayshirt."

By Bob Condotta

Seattle Times staff reporter
est Seattle High cornerback Aaron Grymes, who committed to Washington last August, said Tuesday he will instead sign with Idaho after being asked to become a "grayshirt" and delay his entry to the football team by a season.

When a player grayshirts, he delays enrollment as a full-time student and can't participate in official team activities. The player still has five years to play four once he enrolls.

The 5-11, 170-pound Grymes said he was asked to grayshirt by UW coaches near the end of his official recruiting visit to Washington last weekend.

Grymes committed when Tyrone Willingham was Washington's coach.

"They wanted me to grayshirt and I feel like I wasn't fitting in, like I wasn't feeling the love from the UW that I was feeling with the old coaches," said Grymes, who is a two-star recruit on Scout.com. "I felt like [new UW coach Steve] Sarkisian wanted to bring in his own commits that he wanted to play with, and I can respect that that's what he wants to do. But I just told him it wasn't going to work out with me and I wanted to go somewhere I could play."

Grymes said one reason UW coaches told him they wanted him to grayshirt was a knee injury he suffered last fall when he said he tore his meniscus.

"He was concerned about my knee," Grymes said. "But I'm back to normal. I can run and do everything."

Grymes said most schools stopped recruiting him after his UW commitment so Idaho was his only other standing offer.

"They stood by me the whole time," he said.

UW now has 14 firm, public commitments for the recruiting Class of 2009 and only two from Washington.

Bob Condotta

Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskies/2008678435_uwfb28.html?syndication=rss

 

[russ1945]

I can think of a few coaches who should have "grayshirted" themselves.

 

[Conan]

They told him that instead of telling him to just go away.

Sarkisian knows what he's doing. He probably also knew what the kid would do after he told him he was being grayshirted. Sorry but I don't see this kid being a very hot prospect in the recruiting reports. Those guys end up at Idaho anyway so it probably turned out to be the way it should be.

 

[SunDodger]

I hear ya Conan,

There's a reason why Washington was the only Pac-10 school to show any interest in him. I'd just never heard of grayshirting before.

Apparently, the Cougers found out what happened to him and are now showing interest.


Another recruiting question I had is, if a school offers someone a scholarship and they verbally commit. Can the school just pull the offer and then say no we don't want you anymore?

 

[Conan]

Another recruiting question I had is, if a school offers someone a scholarship and they verbally commit. Can the school just pull the offer and then say no we don't want you anymore?

It happens. I've heard of a few players that have been rejected, especially after there's a coaching change. But I think once the offer has been made and a letter of intent signed, it's binding on everyone... with some exceptions for family hardship etc.

Then there's getting kicked off the team and the stipulations for that. I'm sure the lawyers have done their homework.

 

[ChrisParadise]

I hear ya Conan,

There's a reason why Washington was the only Pac-10 school to show any interest in him. I'd just never heard of grayshirting before.

Apparently, the Cougers found out what happened to him and are now showing interest.


Another recruiting question I had is, if a school offers someone a scholarship and they verbally commit. Can the school just pull the offer and then say no we don't want you anymore?

grayshirting isnt new, its just rare

and yes a school can pull a scholly offer and a player can back out of a verbal

 

[CoachCB]

This is very common. Saban did it a lot when he was at LSU. I believe he did it last year at Bama w/ a few recruits due to the probation. Shula may have done it also due to the probation.

It is not "common". But for some schools who are having a lot of success, they will ask a recruit to "greyshirt" and anticipate a transfer or a possible arrest or player being kicked off before the fall semester starts....then the "greyshirt" gets that kids scholly.

Often when you hear of a senior walk-on getting a scholarship, the reason why they get it is due to transfers or kids getting kicked off the team between signing day and the fall semester. That leaves less than 85 scholarships....allowing the head coach to be a "good guy" and "give" a scholarship to a walk-on. They would MUCH rather give it to a "greyshirt".

 

[ChrisParadise]

This is very common. Saban did it a lot when he was at LSU. I believe he did it last year at Bama w/ a few recruits due to the probation. Shula may have done it also due to the probation.

It is not "common". But for some schools who are having a lot of success, they will ask a recruit to "greyshirt" and anticipate a transfer or a possible arrest or player being kicked off before the fall semester starts....then the "greyshirt" gets that kids scholly.

Often when you hear of a senior walk-on getting a scholarship, the reason why they get it is due to transfers or kids getting kicked off the team between signing day and the fall semester. That leaves less than 85 scholarships....allowing the head coach to be a "good guy" and "give" a scholarship to a walk-on. They would MUCH rather give it to a "greyshirt".

...

 

[SunDodger]

Thanks for the input guys,

He told me the reason he's so mad is because Sarkisian waited till a week before signing day to tell his kid he was being grayshirted. What was Sark waiting for, to see if he could land a better cornerback?

All season long he was wearing Husky gear to work. But, today he told me that he threw it all in the trash and that he hated Washington. I had to laugh cuz I can't really blame him.

I knew the recruiting process was rough, as it is basically a business, but that is a pretty cut throat move to pull last minute like that.

 

[UoweDucks]

It not commenly known but Dennis Dixon greyshirted. It was an effort to spread out their qb's eligibility. It is risky because the recruit can sign with another school while greyshirting. Last year Oregon greyshirted a WR who injured his shoulder in informal workouts. He didn't lose a yr of eligibility and still has his redshirt if needed.

In the case with UW Sark wanted to honor the intent of the offer but give the kid a "push" out the door. He is not considered a P10 player and there are way too many of these guys currently on UW.

 

[UoweDucks]

Sark better keep an eye out. There are many that have an agenda vs UW still. This isn't USC where one can seemingly get away with these things.

This looks to be already the second secondary recruiting violation that he has committed in just a few short weeks. I consider this stuff minor but I know that it has to have UW fans rolling their eyes with a reminder of what Neuheisal did in his first few weeks recruiting at UW.


UW's Sarkisian might have committed recruiting violation

By Bob Condotta; By Bob Condotta
Seattle Times staff reporter; Seattle Times staff reporter

Washington football coach Steve Sarkisian and defensive coordinator Nick Holt might have committed a recruiting violation recently while visiting with recruits in Southern California.
The University of Washington said in a statement Wednesday that it is looking into the matter.
A visit by Sarkisian and Holt with quarterback/defensive end James Boyd of Jordan High was detailed in a story in Wednesday's Los Angeles Times. The story noted that the visit occurred with a reporter from the L.A. Times present. Also present were two other Jordan High players, including receiver Delvon Purvis, who is also being recruited by the Huskies.
That would be in apparent violation of NCAA bylaw 13.10.1 forbidding the presence of media during recruiting contact. The bylaw states that "a member institution shall not permit a media entity to be present during any recruiting contact made by an institution's coaching staff member."
The violation would likely be classified as secondary and the bylaw states that "violations of this bylaw do not affect a prospective student-athlete's eligibility and are considered institutional violations."
The UW statement said "the UW athletic department and compliance director John Morris are currently looking into the situation but have not proceeded far enough to come to any conclusions at this time."
Another possible violation detailed in the story is that junior receiver Deshawn Beck was present. Coaches are not allowed to have off-campus contact with high school juniors until after July 1 of their junior year.
The story mentions that Beck's presence would be a violation of NCAA rules but that he was there only at the request of the Jordan coach, who wanted him to get a feel for the experience of a recruiting visit with a college coach.
The story doesn't detail any contact between Beck and UW coaches.
The Huskies have already self-reported one secondary violation, in connection with visits by recruits to Washington two weekends ago. During those visits, recruits ran through the tunnel at Husky Stadium with a machine blowing fog and a siren blaring, an apparent violation of a rule prohibiting the simulating of a game-day experience. A Pac-10 spokesman said it had received UW's report on that violation. It is expected to be classified as secondary and will likely yield a reprimand and a brushing up on the rules by UW coaches.
Boyd is rated as one the top defensive ends in the country and has already given a soft verbal commitment to USC. However, he has also expressed interest in playing quarterback. The L.A. Times story detailed how UW was also potentially offering a scholarship to his teammate, Purvis, who is more lightly regarded, as an inducement to get Boyd.
The story was headlined, "The buddy systems helps in recruiting."
Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com.

Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company

 

[CoachCB]

Additionally, often a school will sign over the 25 limit....and people will ask, "How can they sign 30? I thought they could only sign 25 max..." This is another of those cases where the coaches anticipate attrition....and sometimes it doesn't happen so they ask a player to greyshirt. This is especially true w/ a lower ranked prospect (a 2 or 3 star) who is dying to go to that school (say Alabama vs. Southern Miss or an East Carolina type school). Some of these kids are willing to do it (take the greyshirt)..... Or kids who come from a wealthy family that can afford to pay the kids tuition in the fall semester while the kid does not participate in football, thus keeping his status as a true freshman and counting towards the following years scholarship count......

 

[SunDodger]

It not commenly known but Dennis Dixon greyshirted. It was an effort to spread out their qb's eligibility. It is risky because the recruit can sign with another school while greyshirting. Last year Oregon greyshirted a WR who injured his shoulder in informal workouts. He didn't lose a yr of eligibility and still has his redshirt if needed.

In the case with UW Sark wanted to honor the intent of the offer but give the kid a "push" out the door. He is not considered a P10 player and there are way too many of these guys currently on UW.

I didn't know that about Dixon. Interesting.

UoweDucks, you're right about Sarkisian wanting to push this kid out the door. I found out today they told him that the following year he would be redshirted. So that would be two years without playing in a game. They basically forced his hand.


At this point, I have no reason not to trust Sarkisian's "eye for talant," but I still have a bad feeling about this years recruiting class.

 

[UoweDucks]

I didn't know that about Dixon. Interesting.

UoweDucks, you're right about Sarkisian wanting to push this kid out the door. I found out today they told him that the following year he would be redshirted. So that would be two years without playing in a game. They basically forced his hand.


At this point, I have no reason not to trust Sarkisian's "eye for talant," but I still have a bad feeling about this years recruiting class.

Unfortunately you are right to be concerned about this class. It will easily go down as one of the worst in the history of UW. Biggest problem is that with just days left there hasn't been one commitment to the OL. If I am a husky fan this concerns me greatly. Not only will Locker have issues due to this as the huskies lose 3 starters from last years squad but the biggest concern would be that stud recruit Jake Heaps will have to be watching this development as he considers UW vs BYU next year.

I was hoping that the huskies could put the red shirt on a few of the guys that played too early last year but with the looks of this class it is unlikely.

 

[CoolBreeze22]

Same thing going down at Nebraska. I guess they offered some kid from Pennsylvania before his senior season started. The kid accepted, then he breaks his collarbone and misses most of the season. I guess he lost 15 lbs. and Nebraska wasn't very impressed with the last couple games he played. Sucks because the kid could have been looking at other schools all along.


http://nebraska.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=181&tid=120407401&mid=120407401&sid=928&style=2

 

[ChrisParadise]

Unfortunately you are right to be concerned about this class. It will easily go down as one of the worst in the history of UW. Biggest problem is that with just days left there hasn't been one commitment to the OL. If I am a husky fan this concerns me greatly. Not only will Locker have issues due to this as the huskies lose 3 starters from last years squad but the biggest concern would be that stud recruit Jake Heaps will have to be watching this development as he considers UW vs BYU next year.

I was hoping that the huskies could put the red shirt on a few of the guys that played too early last year but with the looks of this class it is unlikely.

woo! jake heaps gets a mention at therx...vols fans been watching him since last summer - he announced his top 10 last week or so..im thinking he goes to a pac-10 school

 

[CoachCB]

Same thing going down at Nebraska. I guess they offered some kid from Pennsylvania before his senior season started. The kid accepted, then he breaks his collarbone and misses most of the season. I guess he lost 15 lbs. and Nebraska wasn't very impressed with the last couple games he played. Sucks because the kid could have been looking at other schools all along.


http://nebraska.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=181&tid=120407401&mid=120407401&sid=928&style=2

This situation sucks for the kid. The school (Nebraska) and coaches (Pelini) have a job to do and only 85 scholarships to give out. So I see both sides. Where NU went wrong was waiting so late. Sucks for the kid. But I can't imagine some of the MEAC schools not wanting him (Central Michigan, Ohio, Miami, etc....).

This happens often. Kiffin pulled a QB's offer (from Fulmer)....but, he did it early enough for the kid to find another place to play (I'm not sure if they kid got other offers, but Kiffin pulled the offer early).....

Post if this kid gets a scholarship elsewhere, I'd like to hear about it.....