Friday, It's So Fetch! Vol. 36

This week has been just absolutely nuts with National Signing Day taking center stage and a veritable three ring circus breaking out around the day many high school kids made their decisions official with their LOIs. Preliminary class rankings have come out, of course we took a stroll into NCAA TCAP scripts with Perverted Justice and if you missed the Butthurt Liveblog here it is folks.

If you're not part of the solution to these asshats then you're part of the problem. All it takes is a simple "dude, that's not cool" to stop most of these people from continuing their reckless patterns. Or at the least they slough it off as a joke and scurry away. That said one Nebraska fan did exchange emails with me to the point where I asked if he was defending his right to talk crap to a high schooler, then he went away.

We've had some explicit content on the site this week and for those of you who took offense I apologize. With all the recruiting wins and losses we drop you this clip which is recruiting in a nutshell, especially when kids flip.


In another vein we've got more Ether for a couple of notable folks who helped make headlines the day after signing day. Bret Bielema and Les Miles, come on down.

We'll start with Bret Bielema who decided that he needed to have a conversation with Urban Meyer and tell the media about it, sort of, when it came to recruiting committed players. Apparently Bret doesn't like that Urban Meyer came in and scooped up kids who had committed to other Big Ten schools. Bielema went so far as to say:

"We at the Big Ten don't want to be like the SEC - in any way, shape or form"

Hmmm. Interesting. There are a couple things here to discuss. First of all this idea that this practice is somehow unique to the SEC only plays to the absolutely ridiculous "holier than thou" move that the Big Ten has made for years. "We do things the right way" is what Bielama might as well have said because that's what he meant by throwing another conference into it, specifically the SEC.

We get it Bret Bielema, Pat Narduzzi and Big Ten, you're better than us. Better than everyone because you have this ridiculous "gentleman's agreement" with regard to committed recruits. Better than the Pac-12. Better than the ACC. Better than the Big XII. Better than the Big East. Hell, even Paul Johnson, who we all know is better than everyone because he makes sure his commits know the meaning of commitment (hand wank) recruits committed players if they're willing to listen and visit.

Which brings us to our next point, the one about not wanting to be like the SEC "in any way, shape or form." Really? You don't want to be the crown jewel of college football? You don't want to have six straight BCS Champions? Guys, it's been four years since your league has been to a title game, you don't want to get back? Hell, since the start of the BCS era the conference has won three Rose Bowls. THREE.

Like Romany Malco says to Andy in 40 Year Old Virgin, "What has felt right for you doesn't work! You need to try some wrong, dawg!"

It's not sleazy. It's not dirty. It's about giving a kid an option and if he is interested then allowing him to explore that option. If he isn't interested he can say, "No thanks" and keep it moving. Don't whine about it being not fair and un-gentlemanly; do your job. Recruit your guys until signing day, that's what being a coach is about.

That's what everyone in the nation is doing. That's why they watch fax machines on signing day. That's why they make those calls to make sure kids are still in the boat.

Recruit the hell out of these kids and continuously prove why your school is the best place for them and they'll sign with you. Simple, really.

Now for Les Miles. Ugh. I spent all day Wednesday chastising fans who acted like morons, questioning recruits intelligence, cussing out kids, calling kids chicken for changing schools. Then the LSU head football coach goes out and panders to these same idiots with his own hate filled rhetoric.

Totally unacceptable. Questioning the heart and leadership ability of a kid that just over two weeks ago you were gungho about coming to your program. Les acted just like these morons and whether it was a decision to pander to your own fanbase or how you really felt there is absolutely no place for this type of rhetoric out of fans, let alone a head coach.

Much like Bret Bielema and Paul Johnson this is about Les Miles doing his job. He failed, through his offensive coordinators and his own decision making, in the BCS Championship Game. He failed when Gunner Kiel decided to stay close to home. He failed when the recruiting dust settled and LSU wasn't exactly in the Alabama, Georgia, Florida realm as far as class strength.

Perhaps those cheers from fans who were thirsty for Kiel bashing made him feel comfortable in the Bayou but overall it did little to further his control over the situation.

Instead of playing to the lowest common denominator of LSU fan Les Miles should have been looking at his staff and figuring out how they missed the fact that Gunner Kiel's mom was the true sell in the family. Somehow they didn't sell her on her son playing in Red Stick and that's on them, not on her. Recruiting is all about finding the family's decision maker and Kiel's mother was not sold on him traveling far away to play in Baton Rouge.

Do your job coaches. Period. Stop complaining and get on your grind.