Recruiting notebook

By Jeremy Crabtree

updated 7:33 p.m. ET Nov. 5, 2008

Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer was putting together one of the best recruiting classes in the nation before word of him stepping down leaked out Monday morning.

So, what do Tennessee’s commitments do? Several say they’re sticking with Tennessee. Others say they’re taking a wait-and-see approach.

Four-star quarterback Tajh Boyd of Hampton (Va.) Phoebus, who committed to the Vols this past weekend, said the news was disappointing. But he said he plans to honor his commitment.

“I hate that Coach Fulmer is gone, but I know they will bring in someone that’s good,” Boyd told Volquest.com. “Coach Fulmer is a good coach. I just hate he won’t be there. I’m going to be keeping up with it. I’m anxious to see who they bring in.”

The nation’s top all-purpose back, David Oku of Midwest City (Okla.) Carl Albert, also said he plans on sticking with the Vols. However, Oku said he will look hard at the system the new coach will install.

“If they keep a similar style of offense and I like the new coach, then I will still go to Tennessee,” Oku said. “I don’t see any reason to change my mind when I like everything about the school and the city. But I don’t like the spread, though. That’s my only thing. If they don’t go with a guy that’s going to run the spread, then I will be happy. I just don’t like all the hurry-up style of offense.”

Jarvis Giles, a four-star running back from Tampa (Fla.) Gaither, said he is going to start scrambling for a plan B because he is a midterm graduate. But he said there is one thing the new coach can do that would ensure his commitment.

“I know for a fact that I will stay at Tennessee if the new coach decides to keep (running backs) coach (Stan) Drayton,” Giles said. “But I’m pretty upset because I only have a month left because I’m an early grad. … I’m not going to rush into anything, but I’m going to be keeping up with what’s going on at Tennessee. Time is not on my side, but I have to check all my options.”

Doing due diligence
When Fernley (Nev.) High offensive lineman Kevin Hart fabricated his recruitment by California last recruiting season, many lessons were learned. The biggest lesson Rivals.com’s analysts came away with was you must do as much due diligence as you can before you rank a prospect among the nation’s best.

Enter Chicago Clark Academy 2010 athlete Earlzo Singleton.

Don’t bother looking him up because you won’t find Singleton — a 5-foot-7, 152-pounder — in the Rivals.com database. But he is ranked among the nation’s top 150 juniors in the country by another service, an independent Web site that covers Notre Dame calls him among the top 10 players in Illinois and another service has written three stories about him having scholarship offers from schools such as Louisville, Boise State, Oklahoma State and Southern Miss.

But Rivals.com has been able to confirm that Clark does not have scholarship offers from three of those four schools, and further research indicates most of the schools supposedly “recruiting” him have him on mailing lists that include thousands of prospects. Southern Miss, for example, sends out brochures to advertise its camp and has Clark on a mailing list that includes more than 3,800 prospects.

“My first red flag was that I remembered the kid from when he came to one of our events this past spring and he wasn’t very big and wasn’t very thick,” Rivals.com Illinois recruiting analyst Tim O’Halloran said. “Seeing him in person, there was no way I would have thought he would be a national recruit. Red flag No. 2 is that he has never sent out any video. If you have that much to show, you’d want your video everywhere.

“And red flag No. 3 is that he plays in a lower level of competition in the Chicago Public League. I went out and watched him play a few weeks back against Harlan. He is not a Division I player, simple as that. If I thought the kid had a chance, I’d tell you. But he doesn’t look like a Division I player.”

To further compound the situation is the avalanche of e-mails and posts on messages boards about Singleton. Somebody close to Singleton believes the best way to earn a scholarship is to get yourself on as many early lists as possible. But as Hart’s situation showed, doing homework on prospects is vital.

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