I’m really excited for next year’s recruiting class. I can’t say I understand the star-awarding process very much, but based on the simple measurables and current make of the team I feel strongly about its potential. I have faith in the coaching staff to improve upon this potential and keep Oregon a nationally recognizable name in college football.
But I can’t shake the feeling that we let one get away. And no, we didn’t lose him to Clemson – we lost him to Cal Poly.
Xavier Ramos, a linebacker/safety from St. Bonaventure High School in Ventura, Calif., signed a letter of intent to compete for the Mustangs, a Football Championship Subdvision school. (The FCS is the subdivision formally known as Division I-AA.) Ramos, at 6-foot, 200 pounds, projects as more of a safety on the college level, and is known as a hard hitter.
Ramos has, by all known accounts, worked very hard to get to where he is now. He has maintained a 3.5 GPA with a 1,550 SAT score, so academic concerns are non-existent. His mother, Ana Maria, worked three jobs to get Xavier and his three older brothers the best education possible. (St. Bonaventure, a private Catholic school, certainly qualifies if its Web site is to be a determinant.) Ana Maria also helps pay college tuition for two of Xavier’s brothers, so this kid understands what education costs.
Ramos was reportedly torn between Cal Poly and UC Davis, another FCS school, before eventually deciding upon the Mustangs. He had to call the coaches recruiting him at UC Davis and tell them he wasn’t coming. They were not be pleased, and Ramos empathizes with them.
“He did (feel the coaches’ disappointment),” Ana Maria Ramos told the San Luis Obispo Tribune, “because he said wherever he goes, they’ll remember that he’s the guy that they yanked the offer from.”
They, of course, are the coaches at Oregon, who endured a national backlash in June by announcing days after Ramos made a verbal commitment to Oregon that they had pulled his scholarship offer. Head coach Mike Bellotti’s explanation: “Another young man committed to us earlier at the same position and we didn’t feel we could accept both of them.” (Many speculated that the young man in question was defensive end commit Anthony Anderson, who announced his decision around the same time as Ramos.) Exacerbating Ramos’ problem was the fact that, as per recruiting etiquette standards, he called other schools to inform them of his commitment. However nicely that process can be made, bridges are invariably burned.
Oregon’s decision, in the eyes of many, was considered unconscionable. How can you possibly deny a young man a full-ride scholarship that you yourself gave him? Apparently, as far as the national picture goes, it’s very easy. Shawn Bodtmann, a linebacker recruit from West Scranton High School in Scranton, Pa., had committed to Nebraska. His scholarship offer was pulled Jan. 15, less than a month before National Signing Day and less than two months before his final decision must be made. (The national recruiting Web site Rivals.com lists Bodtmann as considering Western Carolina and Maine. Quite a step down from Nebraska, no?)
Before we go further, there are some obvious facts that we must get out of the way: Only 25 scholarships may be awarded to recruits every year, and the NCAA limit on football scholarships is 85. Bellotti told SI.com that he “offers between 75 and 115 players in a given year.” (According to Rivals.com, 70 high school players received offers from the Ducks this year, and Oregon has welcomed in a 25-man recruiting class.) Simple economics dictate that the majority of offers presented to players will, indeed, be spurned for offers from another school or other complications (primarily academic). It also bears mentioning that FCS is not potential football hell; former Mustangs wide receiver Ramses Barden is projected to be a third-round pick in the 2009 NFL Draft.
“Though Bellotti and his staff may seem heartless,” SI.com’s Andy Staples wrote in a June 23 analysis, “they actually handled the Ramos situation in the second-classiest way the dysfunctional existing system allows. (The classiest would have been to honor the scholarship they offered.)”
Congratulations, Oregon fans: Your coach and his staff were officially labeled second-class. Or lower-class. However you wish to take it. And this should invoke feelings of embarrassment within everyone because, really, it is embarrassing. Xavier Ramos wanted to come to Oregon to play football. Oregon denied him. Why him over someone like Justin Thompson, who couldn’t cut it academically in two tries?
This is unconscionable. This is embarrassing. And this process must be rectified.
The most efficient way appears to be the most moral way: Force the university in question to uphold every verbal commitment. If Ramos wanted to be a Duck, Bellotti and his staff should not be allowed to renege on his scholarship offer. But if Ramos ended up signing his national letter of intent elsewhere, that’s his prerogative. We could go on ad nauseum over the issues of “committed” players looking at and signing with other schools, but that, like Ramos’ issue, points to a fundamental flaw in the sanctity of the commitment process. The kids aren’t acting out of place here.
Pulling a scholarship from a committed kid is a dirty move. Period. Though NCAA rules regarding discussion of prospects are notoriously tricky, Bellotti should be made to answer further for this. Oregon will continue to offer plenty more scholarships than it receives commitments for, but it must honor the commitments it does get. A kid could commit a felony or do something similarly stupid (see Troy wide receiver and former Oklahoma commit Josh Jarboe as an example), but the coaching staff bears a certain amount of responsibility for identifying problem children or possible academic troublemakers. It can be fairly argued that, as much as high school athletes lose scholarships, they also earn them.
Xavier, if you’re reading this, I really hope you make a name for yourself in college and have a successful future in whatever field of study or career you’re beckoned to. I do believe that, had Mike Bellotti and John Neal received the opportunity to coach you, they could’ve made you into a great player. Too bad they never took a chance.
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Ducks’ dirty move doesn’t faze former recruit
Daily Emerald
February 8, 2009
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