Can't avoid the topic of defensive tackle commit Kordell Looney tonight.
First it was reported that he would officially visit Louisville. It was later reported that Looney was leaning towards not going because according to a report by a Louisville site on another network UK was "harassing" him about word of the visit to Louisville. That report cited Looney as saying he may or may not take the Louisville trip.
More recently Looney has said he will not be visiting Louisville.
Long story short, the "harassing" word sounds bad on the surface but I would caution that a 17 year old kid using that word is almost certainly not making a calculated decision to slap such an indictment of a label on the school that he's committed to, particularly when you consider the context. Looney said himself in the same interview he probably wouldn't visit Louisville, so you have to read the 'harassing' in light of the fact that he's still committed to Kentucky and is probably afraid of losing his scholarship if he were to go through with it.
I should add that whatever Kentucky's coaches told Looney is absolutely common and indeed the normal operating procedure at most schools, except in cases where the player is really irreplaceable or other circumstances are unique. Were I a coach at Kentucky I probably wouldn't sit idly by while a recruit planned a January visit to Louisville when I'm working overtime to keep my recruiting class together and build crucial depth at a position where depth is tough to come by. The word will be blown out of proportion because nobody knows what was really said, but I can tell you that every staff in the country will play hard ball with a recruit who is either putting himself out there too much or, worse, a player who has not been entirely candid about what's going on. I don't know if that happened in this case but all over the country players committed to one school visit other schools believing that their 'home school' will not find out. If a player does that then as an outside fan or observer cut him some slack and acknowledge the difficulty and various factors involved, but you have to understand that coaches' jobs depend on this and so does their program's success, so you really have a duty to make sure that you draw a firm line in the sand.
If you ask me, without condemning him or making a big deal of it, the real error in judgment is on Looney's part in entertaining the idea of the visit in the first place. The second major blunder was how the story was reported. It's not the job of sites covering Louisville (as this site covers Kentucky) to protect and help Louisville recruit, but I cannot imagine that Louisville's coaches are happy that the leaked info is probably going to result in Looney not visiting. I'd suspect that information is not going to come out of Bobby Petrino's football offices quite as easily.
First it was reported that he would officially visit Louisville. It was later reported that Looney was leaning towards not going because according to a report by a Louisville site on another network UK was "harassing" him about word of the visit to Louisville. That report cited Looney as saying he may or may not take the Louisville trip.
More recently Looney has said he will not be visiting Louisville.
Long story short, the "harassing" word sounds bad on the surface but I would caution that a 17 year old kid using that word is almost certainly not making a calculated decision to slap such an indictment of a label on the school that he's committed to, particularly when you consider the context. Looney said himself in the same interview he probably wouldn't visit Louisville, so you have to read the 'harassing' in light of the fact that he's still committed to Kentucky and is probably afraid of losing his scholarship if he were to go through with it.
I should add that whatever Kentucky's coaches told Looney is absolutely common and indeed the normal operating procedure at most schools, except in cases where the player is really irreplaceable or other circumstances are unique. Were I a coach at Kentucky I probably wouldn't sit idly by while a recruit planned a January visit to Louisville when I'm working overtime to keep my recruiting class together and build crucial depth at a position where depth is tough to come by. The word will be blown out of proportion because nobody knows what was really said, but I can tell you that every staff in the country will play hard ball with a recruit who is either putting himself out there too much or, worse, a player who has not been entirely candid about what's going on. I don't know if that happened in this case but all over the country players committed to one school visit other schools believing that their 'home school' will not find out. If a player does that then as an outside fan or observer cut him some slack and acknowledge the difficulty and various factors involved, but you have to understand that coaches' jobs depend on this and so does their program's success, so you really have a duty to make sure that you draw a firm line in the sand.
If you ask me, without condemning him or making a big deal of it, the real error in judgment is on Looney's part in entertaining the idea of the visit in the first place. The second major blunder was how the story was reported. It's not the job of sites covering Louisville (as this site covers Kentucky) to protect and help Louisville recruit, but I cannot imagine that Louisville's coaches are happy that the leaked info is probably going to result in Looney not visiting. I'd suspect that information is not going to come out of Bobby Petrino's football offices quite as easily.
