He may have backed out of his oral commitment to Nebraska, but don’t look for Doug Rippy to call another career audible now that he has committed to Colorado.
How can we be sure? We can’t. You can’t be sure of anything in the murky world of college football recruiting. But Rippy recently indicated that he’s sealed, delivered and ready to sign with CU when Wednesday’s national signing day arrives.
He just took a roundabout way of doing it.
To wit: Rippy, a linebacker from Trotwood, Ohio, received a call from a Post reporter last week and returned it in a matter of moments. Why? Because, according to the caller ID on his cell, the call was from the 303 area code.
“I thought it was one of the (CU) coaches,” Rippy said. “I’ve got to go.”
The fact that Rippy returned the call may not seem significant. But in this day and age, when schools stay after other schools’ recruits to the bitter end, it speaks volumes about his level of commitment to CU.
“If a kid doesn’t want to talk to a school, he can screen his calls,” said Adam Munsterteiger, ‘s CU recruiting analyst. “It’s not that hard.”
Some kids keep taking calls from other coaches even after making a commitment to another school. And if a school fires its coach, all bets are off. Such was the case with Rippy and three other Nebraska recruits who decommitted from the Huskers after coach Bill Callahan’s ouster.
Each of the four later committed to CU, but one — Denton, Texas, defensive end Josh Williams — subsequently returned to the Huskers. In other words, Williams committed, decommitted, committed again, decommitted again and committed again.
And you thought college football recruiting was an exact science. The truth, according to CU coach Dan Hawkins, is that an oral commitment often isn’t worth the newspaper it’s printed in.
“I’m an old-school guy,” Hawkins said. “I’m into commitments. But that word is really not appropriate. When I hear the word commitment, I think they should come up with another word or term for it. Maybe ‘Hey, you’re my favorite school right now.’ ”
Said Munsterteiger: “A word I’d use is pledge. You’re kind of pledging to a school. The word commitment means something different than what it seems to mean to a lot of these kids. More than half do take it seriously. It’s the ones who don’t who are getting a lot of the headlines.”
New game: early commits
A fundamental change has occurred in the world of recruiting. And no, it’s not just that the process, unlike the world the previous generation of recruits lived in, is public knowledge on the Internet. According to Hawkins, schools are trying to get earlier commitments and kids, too, want to commit earlier to avoid a long, drawn-out recruiting process.
“I remember talking to John Elway and he said he got his first scholarship offer midway through his senior year,” Hawkins said. “These days, a lot of kids commit in the spring of their junior year. They’re kids. They don’t really know what’s out there.
“It’s like when your parents took you to one car lot and said, ‘OK, this is your car.’ You’re like, ‘Great.’ Then you see another car lot and you’re like, ‘Holy smokes, there are a lot of other makes and models out there.’ ”
So it goes with commitments. You’ve got solid commitments, soft commitments and silent commitments. But as long as they’re just oral commitments, they aren’t really commitments at all.
Recruits say they’re committed to a school, but often keep looking around, sometimes right up until signing day. You win some and lose some in that environment. CU, according to Munsterteiger, snagged three players who committed to other BCS schools — Jimmy Smith, Marquez Herrod and Michael Sipili — in 2006, a matter of weeks after Hawkins’ hiring.
But what goes around comes around in the recruiting wars. Case in point: According to Munsterteiger, new Arizona State coach Dennis Erickson contacted several CU-committed recruits last year and convinced two to decommit. The fallout? After center Garth Gerhart decommitted on the eve of signing day ’07, CU made a last-minute scholarship offer to Kai Maiava, who had committed to New Mexico State.
Gerhart wound up redshirting at ASU and Maiava started the last nine games of the season at left guard for the Buffs as a freshman.
“It just kind of shows you how the dominoes can fall,” Munsterteiger said.
Taking three from Huskers
Now come the three former Nebraska commits — Rippy, Mullen offensive lineman Bryce Givens and Shaun Mohler, ranked by as the best junior-college outside linebacker prospect in the country. The trio have helped launch CU’s recruiting class into Rivals’ top 30 nationally. And if Ventura, Calif., tailback Darrell Scott follows through with his commitment — he’s also flirting with Texas and UCLA — the class figures to be top-20 material.
The top 20? That’s a drastic departure from the final years of the Gary Barnett regime. Plagued by allegations of sexual assault at a party involving recruits, an ordeal that shook the program’s foundation, Barnett struggled to attract top-notch talent before his firing. Also hurting his cause was the departure of several key recruiters, most notably former running backs coach Eric Bieniemy.
Let the record show that Hawkins, with his third recruiting class about to sign, has overcome any stigma that might have been associated with the CU program.
“Obviously, there was a bad perception out there about the program,” Munsterteiger said. “The staff was kind of worn down a little bit from having to deal with all that. When Hawkins came in from Boise State, the question was whether this guy would be able to recruit at an elite level. So far, it’s been very, very promising. He’s going against all the big dogs.”
NCAA rules prohibit Hawkins from naming names before signing day, but he’s very excited about the 2008 class.
“Very good, very good,” he said, when asked to characterize the group. “I really like the chemistry and quality of kids as well as the caliber of athletes. It never comes out exactly right. You never get every one you want, but we’re looking for the right fit, and I think we’re getting the right kind of kid.”
The trick is getting them to live up to their oral commitments. Scott, the top-rated tailback in the country, committed to CU months ago. But with Texas and UCLA now in the picture, he’s taking his decision down to the wire. He plans to announce his choice Wednesday on ESPNU from the Anaheim (Calif.) ESPN Zone.
“You feel very good about guys. You hope it (a commitment) sticks,” said Hawkins, when asked about the recruiting process. “In the end, you reap what you sow, and we feel good about how we run our program.”
Jim Armstrong: 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com
Colorado commitments
Pos. Name Ht. Wt. School
WR Chance Blackmon 6-3 185 Tatum (Texas) HS
DT Curtis Cunningham 6-2 270 Columbine HS
OL Ryan Dannewitz 6-6 276 San Jacinto (Calif.) HS
PK Jameson Davis* 5-9 191 Boise State transfer
TE Ryan Deehan 6-4 228 Poway (Calif.) HS
S Vince Ewing 6-0 190 Carlsbad (Calif.) HS
OL Bryce Givens 6-6 257 Mullen HS
QB Tyler Hansen 6-1 185 Temecula (Calif.) Chap. HS
CB Stephen Hicks 5-10 175 Whitehouse (Texas) HS
LB Lynn Katoa* 6-2 220 Salt Lake Cottonwood HS
S Patrick Mahnke 6-2 183 Mountain Vista HS
LB Jon Major 6-4 230 Ponderosa HS
LB Shaun Mohler 6-3 225 Orange Coast (Calif.) CC
LB-TE Will Pericak 6-4 247 Boulder HS
TB Ray Polk 6-0 195 Phoenix Brophy Prep
LB Doug Rippy 6-2 218 Trotwood (Ohio)-Madison HS
OL Max Tuioti-Mariner 6-4 300 Corona (Calif.) HS
*already enrolled at CU
Tom Kensler, The Denver Post
