News & Thoughts about PSU Recruits and Incoming Transfers

I know it's inevitable in a message board when people are talking about transfers and recruiting, but I have to say I'm really uncomfortable speculating about players not being invited back or otherwise suggesting we'd like current players to leave the team.  They're on the team now --and the player you're talking about was critical in the team's success up to the Regional Finals this year.  We don't need to enter into those kinds of calculations in order to talk about whether a player like Taylor Rowland would be helpful to the team.  (Steps gingerly off soapbox.)

Of course the conversation can take place -- it is taking place.  I simply am uncomfortable talking about the prospect of players being jettisoned.  I may well be a minority of one on that point, and may have that minority status impressed on me by other posters.  

Stanford is the front runner.  

Welcome to our happy place.

I refuse to believe Russ would rescind a scholarship he committed in good faith.  I can't see it happening.  The story would get out and the coaching staff would suffer major damage to its reputation.  Now if the player decided grad school is not in her plans, that's possible.

I obviously don't know how scholarships are handled.  However, as a parent, if I had a child talented enough to be recruited by top schools, I would not even consider making a commitment unless the recruiters offered a full 4/5 year scholarship.  Since it seems like verbal commitments are sought from high school Sophomores,  I would guess that the most highly regarded kids are consistently promised a full ride for so long as they are eligible to play. 

Bob addresses one situation explicitly: 1) that college "is not a charity to reward those who fail to even try" -- hard to argue with that.  But there's a second situation: that some players may be better off elsewhere, not because they "fail to even try," but rather because they turn out not to be as talented or proficient as was hoped when they were recruited  (sometimes due to injury) -- even though they may well be trying very hard indeed.  In both cases, they may well have a better chance of playing elsewhere.  But Bob's first point is totally irrelevant when the problem is not that the player isn't trying, but that they aren't as good as was hoped, or because of injury are no longer the player they once were.  As long as players are trying, I think they deserve their scholarships.  Darcy Dorton is a great example of a player who was significantly slowed by injury, and who chose to transfer to College of Charleston in order to keep on playing.  She continued to root for Penn State and I'm obviously still a big fan of hers.