Wha' Happened?

Reading up on recruiting is kind of like reading up on how hot dogs are made. You know it's going to be bad, but snouts. Really? Is that necessary? An interesting story has been developing in Louisville regarding signing day. According to a Jacksonville paper Chris Summers, a 6'5'' WR prospect from Florida, had his scholarship offer pulled on signing day. Summers high school coach believes this was done intentionally to keep him from other schools. Rivals had his list down three school in the Big East: Cincinatti, USF, and UL.

Ribault coach Arthur Mallory said he was stunned when a Cardinals assistant coach left a message on his answering machine indicating that Summers would not be sent scholarship papers.

Summers, a receiver, committed to Louisville under former coach Bobby Petrino's staff, but according to Mallory, the staff under new head coach Steve Kragthorpe contacted Summers regularly and never indicated his commitment was no longer wanted.

"The message said he didn't ever commit to the old staff, so they weren't going to honor it," Mallory said. "But I was in the room when he committed over the phone. I was there. And I had the USF [South Florida] staff all mad at me because I encouraged him to do it. Basically, the new staff is trying to pass the buck to the old staff, and it's unprofessional as it can be."

Summers is qualified academically. Mallory said Summers would have had other options had Louisville rescinded his offer sooner, but the timing has left Summers with no place to sign because other interested schools have filled their available spots.

From Monday on the Louisville Courier blog, www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/blog.html

It does look like U of L won’t sign Jacksonville (Fla.) Ribault wide receiver Chris Summers, who told several media outlets that he had pretty much eliminated the Cardinals. Summers had originally committed to U of L before coach Bobby Petrino left.

Another source states that Summers was favoring Miami after Petrino left, only Miami never offered the young man and he was never listed as a verbal commit there. The same article stated that Summers was going to go back to Louisville if Miami wasn't interested.

So either there was some confusion and Louisville thought Summers was going elsewhere or they screwed over a kid worse than Gary Glitter because there had to be some communication between the parties. If so, Kragthorpe possibly knew that Summers wanted back in and waited until signing day as revenge for Summers re-opening his recruiting after Petrino left. History has proven that being the head coach of Louisville requires a loose sense of loyalty, but even Bobby Petrino thinks this may be over the line.