- I'm sure everyone has heard about Weslye Saunders and his suspension in Cootville. We have heard now, from multiple sources, that there is far more to the story than has been reported. The first nugget is the most known, that he was skipping team meetings because he felt like he could go pro, and Spurrier suspended him before he declared (NFL has been late this year on providing draft prospectus to juniors).
The second, and more interesting, is the Eric Mack/Marcus Lattimore situation. Eric Mack showed up to Columbia overweight and the Cocks didn't like it. He'd already somehow fallen out of favor with their staff, and Clemson has stopped recruiting him. He went on the visit with Lattimore and was seen talking to Marcus about Auburn (where Mack suddenly committed this week). Saunders told both of them that if they knew what he knew about USC, they would go to Auburn. Voila, suspension. Mack commits to Auburn and USC pulls his offer to save face.
Now none of it directly impacts Clemson, except that Auburn has great backs in their class already. If Lattimore were to sign with them, then no way would D.J. Howard play RB at Auburn as he wishes. Clemson could get him at the last minute. However, another Dead period kicks in on Feb 1. Lattimore announces on Feb 2, and NSD is the 3rd.
- The BOT has formed a small committee, for the first time since the Ford years, to oversee and investigage the Athletic Department. To my knowledge this was created around the time of the Maryland game. There are other rumors circling TDP at that time which I have held off of and will continue to because of a lack of solid information.
- An interesting story in The State talks about our refocus into Georgia this year in recruiting, and pulling back on Florida a bit now without the Bowden nameplate. Now 7 Clemson coaches have been assigned regions in Georgia, up from 4 last year. It has paid off with 7 GA commitments, more than the last 4 years combined.
- At this point, Clemson still leads for Justin Parker. He'll take an official visit to LSU this weekend after he takes the SAT Saturday morning. Dabo has his in-home scheduled for the 30th, which is after Spurrier's.
- There are a few juniors on unofficial visits this weekend, which I won't list, but theyre all very important to the 2011 class. The staff has essentially switched focus towards the 2011 class and the first junior days are next month. I expect a couple commitments to come from those.
- As I released via Twitter earlier this week, Will Korn is considering Marshall as one of his destinations.
- Buffalo QB Zach Maynard is transferring, now that Turner Gill has left, and is in Clemson for a visit. He has 3 years to play 2, and NCAA transfer rules apply, so he would have to sit out 2010. The kicker is that he is the half-brother of 5-star Alabama commitment Keenan Allen, who once held Clemson in the mix.
Now Allen is coming on a visit to CU for this weekend. It was released by Korncoot and one other place well before the Coaches wanted it out officially, though I had heard it as early as Monday. Clemson missed out on Dexter Morant from Manning because his visit was publicized by Korncoot and UGA heard it, strong-armed him, and he never visited.
- Vic Beasley and David Beasley say they are totally done with visits.