Thursday, July 22, 2010

Getting to the bottom of the Michael Nebrich nonsense

For those who didn't pick up on the Michael Nebrich story, here is a very quick timeline:

-- Mid-level 2011 QB prospect verbals to UConn. (He doesn't have a BC offer.)
-- UConn writer/blogger reaches out to the kid and is shocked to find out BC is talking to him after he has verbaled to another school.
-- BC fans flood writer/blogger's post doubting BC's interest given we have a QB in this recruiting class and that he seems to be a middling prospect.
-- Thin-skinned writer/blogger posts an excerpt of the alleged BC email as proof of BC's dirty tricks, including a BC coach claiming that Edsall will be leaving after this season.

First let me say this: the UConn writer Des Connor is a melodramatic chicken shit. He posted the email but didn't take the final step of showing which BC coach wrote it. Let me save him the time: the email either came from Mike Siravo, Dave Brock, Ryan Day or Grad Assistant Bob Callahan. Why play games? The coach has nothing to be ashamed or afraid of because...

1. There is nothing illegal about recruiting a player who has committed elsewhere. Nebrich cannot sign with anyone until February. Every school -- including UConn -- keeps recruiting committed players after they verbal.
2. Randy Edsall is a good bet to move on from UConn. While I don't love negative recruiting, it happens. And negative spin happens in all walks of life. Anyone who has ever bought anything from a salesperson surely knows this. And if BC is going to go negative, I don't think questioning UConn's stability is a bad angle. In the past two offseasons alone, Edsall has been a candidate for numerous open positions. One of these days he is going to jump.
3. BC was just trying to get him to campus to evaluate him. According to Scout and Rivals, Nebrich doesn't have an offer from BC. We already have a QB in this class. I assume BC wants to see him as an athlete and if we can use him anywhere. This is not doing anything underhanded with a 5-star prospect. It was purely due diligence with a mid-level guy. If anything it shows the staff is looking high and low for talent.


This has already received more attention than it deserves. Just know that this UConn writer is either oblivious to the rules of recruiting or looking to generate attention for himself.

23 comments:

blist said...

Everything Des does strikes me as self-aggrandizing. I guess that is the way of the world now, but he is over the top and he just out tells lies about BC sometimes. I'd swear the "Chris" who seems to post immediately upon publication of many of his blog posts is Des himself. I actually think he could be really good if he reigned himself in and stopped being so much of a UConn hack. I posted something once which didn't concur with his thoughts and he both mocked me in the comments section (fine) and emailed me privately to do it some more (not o.k.)
Bottom line: it'd be fun if this kid came to BC, if just to drive the SueConnies crazy

Eagle in Brighton said...

UConn as a football progam is a joke: end of story.

Eagle in Brighton said...

Btw, agree with ATL: there is nothing wrong with what the coaching staff said to the kid (just the same thing people did for years with TOB after he hemmed had hawed with other coaching positiosn a la Edsall).

Erik said...

A Herzy article to add to the collection:

http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2010/07/21/boston-college-scoreboard-reads-mark-herzlich-1-cancer-0/?sms_ss=email

Apologies if it has already been circulated.

SectionKK said...

Great comment from Conner in the comments section of his post. Sounds like he's still bitter about the ACC-Big East expansion ("Gene lied to me!!! Outrageous!!!").

http://blogs.courant.com/uconn_football/2010/07/uconn-recruit-michael-nebrich.html#comment-188883
------
If you don't mind, as we go forward, I just need to make sure you and BC fans who come here are clear on a couple things.

No.1: I hate that Gene D. lied to me a few years ago about BC being Big East partners and not going to the ACC. It's not because I cared of BC stayed or it went. I just really and truly hate being lied to - by anyone. It's not fair. I don't lie to anyone simply because of the obvious: what if I get caught?

No.2 I hate the fact BC let Al Skinner go. I mean I was sick over it. He was a a good man and a good coach and the folks up there who let him go are going to be sorry.

No.3 None of it means I have a passion for hating BC. I do not. And I don't see how you saw a passion for hating BC in that email. And don't say I used the kid. Some of this stuff people are sending in I can deal with but that's really insulting. I would never do that to a kid. Never.
-----

Adam M. said...

The best thing about him posting that e-mail was that BC hasn't hosted any sort of high school football camp since late June...unless the skill clinic was by invitation only? If that's not the case, then this whole thing smells a bit rotten to me...

Adam M. said...

And by "this whole thing," I mean his report. Either the kid or Des made up the e-mail. It also seems to be an unusually short e-mail for a coach trying to "steal" a recruit.

Eagle in Brighton said...

Though one could contend Connor is a hack journalist (sensationalized pieces, homerism, etc.), as I presonally believe, I think in this instance, he's being opportunistic to drum up page views during the slowest sports month of the year.

Nebrich is a project, at best.

He has offers from James Madison, Marshall, Miami OH, Ohio, Towsen, and obviosuly UConn. A pretty crappy list of schools. Couple that with the fact we already have a legit 2011 QB commit in Suntrup, and this "conspiracy" discussion just doesn't hold water.

Big Jack Krack said...

Are we almost "ready for some football?"

blist said...

The other thing here, as ATL says, is isn't recruiting a kid when he gets an offer from a halfway decent program common? How many times has BC offered a kid and then all of the sudden a bunch of ACC and Big Ten schools notice him too? It seems an easy way to find kids you may have overlooked

John said...

Some big games for the ACC coming out of the gate or early:

Huge:

UNC at LSU 9/4
Virginia Tech and Boise State 9/6 (at Landover, MD (FedEx Field)]

Miami at Ohio State 9/11
FSU at Oklahoma 9/11

Clemson at Auburn 9/18

Others:

Georgia Tech at Kansas 9/11
Virginia at USC 9/11
Wake at Stanford 9/11
Duke at Alabama 9/18 (Oh Boy)

BC gets a couple of weenies during that time.

jampino said...

I love this blog, but this might be the most worthless post I've seen. Who cares? Go get the best football players / people you can.

JP from Dorchester said...

Hartford Courant has published the article on it's website's front page..........http://www.courant.com/

John said...

Is Hartford a real city? Slow news day I guess.

ATL - please post something else.

CT said...

Seems to be a bunch of crybabies crying over a 17 yr old kid, who neither reads nor cares for anything anyone associated with this says. I mean, arguing with UConn over their football team? Can't we argue with an Ohio State or Va Tech next time? We should have higher standards.

Huge, huge non-conference slate at the beginning of the year for the ACC. That UNC-LSU game would do wonders for conference perception if Yates decides to throw to the right team. UNC's defense is pretty loaded. Hope the conference can pull a couple of those tough road games...is the Weber St. game the national game on CBS?

eagle1331 said...

This seems a lot to do about absolutely nothing. A non-story. Nothing against the real rules, there was no camp, the kids a nobody, we have no space on our depth chart.. Sounds a lot more like the kid who fake committed to USC or Oregon or whatever it was a few years ago, making a bunch of crap up to get his name out there..

Eagle in Brighton said...

The real value added from Connor's piece was in the last paragraph, that solid CT LB prospect Graham Stewart is down to BC and Syracuse.

EagleinNYC said...

He loves nothing more than writing bad stories on BC and blasting us.

Does he think Randy Edsall and his staff never talk to kids verbally committed to other schools??

Does he think Jim Calhoun has never once tried to talk a kid out of Georgetown, or Syracuse, or anywhere else after he offered his verbal commitment??

The answers are obvious "yes" to both. He just now has an excuse to write a story making us look bad.

eagleboston said...

This whole UCONN versus BC BS is merely a regional border skirmish between the Massholes and the SueConnies. The rest of us could give a shit. We don't even play them in the big sports. I don't know why we bother wasting pixels on them.

Bring on 9/4 and the return of #94!

Matt said...

Call me naive but I believe this whole Nebrich thing was fabricated. Nebrich sounds like a dick and weak recruit who did not even get an offer from BC. Why the hell would BC go out of its way to send an email like that to somebody who was neither offered nor a highly ranked recruit, especially after we have commits from Rettig, Bordner and Suntrup who are standout players. It seems like he is trying to get himself in the spotlight by bringing down BC. I hate how shenanigans like these get credibility and people eat it up.

JayBomb said...

So it was this week for Spaziani, as well as new Eagles basketball coach Steve Donahue, as they each hit minor recruiting speed bumps.

For Spaziani and his staff it was simply the case of overzealous recruiting in pursuit of an athlete who had verbally committed to the University of Connecticut. The recruit, Michael Nebrich, a 6-foot-1-inch junior quarterback from Lake Braddock High School in Virginia, reportedly received an e-mail last week from a member of Spaziani’s staff, urging him to still consider BC and attend a one-day special skills camp.

According to a report in the Hartford Courant, the e-mail also suggested Nebrich consider BC because Husky coach Randy Edsall and his staff would soon leave the school for another job.

Once the e-mail became public, calls were exchanged between Edsall and Spaziani and the issue was quickly resolved.

“The matter was brought to my attention and it was handled internally,’’ Spaziani said yesterday.

Spaziani’s action apparently was good enough for Edsall.

http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/mens_basketball/articles/2010/07/24/bumpy_times_on_recruiting_trails_to_bc/

icanreadwithmyeyesclosed said...

You should probably watch Nebrich's highlights on Youtube before you say that he isn't BC caliber..He just flew under the radar for some reason. The kid had over 4500 total yards and 46 total TDs on the season, and was second-team all state behind Phillip Sims, who is being groomed to become the starter at Alabama. He also led his team to its first-ever state championship game last season. He runs a 4.4 40 and is one of the best passers on the east coast. Don't base everything on how many stars a recruiting service gives a kid.

footballfan said...

Nebrich is an amazing player- just comes from an unknown school. A common problem with recruiting. He just achieved Virginia's single-season all-purpose record with 4,968 yards, surpassing the 4,852-yard total set by Gretna's Vic Hall in 2004. A sharp passer with dangerous rushing ability, Nebrich re-wrote the record books - against Virginia AAA opponents. His junior season total of 4,520 yards sits at fourth place.