Last week Will forwarded me a story about Tom Savage, a top high school quarterback recruit from Pennsylvania who has committed to Rutgers. Savage is the older brother of former UW quarterback Bryan Savage, who transferred away after a year or two in Madison.
As Will points out, the story paints Barry Alvarez in a less-than-favorable light, saying he promised the Savages he would not leave coaching to become the full-time athletic director. Which he of course did.
That may be true, but Barry's ascension to full-time AD was not the only reason Savage transferred. If memory serves, Savage transferred because he wasn't going to beat out John Stocco anytime soon, and he wanted to play. Savage's classmate Sean Lewis moved from quarterback to tight end, and Savage transferred to Coffeyville Community College, then became a nice contributor at Hofstra. (Hey Will, isn't that where Wayne Chrebet went?)
Apparently former UW offensive coordinator Brian White recommended Savage to the Hofstra coaching staff. White's departure after the ascension of Paul Chryst as offensive coordinator (which would have happened no matter which office Alvarez occupied) is also cited as a reason Savage left.
The point of this isn't to rag on Savage, who never did anything to hurt the program. The point is that while his family may feel like Bryan got burned by his college choice, that stuff happens in college sports, and it doesn't make Alvarez a bad guy. Tom, a Rutgers recruit, says he learned a lot by watching what Bryan went through.
What happens if Greg Schiano leaves Rutgers to replace Joe Paterno at Penn State? Schiano might give recruits his word now that he'll never leave and be 100% sincere about it at this moment. But if another university comes along and makes him an offer he can't refuse, one that's best for him and his family, can he pass it up? Then Tom, for all his learning, is in roughly the same situation as his older brother.
It's a system that's less fair to the kids than it is to coaches. But that's life, and no matter who's coaching, the cream rises to the top.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Broken promise?
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1 comment:
Would have loved to read Alvarez's side of the story and I wonder if the reporter called him. You're right, not a huge deal in retrospect, but an interesting topic.
In a perfect world, the players would have some more rights with regards to transfer rules, but I think that certain programs would benefit so much that it wouldn't be fair.
Ah, the classic Wayne Chrebet-Keyshaw Johnson debate (1997? 98?).....Keyshawn obviously won, but Chrebet had a nice little career. Stu really liked Chrebet.
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