USF recruit headed to Pearl River

[BULLfreak]

USF recruit headed to Pearl River

USF's incoming recruiting class has its first apparent academic casualty.

Lake Gibson defensive end Claude Davis, who signed with USF in February but has not earned the minimum test scores for NCAA initial eligibility, is expected to start classes next week at Pearl River Community College in Mississippi, where coach Tim Hatten expects him to play this fall.

Davis, who could not be reached for comment, graduates from Lake Gibson this week and can still take entrance exams this summer with the hopes of scoring high enough to qualify academically, but Hatten said he will start summer classes with Pearl River's incoming players next week at USF's request. He could still attend USF this fall if he posted the required scores, but more likely would try to return to USF after earning his associate of arts degree from Pearl River, likely for the 2009 season.

USF signed 27 players in February -- over the NCAA limit of 25 -- so coaches were conceding from the start that some players would not make grades, so their signing was more a posturing to help USF's position when they come out of junior college. USF isn't penalized (in terms of APR scores and such) for recruits who sign but do not qualify academically and never make it to campus.

Coach Jim Leavitt said this spring that he expected "three or four" signees not to qualify, and that's far less than a year ago, when nine failed to qualify and two other signees quit the team before the season started. Three of those players -- defensive end David Fonua and offensive linemen Jeremiah Warren and Kevin McCaskill -- earned qualifying scores, enrolled in January and count toward this year's class.

http://blogs.tampabay.com/usf/

[Velcro]

that is perfectly ok.  We have done well with the Pearl River pipeline.  Hopefully this one works out well too.

[BULLfreak]

Pearl River = USF JV

[crambone]

We needed him this year with the loss of Josh Julmiste.  :-/

[Velcro]

I don't believe that.  Yeah, we lost Julmiste... but its not like we don't have any good defensive ends.  Would Davis have even played this year?  

[Guest JulmisteForPrez]

that is perfectly ok.  We have done well with the Pearl River pipeline.  Hopefully this one works out well too.

Speak for yourself.

We've had too much of this here over the past couple of years.

This guy looked to be a good player, now he's lost for probably two seasons.

Additionally, there is always a significant chance that signees who have to go the JuCo route go somewhere else.  Ask the Crimson Tide about one Mr. Mike Ford.

[KB]

I don't think this is a surprise to anyone.  Sounds like CJL knew this would happen.  I would rather us have recruited him, send him off to JC and then get him back instead of never getting him in the first place.

Good luck to him, hope to see him back.

[Ruger7mmmag]

that is perfectly ok.  We have done well with the Pearl River pipeline.  Hopefully this one works out well too.

Speak for yourself.

We've had too much of this here over the past couple of years.

This guy looked to be a good player, now he's lost for probably two seasons.

Additionally, there is always a significant chance that signees who have to go the JuCo route go somewhere else.  Ask the Crimson Tide about one Mr. Mike Ford.

Different scenario for USF vs. Bama though.  Bama grabs 4 and 5 star guys every year so by the time Ford was elgible, they already had two or three studs already in the system so it made sense for Ford to leave.  With us, we're not knocking down recruits like him left and right YET, so chances are he comes back.

[Ruger7mmmag]

PS-this does suck though.  We needed this guy THIS YEAR...

[Joe]

****...

While its nice to have the pipeline, he was arguably the steal of the past recruiting class. Hopefully he still likes USF in 2 years, I know FSU and Florida wanted this guy early but academic reasons led them to place him on the backburner.

Best of luck to him.