Not all staffs do it. It was one of the reasons why I left my last staff before signing day. The head coach did it to two players within a week. The manner he did it was just as dirty.
An offer was given to a JUCO defensive lineman (the kid's brother has played in the NFL for the last few years). He had the offer for about 1.5 months before his official visit (he came on an unofficial visit after receiving the offer). Before the visit, the head coach decided he didn't want the kid anymore. Why? Nobody knows, but he made that decision on his own a week or two before the official visit. Still, he had the kid and his parents come on an official visit.
The staff knew the entire time that the kid's offer didn't exist, yet the red carpet was still rolled out for the family. The mother, a high school teacher, asked all of the right questions to representatives from her son's prospective major. They had a great time, and the staff played them right along the entire time. After a night and day, they fell in love with the school. They were sure it was where they wanted to be. On Saturday of the visit, the mother kept asking me if they would have time to go to the bookstore, because they wanted to buy sweatshirts/t-shirts/hats for the entire family, the kid's old high school coach, etc. I had a pit in my stomach the entire time. I kept telling the GA who was driving them around for the weekend to try and make excuses/run out of time so they wouldn't be able to go to the bookstore, but it didn't work. They spent over $300 on gear there knowing they were going to commit before the end of the trip.
On Sunday mornings of official visits, it is customary for the recruits to meet with the head coach. It's where most head coaches pressure the recruit to commit. But the meeting never happened. While the rest of the recruits were ushered from the hotel to the football offices on that Sunday, this kid's family was kept at the hotel. They were told by the coach recruiting them that the scholarship wasn't there for them. They couldn't understand, as they were never pressured to commit before, didn't know why they would still be brought on an official visit, etc. The cowardly head coach didn't even have the courtesy to explain it to the family. He had the coach recruiting the kid go to the hotel that morning and tell them.
It wasn't a case of another recruit accepting that schollie, thus filling the position. It was just a case of the head coach not wanting him.
Obviously, the family was hurt and pissed. The kid's JUCO coach called the head coach to inquire about it. The JUCO coach told him that the program was no longer welcome to recruit his JUCO again. The kid's high school head coach did the same, as did the head coach at the mother's school where she taught. My head coach blatantly lied to the JUCO coach. He told him that the players on the team who hosted and hung out with the JUCO player during his official visit reported back that the kid wouldn't be a good fit for the program. The head coach fabricated comments from his players saying that the recruit was really quiet, a loner, and just wouldn't fit with the culture of the program. It was all false. The JUCO coach believed and understood some of that, so the relationship was smoothed over. But then the JUCO head coach called the director of player personnel without telling him that he had just spoken to the head coach. When asked why the scholarship was stripped without telling the family yet still had them come on a visit, the director of player personnel threw the head coach under the bus by saying that he wasn't sure, only that the decision had been made a week or two before the visit.
Thankfully, the kid had other offers and ended up playing at Tulsa this year which is a better program.
Story #2:
A high school linebacker who lived four hours from this college had offers from Nevada, ULM, and UTEP during his junior years. They were all legit offers. Before his senior year started, this particular college offered him. He committed four days later, and he stayed committed his entire senior year of high school. He didn't waiver, told every other school that he wasn't interested, and was told that the commitment was entirely solid from both sides.
The kid's sister also went to school here. That allowed the father, divorced from the mother of the children, to spend a couple of months looking for jobs here. Knowing both of his children would be here for 3-4 years, he wanted to be close to them and be able to watch all of his son's games in person. So he had accepted a job with a tentative start date. His high school girlfriend, wanting to be close to him, also had found and placed a deposit at a local cosmetology school.
This kid was recruited hard for his entire senior year. There was not even the slightest indication anyone would back out. In fact, there wasn't even a single other linebacker committed even though the program was looking to sign 3-4 linebackers in that class. The kid, his father, his step-mom, his mother, her best friend, his sister, his younger sibling, and his girlfriend were all here for the official visit. They had grown close to many people on the staff; not just the recruiting coach, but also his position coach and a GA who had gone and played at his same high school under the same head coach at that high school.
The official visit went well. The college head coach's son was also a high school senior committed to play here. His school ended up playing the linebacker recruit's school. The recruit's school lost by 1 point in overtime. The college head coach's son went back and told his dad that his teammate on offense said that the recruit's defense was "soft." He didn't say that the recruit was soft, but just that their defense was (even though they only beat them by 1 point in overtime). Suddenly, the head coach went cold on the kid who had been committed for numerous months. The recruiting coach for him was baffled. The head coach, just days before signing day, told the coach to call the kid and tell him that the scholarship was now gone (again, no other LB had committed at that point). The recruiting coach, even though he needed to be out on the road tying up other recruits in the last week, insisted that he make the eight hour trip to tell the kid in person what was going on. Of course, it crushed the father's plans, the sister's plans of going to school with her brother, the girlfriend's plans, and the recruit's plans . . . who had told every school months earlier to stop contacting him. This was literally just days before signing day, so it really screwed him over. Luckily, he also was able to sign a scholarship at Tulsa.
The head coach's excuse was that these kids will drop a school in a second on the very morning of signing day if they get a better offer, so why shouldn't the school also change its mind at the last minute? Most reasonable and ethical coaches understand that a 17 or 18 year old kid should be allowed some leeway in changing the mind of where he spends his next four years, but adults (coaches) should be more solid and stable in their decisions.
