Feb. 23, 2005

A case regarding Clemson's recruitment of a football prospect during the past year has prompted public attention and media coverage. The case involves Clemson making an initial scholarship offer last summer to a prospect in Maryland who publicly committed to Clemson. Subsequently -- due to a series of unfortunate, though not uncommon, events -- the initial offer was rescinded in early January. Coach Bowden and I have discussed what happened. This decision by our football staff was difficult and not made in haste.

Given what has been printed and said, I felt it important to share with you the following:

To begin, there was some misunderstanding concerning the recruit's academic standing. According to our coaches, at the time of the initial offering, it was believed that the young man would qualify academically. Media reports on signing day quoted his coach as stating that he still has not qualified.

Secondly, a change in coordinators on our football staff brought a change in offensive philosophy. This change affected our coaching staff's thinking on the future of this young man at Clemson. Specifically, the prospect's chances of participating at Clemson had been greatly diminished.

As a result, our coaches were faced with some difficult questions. Would the young man qualify? Is it fair to the young man to still sign him knowing, most probably, he would have difficulty competing at this level. If that is, in fact the case, you could project he probably would become disenchanted? How ethical would it have been to bring him in under those circumstances?

I do have some comfort that the decision to rescind the scholarship offer was made at least a month prior to national signing day. It still gave the young man a month to secure a scholarship to another school, which he did (Massachusetts). Though rarely publicized, such occurrences are not uncommon in college football. Three years ago, a Division I school in the southeast offered a scholarship to Coach Brad Scott's son, John, only to have it retracted when that school selected a new coordinator. This past summer another school in our conference rescinded a scholarship offer, only a few weeks before school started. There are other unpublicized cases each year.

Again, even though extenuating circumstances did exist, I know that no one at Clemson associated with the decision is comfortable with it. Such cases certainly are not a common occurrence under Coach Tommy Bowden. His record of integrity and ethical recruiting is very strong. To those who would question whether our football program will keep its word, we would ask them to look at Coach Bowden's record.

Terry Don Phillips

Past Columns
February 15, 2005
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