Did Spyre and Nico sign a contract today?

[JeffCountyVolFan]

https://twitter.com/zachtnt/status/1502458878268788740?s=21

A lot of the folks on VQ are convinced that this must be Nico signing to play here.

[VinnieVOL]

If the rumors are true….  Holy crap!   

[volsboy]

What do they do with these recruits if they don't pan out on the field?  Someone just wasted 8 mil if it happens. Do they fire them or just drop them from the team? Do they still have a scholarship? Do they go to class to begin with? What if they fail their classes?  Inquiring minds want and need to know.

[JeffCountyVolFan]

If the rumors are true….  Holy crap!  

The lawyer for the player is from Newport Beach, CA
The player is receiving a payment before he leaves high school (only a few states allow that and CA is one)
Most likely only a very highly rated QB prospect is going to demand that much in NIL
Nico supposedly 'rescheduled' a visit that was planned to UGA this weekend
Nico's uncle/handler/whatever has posted several very cryptic posts since his UT visit last weekend
Austin Price (from VQ) took a 'vacation' to Disneyland earlier this week. He's been in California for several days now. 🤔

There is definitely some smoke. Whether there is an actual fire or not, we will have to wait and see, I guess.

Several thoughts if this is true: a recruit like this can help to attract other top athletes to consider the school where they commit and this shows top recruits that said school and boosters are serious about using NIL. [/list]

[JeffCountyVolFan]

On another note, the Bama and UGA boards are really upset that teams are being allowed to pay recruits to play football at colleges and universities.

[BanditVol]

On another note, the Bama and UGA boards are really upset that teams are being allowed to pay recruits to play football at colleges and universities.

 

[SmokeyJoe]

On another note, the Bama and UGA boards are really upset that teams are being allowed to pay recruits to play football at colleges and universities.

Hilarious 

[VinnieVOL]

More and more smoke by the day…. We might just see a commitment soon.

[Tnphil]

https://twitter.com/ndrecruiting01/status/1502692543645028354?s=21

[Coupe De VOL]

I'm happy for these young men - how exciting for them.  I only hope they can survive this somewhat excess of success and keep their eyes on the ball, so to speak.  Once you get money like this, it is hard to escape it corrupting you.  Hopefully they have the guidance they need.

As for college football, it really is the final nail in the coffin.  We have all seen this slide for the last 3 to 4 decades.  The college football we all have known will be dead to us.  It will still have pieces and traditions of its past, but it won't be the same.  It will still be better than the NFL, I guess that is something.

This kinda thing is happening in high school football, and it will only get more pervasive.  Once the media monster is no longer sated by the NFL & NCAA riches, it will expand full bore into high school football, high school sports.  That invasion has already begun. 

I went to a private prep school and back in my day, we didn't recruit players.  Other prep schools did - like Brentwood Academy.  My school did offer scholarships, but only a few based on need and also to employees of the school.  I know a few employees kids who were great athletes, but they were not recruited.  They had been in the school since grade school.  I graduated in the 80s, and things changed after that.  Eventually the cheating got just too much, and TN separated the private and public schools.  Prep schools could only compete for Div II championships - they no longer were allowed to compete in the big state tourney.  The prep schools brought this on themselves, obviously.  And of course some public school programs probably cheated here and there, but not like the private side.  As the private schools were set aside on their own, they responded by basically doubling down.  More and more money poured into the athletic programs and I don't know if recruiting is out in the open now, but I am sure there is a lot more of it.  Hell, I might be wrong, but it seems like Ensworth was created mainly to have a premier sports program.  My old school fundraises very aggressively, and I give a lot to the school.  But those funds are for the academic side to the school and for the schools endowment.  There are parallel fundraising efforts for the athletics program.  Most of the money comes from the gazillionaire types, the bigtime movers and shakers.  The coaching staff is just ridiculous now in size compared to what it was in the 80s.  The facilities are unbelievable.  Occasionally (every 2 years or so?)  the team will travel on a charter flight for an early season game - usually against some other prep school powerhouse.  It's crazy how much money has got into it.  ANd now it will only get worse from where it currently is.  I wonder how long it will take before TV/streaming rights becomes a big thing for prep football?  There already is NFHS - how will that grow and expand?   People say it is progress and positive change, but I just don't see it that way.   

[BanditVol]

Madison Academy in Huntsville (well on the border with Madison, technically) has become a football powerhouse in bama.  They are affiliate with my 1500+member church, so I know a lot of grads and hear a lot about it. In fact, I did an inner city mentoring program several years ago and one of the kids was a point guard recruited to MA.  They have had some big names come through there in both football and basketball.  One 5* that went to AU, name escapes me, another big time Bball recruit to Vandy, etc etc.

It is a machine. I have a good friend that graduated in a class of 20 but MA is now one of the largest schools in the state.  They really emphasize sports for sure.

Side note on the kid I mentored. One of the skills I tried to teach all the kids was how to find employment, do a good job, get paid for some effort. The great majority of them responded positively.  However this kid at one point kind of went off on me and asked why I was talking about working so much?  He stated he was planning to make money in sports or by being a model .  

I just shrugged and said "good luck with that, hope it works out for you". Definitely says something about the mentality of some of these athletes.  (-:

[SmokeyJoe]

Anybody know how he pronounces his name? Because the spelling looks like "ima-leave-uh"    I personally am not crazy about California players, but there was that dude named Clausen. 

[Coupe De VOL]

Anybody know how he pronounces his name? Because the spelling looks like "ima-leave-uh"    I personally am not crazy about California players, but there was that dude named Clausen.  

I'll never forget going to see Clausen play HS ball when I lived in Cali.  He was a stud.  I also remember him tossing the ball around with his brothers on the sideline - little Jimmy could hurl the heck out of the ball.  I think Casey is coaching that HS team now - I hope he is doing well.  If he didn't have so many damn showboats on his team, he would have played in the Rose Bowl NCG ..... such a fizzleing pity.    

[BanditVol]

I'll never forget going to see Clausen play HS ball when I lived in Cali.  He was a stud.  I also remember him tossing the ball around with his brothers on the sideline - little Jimmy could hurl the heck out of the ball.  I think Casey is coaching that HS team now - I hope he is doing well.  If he didn't have so many damn showboats on his team, he would have played in the Rose Bowl NCG ..... such a fizzleing pity.    

I liked Clausen a lot.  I think most everyone did, he was such a gritty competitor. One of my favorite games of all time is the Miami "fizzleing soljah" game. ("I don't give a dam about no Vol!"    ).

But...he definitely wasn't a rocket scientist.    They interviewed him before one of the CBS games, maybe Georgia I can't recall now which it was, but he tried to explain the offense...and....let's just say it was really hard to follow what he was saying to the point that I wondered if HE understood it.   

I don't mean he was talking about anything hard to understand, I just mean it was an incoherent jumble of nonsense coming out of his mouth.

I did love him as a player though.  I think most Vol fans were sold when he hit a key pass against bama after coming off the bench (or perhaps in his first start?) ... with no helmet on!  It got knocked off on the play.  i think in today's game that play is probably blown dead.