Kelly, ND never gave up in pursuit of Tuitt

If Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly adhered to the same recruiting philosophies as Coach Paul Johnson, he would not today be in possession of one of the nation's elite defensive end prospects. From NBCSports.com:

A day after losing five-star defensive end Stephon Tuitt to home-state Georgia Tech, head coach Brian Kelly, defensive coordinator Bob Diaco, recruiting coordinator Chuck Martin and defensive line coach Mike Elston arrived at the Tuitt household and didn’t leave until Tuitt was back committed to Notre Dame.

A stunning contrast in philosophies to be sure: When Kelly's committed recruit abruptly switched allegiances, he and his braintrust hopped a plane immediately in "dogged pursuit," as the article terms it. Conversely, when Paul Johnson met a similar situation with coveted 2009 QB prospect Dontae Aycock, who visited Auburn after having pledged a silent commitment to Tech, he turned up his nose, as he is generally wont to do, and yanked the young man's scholarship offer without even informing him. The publicity generated by Aycock's situation, along with Johnson's musings on the incident, became a de facto establishment of the infamous recruiting policy subsequently christened by this blog as the "Aycock Rule." This policy would now seem to drop Tech completely from the Tuitt race, despite the young man's moment-by-moment vacillations with still 13 days remaining until signing day.

The NBCSports.com article continues:

...concepts like loyalty and fidelity are obsolete when it comes to a 17-year-old choosing from the nation’s best football schools.

We couldn't agree more, NBCSports.com. Coach Johnson's anachronistic service academy philosophy on recruiting is obsolete and places Georgia Tech at an unnecessary competitive disadvantage. We have covered this before: The practice discourages early commitments, stalls recruiting momentum, and automatically cedes uncertain players to schools which might later enter the picture. These are 17 and 18 year old kids Coach Johnson! Once they get to Georgia Tech, you can teach them to be men. For now, they are mere boys with profound decisions to make, and it is only natural that they might waver on a choice which could well mold the next thirty years of their lives.

From Chip Towers's recruiting blog:

“The recruting process is nervewracking, very nervewracking,” [Tuitt's mother] said after her son switched from Notre Dame to Georgia Tech and back to Notre Dame in a 36-hour period from Tuesday to Wednesday. “They have to remember that these kids are only 17 years old and are very impressionable."

It seems like we have to say it again and again, but this isn't the Naval Academy Coach Johnson! When kids have choices like Notre Dame, Texas, and USC as opposed to Western Kentucky, UT-Chattanooga, and Wofford, they're going to be all the more hotly-pursued and consequently more baffled as to the appropriate course of action. It's time for you to grown into a "man" yourself and become a legitimate BCS-level head coach. Otherwise you can forget about your dreams of Simple Option football being showcased in the National Title game and instead make your plans to be setting new attendance lows in Shreveport year after year for the remainder of your wearisome Tech career.

Johnson whiffs on Tuitt curve, back to triple zero in recruiting

It was reported late Wednesday that 5-Star defensive end Stephon Tuitt has switched his verbal from Georgia Tech back to Notre Dame. This would seem to complete a whirlwind of events which began Tuesday when the prized recruit first spurned the Domers for Tech.

Tuitt was believed by some to be a virtual lock for Georgia Tech early in the recruiting period before his surprise commitment to Notre Dame after a visit in mid-September. Because of Paul Johnson's ridiculous stance on Tech commits who look elsewhere, there now remains absolutely no chance that Georgia Tech will obtain the services of the ultra-talented defender. Or at least you would think so. It would be of no surprise to us if the oily Johnson were to make an "exception" for Tuitt should he decide to flip-flop once again.

Tuitt would have likely been an immediate anchor on a Tech defense woefully depleted of top-shelf talent. He reaffirmed his allegiance to the Irish despite Notre Dame's receipt of commitments over the weekend from two of the top four defensive end prospects in the country as ranked by Scout. Notre Dame now has six committed recruits who played the position in high school.

Further, Tuitt's defection is all the more profound an indictment of Paul Johnson's recruiting "talents" considering the pair reportedly met for "about an hour" as recently as Wednesday afternoon.

But hey, look on the bright side: at least Coach Johnson got Demontevious Smith out of the deal! I wonder why Notre Dame didn't want Tuitt's bestest buddy too? And don't forget Broddy Snoddy was lavished with that coveted third star from Scout.com! But I thought the services only downgraded the star rankings of recruits once they've committed to Tech? Or at least that's what the slurpers would have you believe.

By the way, special congrats are certainly in order once again to recruiting coordinator and defensive line coach Andy McCollum, who was directly responsible for Tuitt's recruitment. Similar to Calvin Johnson before him, Tuitt was a uniquely gifted in-state student-athlete who basically fell into Tech's lap, and one can't help but wonder what might have been had the bumbling Coach Johnson hired a more competent replacement for Giff Smith. The loss of Tuitt now slides Georgia Tech back to 0 for 28 on recruits who have received offers from both Tech and UGA, which makes this as appropriate a time as any for us to update THE BIG BOARD:

A list of committed 2011 prospects holding offers from both Tech and UGA:
Data obtained from rivals.com

NAME	POSITION	STARS	RATING	STATE	COMMITTED TO
Sterling Bailey	DE	4	5.8	GA	Georgia
Devin Bowman	ATH	3	5.7	GA	Georgia
Chris Conley	WR	3	5.7	GA	Georgia
Watts Dantzler	OL	3	5.7	GA	Georgia
Zach DeBell	OL	3	5.7	FL	Georgia
Amarlo Herrera	LB	4	5.8	GA	Georgia
Nick Marshall	ATH	4	5.8	GA	Georgia
Justin Scott-Wesley	WR	4	5.8	GA	Georgia
Quan Bray	ATH	4	5.8	GA	Auburn
Anthony Chickillo	DE	4	5.9	FL	Miami, FL
Xzavier Dickson	DE	4	5.8	GA	Alabama
Doran Grant	DB	4	6.0	OH	Ohio St
Carlos Gray	DT	2	5.4	NC	NC State
Demetrius Hart	RB	5	6.1	FL	Alabama
Jeoffrey Pagan	DE	4	6.0	NC	Clemson
Brian Randolph	DB	3	5.7	GA	Tennessee
Terrance Smith	LB	3	5.7	GA	Florida St
Ja'Juan Story	WR	4	5.8	FL	Florida
Stephon Tuitt	DE	5	6.1	GA	Notre Dame
James Vaughters	LB	4	5.9	GA	Stanford
Jabriel Washington	ATH	3	5.7	TN	Alabama
James Wilder Jr.	ATH	5	6.1	FL	Florida St
Karlos Williams	DB	5	6.1	FL	Florida St

Players with offers from Tech and Georgia who have not yet committed:

NAME	POSITION	STARS	RATING	STATE	FAVORITE(S)
Chevelle Buie	RB	4	5.8	FL	ECU, Marshall
Ray Drew	DE	5	6.1	GA	Aub,Clem,UF,UGA,LSU,TN
Erique Florence	DB	4	5.9	AL	None
Tony Steward	LB	5	6.1	FL	AL,AU,Clem,FSU,UCLA
Xzavier Ward	OT	3	5.7	GA	none

Tuitt switches amidst dubious circumstances

Coach Johnson scored an enormous get on Tuesday as 5-Star DE Stephon Tuitt out of Monroe switched his verbal commitment from Notre Dame to Georgia Tech. Tuitt is one of the top players at his position nationally and would represent the FIRST player of the recruiting season that Tech has successfully acquired who has also possessed an offer from UGA. It should be added however that UGA, for whatever reason, was eliminated from Tuitt's radar early in his recruitment, and did not finish among his top choices.

We mentioned the possibility of Tuitt's decision on Sunday, when Johnson obtained the commitment of his Monroe High School teammate and reported best friend Demontevious Smith, an "under-the-radar" prospect who held mostly mid-major and FCS offers. Suspiciously enough, Smith did not possess a Georgia Tech offer before last weekend, when both he and Tuitt were scheduled to visit. This brings into question the ethics of Johnson in potentially offering a scrub player who he fully intends to warm the bench simply to obtain the services of a more highly-prized associate. In fact it makes you wonder how long Demontevious will even remain on the Tech roster now that he has outlived his "usefulness."

Furthermore, Tuitt is yet another previously-committed player which Johnson has attempted to steal away, despite his reported disdain for players who shop around after committing to Tech. As we've pointed out again and again, Johnson's "excuse" for this hypocritical behavior is that he turns the other way in such a circumstance and does not bother to inform himself of the player's "arrangement" with the other school, so it's somehow "not his problem." You would think though that if only Coach Johnson would have asked Notre Dame, they would have been more than forthcoming about how unhappy they would have been with his encroaching on their committed recruit.

Of course the party has already begun for Coach Johnson's toadies. While they are the first to bash the "star system" of the recruiting sites when Johnson is mopping up two and three star leftovers, they become positively giddy whenever a rare 4 or 5 star player of note deems it practical to choose Tech. The truth is, these purveyors of The Johnson Problem would have found reasons to feel good about themselves regardless of the player's rating. If he's a 5-star, well, all hail Scout and Rivals! If he's a 2-star, don't listen to Scout or Rivals... look at this tape of him dominating in a high school game! Either way, you end up with the same oblivious euphoria.

Tuitt is certainly reason for celebration for the rational Tech fan-- he would be our first 5-star commit since Calvin Johnson pledged to Chan Gailey in 2004. Though we have misgivings about the way he obtained the commitment, kudos to Coach Johnson for finally securing a prospect fans can get excited about. Now if he could only do it on a more consistent basis, and without all the Sun Belt filler, this program might actually start going places.