| 08 January 2012
Like love, recruiting is a battlefield.
There are skirmishes and small victories. There are losses and attrition, days you give ground, days you take it.
Sometimes, it's an ugly and grim business, bereft of glory or hope.
Something wondrous that way goes: Gifted high school All-American safety Shaquille Thompson joined the California Bears yesterday, and he took two of the West's prime recruits with him (goldenbearlair.com photo).
Yesterday at the Army All-American Game the Ducks took heavy damage. Fans who follow recruiting closely watched as Cal racked up several program-changing recruiting coups, landing spectacularly-talented safety Shaquille "Shaq" Thompson, powerful, two-gap-plugging defensive tackle Ellis McCarthy and silky smooth wide receiver Jordan Payton in a matter of two hours. Another standout talent, cornerback Kevon Seymour, declared for USC, while Barry Sanders jr., son of the NFL Hall of Famer, told the national television audience he'd spend his next few years playing football for the Stanford Cardinal. None chose Oregon or flashed the "O." In announcement after announcement, the Oregon hat remained on the table.
All this with their admiring families looking on and a sycophantic sideline announcer fawning over them, all over the simple matter of lifting a hat off a table and tugging it on to their heads. We wonder why some of them wind up being spoiled and entitled and poor citizens.
Cal won the day. They got commitments on Saturday from three of the bluest blue chippers. Inextricably, a team that has one Top Ten finish in 61 years, won their last undisputed conference title in 1975, and has never had an 11-win season, beat Oregon, USC and the rest of the country for three of the next brightest stars in college football, just days after the Ducks reached the pinnacle of West Coast football success by beating smashmouth Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. Did Thompson, McCarthy and Payton not see the flashy uniforms and liquid metal helmets? Did they not notice the flashy, sexy offense and the swarming, opportunistic defense, succeeding on college football's most hallowed ground? Were they not entertained?
Apparently they want to play Xbox with Tosh Lupoi, play closer to home, star in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, and be guaranteed an annual game in Southern California. Or they didn't connect with their Oregon recruiter.
Whatever the reason, their heart or the shoes, they dismissed the Ducks with a sour, grinchy frown.
To keep winning Rose Bowls, the Ducks have to win some battles like these. And they can't keep losing key ones to the upstarts from Bezerkley, suddenly relevant in the talent wars despite being lackluster on the field.
You have to wonder about athletes who would willingly choose to join a squad that annually collapses, sinks to low expectations, and seems lax in discipline and commitment. Maybe they were swayed by the promise of easy duty.
In a couple of years, the Bears will come to Autzen with another star-studded lineup, tough to block and tough to cover. But they'll still be the Bears. Cocky, spoiled and entitled, with erratic quarterback play and a coaching staff that seems to succeed in getting in its own way every season. One way or another they'll flop and prove a fake. Under Tedford and Lupoi, Cal wins battles, but they don't have the heart for a war.
