New Hampshire DB Jake Kiley Commits to Penn State
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New Hampshire DB Jake Kiley Commits to Penn State
July 26, 2011 – | No Comment

States like New Hampshire are often overlooked by college recruiters scouring the northeast. With a population of a little over 1.3 million (barely 14.5% of the population of New York City), the talent pool in …

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Calling out Ron Musselman

Submitted by on January 13, 20106 Comments

Let me just say this. I tend to read Ron Musselman with a great amount of respect on an almost daily basis when possible. But when someone is misleading in their reporting, and that story gets picked up nationally, something needs to be said.

Last night Musselman, of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, posted a blurb about how Penn state lost a recruit, Adrian Coxson [link];

Adrian Coxson
Penn State lost a prospective football recruit today when wide receiver Adrian Coxson from Maryland decommitted from the school.

That reduces the Nittany Lions’ 2010 recruiting class to 18, but seven of those already are enrolled in spring semester classes.

“He is leaning toward Georgia or Florida,” Baltimore City College High School coach George Petrides told the Baltimore Sun.

Rated a five-star player and the No. 9 receiver in the country by Scout.com, the 6-foot-2, 195-pound Coxson had given the Lions a verbal commitment in April.

He also tweeted the link to this story on Twitter;

If it's on Twitter it must be true!

Reporting that Coxson has de-committed from Penn State is fine and dandy, but please try to supply the reader with all of the information. In Musselman’s article from yesterday about the early enrollees already on campus, he closes with this blurb about Coxson [link];

Meanwhile, wide receiver Adrian Coxson from Maryland (Baltimore City College) initially made a verbal commitment to Penn State and is listed among their 2010 recruits. But he has been waffling on his choice since visiting Florida and Georgia and might not end up signing with the Lions next month.

Now, if he had dug a litttle deeper, or checked out Nittany White Out, he may have learned a couple things. The most important piece of information would be that Penn State is the one who lost interest in Coxson, not the other way around.

It is usually the mainstream media who will rip on bloggers, forum members, Twitter users and the like for spreading bad, inaccurate, false, exaggerated or misleading information. But this time it seems that it is Musselman who has not completed his homework. To make matters worse, The Sporting News picked up the Musselman report and added their own photo to pair with their version of the story.

But there is one question I would like to see answered definiteively. Who lost interest first, Coxson or Penn State? Right now it seems like a classic example of the chicken or egg debate.

Which came first?
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  • guest

    If PSU truly did yank his scholarship have fun recruiting in MD the next few years once word gets around that PSU renegged on thier commitment to the kid.

  • http://quebecpenspinning.com/ Charlie

    @guest That is a legitimate concern when it comes to recruiting.

    But I do believe Penn State conducted this entire decommitment with grace. Don't forget this is the same staff that forced Anthony Morelli to inform the Pitt staff of his recommitment following Chad Henne's departure to Michigan. I just don't see them departing from their usual recruiting conduct in this case as well. And as long as Larry Johnson is part of the Nittany Lion staff, we will continue to maintain an iron grip on the Maryland, Virginia, DC area.

  • Mac

    I disagree and agree. Musselman always, without fail, takes every opportunity to get in a dig at PSU. More often than not that entails leaving info out. He is never insightful and only begrudgingly gives PSU credit. I think he gets readers in the Pitt area to read his column based on his constant attempts to diminish PSU football. He likes to call it “objective” journalism, but in reality its really selective journalism. This example of the Coxson story is a perfect example. I wouldn't encourage anyone to read him, but if you read his stuff on PSU I would bet that 50% of his articles leave out critical info for just the reason i describe above. Heck, he still thinks Pitt won the recruiting battle for McCoy a few years back. The word about Coxson is that this was done very carefully and with a lot of care. I seriously doubt there will be any repercussions.

  • bayoufightonstate

    Mac's right. This coaching staff has been doing this a looooonng time and rarely have they ever rubbed a recruit and his family the wrong way during the process. I do remember the Morelli recommitment from Pitt to us. Joe Paterno instructed him to immediately let the Pitt staff know he was having a change of heart before he took it any further. Looking back at the Chad Henne snub, that was more than what the Carr staff had Henne do. This isn't Joe Paterno's first stint at the job. The last thing we need to worry about is repercussions after parting ways with Coxson.

  • guest

    I wouldn't call PSU's recruiting of those areas an iron grip

  • geust

    Internet age creates alot of new problems. I'm a UMD fan I really hope this does have some trickle down so we can keep the sean stanleys of the world. We get our fair share and for the best of the best Florida comes and takes whomever they want lol.