There is a lot of chatter going on about the recruitment of 5'7" 160lb Roby Toma by both ucla and ND and how it may affected the commitment of Manti Te'o. I list his height and weight or the obvious reason...does anyone believe that this kid would have been recruited by any other major program if t were not for his strong relationship with Manti Te'o? Don't get me wrong, I like Army and Navy for what they stand for but lets not get carried away those programs aren't even on ucla's level.
There was the original post over on the OCR's USC blog about how Norm Chow is alleged to have said that he was OK if Te'o didn't go to ucla as long as he didn't go to USC.
That raised a few eyebrows.
If true I am not so much upset at the negative recruiting that Chow did against USC but more importantly is that Chow didn't fight harder to gain Te'o's commitment to ucla. To me that's just shameful. Here is a guy who supposedly hates to recruit but Slick Rick uses his LDS ties to go after those LDS players that ucla covets and he is more concerned about the kid not going to USC than he is about going to ucla.
Color me perplexed!
As for Toma it has been reported by Wolf that the ucla coaching staff allegedly ripped into Toma when they heard that Te'o wasn't coming to ucla. That Toba didn't sign the LOI from ucla at the same time that Te'o signed his from ND is telling. Toba is listed as a 3-star WR on Rivals that was recruited by lesser D-1 Programs except for ucla and ND. He is listed as 5'10" but I have read elsewhere that he is more like 5'7". At ucla there is no way this kid would have sen any action for a while and at ND he may not get off the scout team (even many on the ND boards are saying that).
I am not surprised if Slick Rick pulled this stunt, he has a history of breaking the rules. But I am a little surprised, though not that much, that Chawly "we have a decided schematic advantage" Weis would go down this road. Notre Dame always tries to claim that they are above this type of recruiting when in fact they are no different than any other program that is desperate to once again become relevant.
There are other rumors out there about how Te'o came to ND but to me its minutia. But the 2-for-1 deal that some think is going on here shows just how far some will go in football recruiting.There is nothing in the rules against this but it certainly feels dirty using one kid as bait to attract another, especially if the kid never would have been by the scholl in the first place.