The Recruiting Trail is Blog Ten’s look at what Big Ten teams are doing on the recruiting front. Of course, you probably already figured that out, and if you hadn’t, well then you may still qualify to play in the SEC.
It seems that every year we come across the story of at least one high-end high school recruit changing his mind after making a committment to a school. Last year we all watched the Bryce Brown saga before he finally made a decision and stuck with it, choosing to go to Knoxville to play for Tennessee. This season it looks like some recruiting drama has hit the Big Ten.
William Gholston is a 6′7 237 pound defensive end from Detroit’s Southeastern High School. Ranked as the 7th best defensive end in the class of 2010 by Rivals, and #53 on their Rivals 100 list, Gholston committed to the Michigan State Spartans back on June 16th, much to the pleasure of Spartans fans everywhere. Then he went and made some comments that shook Spartan Nation.
In a story from the Detroit Free Press earlier this week, Gholston said he still planned on visiting other schools before signing day, even if he has already committed to Michigan State.
Gholston also went on to say that he doesn’t “want to play defensive end at all” but rather, linebacker.
Now as you’d imagine, this caused quite a stir in East Lansing. Why make the committment to Michigan State if you still want to look around? What sense does that make?
Well, as we college football fans often seem to forget when it comes to these athletes, Gholston is still in high school. He hasn’t even begun his senior year yet. How many of us made all the right choices while we were that age? It’s hard to blame Gholston for not being sure about his decision, as it’s an incredibly important one that could help determine the path he takes the rest of his life.
Gholston did go on to try and clarify his remarks later though at Michigan State’s Rivals site, SpartanMag.com. ($)
And as for his comment about not wanting to play defensive end, Gholston said that he was only kidding around when he said it.
Whether or not Gholston plans on attending Michigan State or continuing to look around, odds are we aren’t going to know for sure until signing day. The only thing I do know is that Gholston’s getting a valuable lesson at an early age about being careful what you say when there’s a microphone in your face, because you never really know where things are going to go from there.