As the fan of a perennially underachieving middle tier college football team, I’ve long since accepted the pains of the reality that my school will never be at the top of any 5-star high school recruits’ lists. However, that could eventually change with the BCS possibly doing away with the automatic qualifier status for select conferences in 2014, and now it could especially change since high school seniors apparently value their jersey numbers more than the opportunity to play for free educations and the attention of the NFL.
The country’s top high school players get to spend a week in San Antonio as part of the perks of being selected for the All-American Bowl on Jan. 8, but as Rivals’ Tom Bergeron points out, some of these kids are just skipping the entire process by taking their attitudes straight to the NFL.
Kevon Seymour of Pasadena (Calif.) Muir was annoyed he had No. 41 instead of his preferred No. 1. And Seymour willingly admits he’ll look at the rosters of potential colleges to see if No. 1 is available. If it’s not, the school’s chances of landing him diminish.
One was visibly upset.
Mike Davis of Stone Mountain (Ga.) Stephenson made such a fuss about his assigned No. 16 that he was given a new number (14), making him the only player without his name on his jersey. But that didn’t help – neither was the No. 28 he wanted.
Seymour has offers from just about every school on the left coast – namely USC and Oregon – as well as Florida and Nebraska, and interest from Notre Dame. Basically what he’s saying, though, is that if his choice comes down to USC and Oregon, he’s going to pick the Trojans, not because they’re primed to make a BCS Championship run this year, but because they have the No. 1 jersey available and Oregon doesn’t.
Whatever happened to the good old days when guys just picked 69 because it’s hilarious?
