1250 WSSP - Coming up at 3:35... Shenanigans at Marquette

[chren21]

I know that the Youtube video should be clear-cut since it came from Smith's own mouth, but I think people are overstating the importance of it. It is a MARKETING video. They want MU and Buzz to sound as awesome as possible. Yes, I believe most of the video is true, but I think if you asked Smith what he was really thinking he would say something like "Coach told me if I worked hard enough right I would play. I work hard so I should be getting minutes right away" Players are confident in their abilities and sometimes coaches play into that. Buzz may not have promised anything, but Smith's expectations were still high. Doesn't mean it is Buzz's fault, but I just don't think this video is as damning as some people think.

So other coaches recruiting him are promising him PT and Buzz is stating what the video says and Reggie comes to your conclusion above?  Then I say he needs to think, or the people talking in his ear needed to go away.  And BTW he was "getting minutes right away."

[NotAnAlum]

Marty I think the video is clear with respect to the insinuation by some that Buzz "is deceptive in the way he promises playing time to get recruits".  This recruit, who is now leaving, directly contradicts that.   To me that totally discredits the insinuation.  Buzz may have other elements of his style that causes guys to become disenchantied early (maybe his practices are too hard, maybe he doesn't communicate well with parents) but according to Smith's own words deception in the recruiting process was NOT the case here and I don't think is the case in general with Buzz.  As to the forum Reggie could have said hundreds of equally positive things about Buzz for a positive video.  I'm sure he chose to say the thing about "no promises" because that was his experience.  With respect to this charge for me its case closed, move on.

[MerrittsMustache]

I know that the Youtube video should be clear-cut since it came from Smith's own mouth, but I think people are overstating the importance of it. It is a MARKETING video. They want MU and Buzz to sound as awesome as possible. Yes, I believe most of the video is true, but I think if you asked Smith what he was really thinking he would say something like "Coach told me if I worked hard enough right I would play. I work hard so I should be getting minutes right away" Players are confident in their abilities and sometimes coaches play into that. Buzz may not have promised anything, but Smith's expectations were still high. Doesn't mean it is Buzz's fault, but I just don't think this video is as damning as some people think.

Reggie might have said what you believe he was actually thinking, but it was just editted out. I don't think that the players were given lines to read and/or interpret.

To me, the disconnect is that when a player is told that if he works hard and "earns it," he will see the floor and then the player works hard and believes he has earned his minutes but still finds himself on the bench, he gets frustrated and might even feel that he was lied to. This would be particularly true with freshmen who have a limited frame of reference in regards to what "hard work" really is. A good friend of mine from HS played LB/DE at Michigan State. He often says that the biggest difference from HS was that if you let up at all in practice, workouts, film study, etc someone would pass you by on the depth chart. He also said that for a lot of the middle-of-the-road players (perhaps the football equivalent of a 3-star SG trapped in a PG's body) there was a level of paranoia because no matter how hard you think you're working, someone was probably working harder.