Khyri Thornton not coming to USF

[Stier]

HEre's McMurphy's editoral/blog take on the situation: http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/sports/related/C127/

He makes some very good points.

Have to agree!

[Apis Bull]

Whenever does a committee actually do anything useful that a single person who has vision and strong work ethic can't do better on their own!

Do you really want someone that can qualify under the NCAA's with a 700 or lower on their SAT?

if they can play----- sure

Had this been Ryne Giddens at least half of these posts would change instantly...

Mine wouldn't.  I'd be disappointed, to be sure, but I'm okay with USF having a standard that is higher than the NCAA minimum.  The only thing I don't like is how long it took to let him know.

[Bullpride08]

The fact is now our academic committee is becoming an hinderance, and Genshaft and WOolard need to review the process.  We've lost Justin Green, Akol, Thornton, another hoops signee months after it should have taken to say 'yea' or 'nea'...this will be used against us.

Justin Green is where? Nobody wanted to take a shot on him and he's making his way through CC and plans to come here next year.

Teeng Akol? A major project that's still far from fruition. http://newsok.com/travis-ford-teeng-akol-has-work-to-do/article/3375964?custom_click=lead_story_title

Maybe Thornton will be 'the one that got away', but even the big schools know that you only take academic chances on STUD talent. If Coach believed that Thornton was a difference maker in this class, I guarantee he gets admitted. Read between the lines in his comments and you get the feeling that he cooled on the kid at some point in the process and nobody went to the wall for him with the committee.

If you read what I typed the point is this will be used against us and hurt us in recruting.  You can disapparage an athlete and their talents all you want but the fact is heath took Akol in lieu of another athlete, by the time he realized the academic committee wouldn't allow him access it was to late to find a replacement for that schollie, ditto for Thornton...case in point we have Thornton and John Brown came knocking on our door inquiring about a transfer, we said 'no' because the proverbial 'inn is full' well now it's not as it appears we may only bring in 24 kids from the 2009 recruiting class and may have had room for him after all particularly after losing Thornton.

The point is when a school takes this long to let a player know that will be used negatively against us, as it should because no kid should find out this late that he isn't admitted into the school when he passed the NCAA Clearinghouse.  USF is entitled to their rules, and requirements but they need to let the staff and players know much earlier about who will make it in....they owe it to them, these are kids and this is not fair to them.  Hell Akol was already enrolled before he was ripped out of class and basically kicked out of school.

This will hurt us with recruiting, this may hurt coaching staff and academic relations, and it might hurt our sports downt the road because we never had enough time to plan continency options...once it hurts, but more and more times it begins to be very painful for a program.  Take Justin Green he was probably destine for OT, and we're entering this season without a great OT...it would have been nice to have him hear with a year under his belt at tackle, OR having signed another player to fill his absence.

[Bullpride08]

BTW, I just read Brett's blog after typing my post above.  Obviously he and I think alike on this, and I have been very critical of Brett in the past but I did want to give his blog credit.  That was a fair, and thought out opinion...not one sided, and not accusatory without a strong understanding.  He simply spelled out the situation, and stated USF is to be blamed collectively, although I think less should fall on the coaches because I am sure they didn't want to be in this situation...but he was understanding, and his opinion came off as constructive criticism versus past pieces from him that would come off as all out assaults on USF or a coach or system.

Bravo Brett, this blog shows  you've got it in you, there are ways to criticize without completely berating.  Constructively criticize, as you did in the recent blog entry, is far more reasonable and acceptable then diatribe of personal attacks.

[BowlBoundBulls]

The fact is now our academic committee is becoming an hinderance, and Genshaft and WOolard need to review the process.  We've lost Justin Green, Akol, Thornton, another hoops signee months after it should have taken to say 'yea' or 'nea'...this will be used against us.

Justin Green is where? Nobody wanted to take a shot on him and he's making his way through CC and plans to come here next year.

Teeng Akol? A major project that's still far from fruition. http://newsok.com/travis-ford-teeng-akol-has-work-to-do/article/3375964?custom_click=lead_story_title

Maybe Thornton will be 'the one that got away', but even the big schools know that you only take academic chances on STUD talent. If Coach believed that Thornton was a difference maker in this class, I guarantee he gets admitted. Read between the lines in his comments and you get the feeling that he cooled on the kid at some point in the process and nobody went to the wall for him with the committee.

If you read what I typed the point is this will be used against us and hurt us in recruting.  You can disapparage an athlete and their talents all you want but the fact is heath took Akol in lieu of another athlete, by the time he realized the academic committee wouldn't allow him access it was to late to find a replacement for that schollie, ditto for Thornton...case in point we have Thornton and John Brown came knocking on our door inquiring about a transfer, we said 'no' because the proverbial 'inn is full' well now it's not as it appears we may only bring in 24 kids from the 2009 recruiting class and may have had room for him after all particularly after losing Thornton.

The point is when a school takes this long to let a player know that will be used negatively against us, as it should because no kid should find out this late that he isn't admitted into the school when he passed the NCAA Clearinghouse.  USF is entitled to their rules, and requirements but they need to let the staff and players know much earlier about who will make it in....they owe it to them, these are kids and this is not fair to them.  Hell Akol was already enrolled before he was ripped out of class and basically kicked out of school.

This will hurt us with recruiting, this may hurt coaching staff and academic relations, and it might hurt our sports downt the road because we never had enough time to plan continency options...once it hurts, but more and more times it begins to be very painful for a program.  Take Justin Green he was probably destine for OT, and we're entering this season without a great OT...it would have been nice to have him hear with a year under his belt at tackle, OR having signed another player to fill his absence.

Hey Pride.  From the 30 signed,  I got Thornton not allowed into USF,  K.Williams going to HCC,  Bellamy going to Prep, Hill counting toward 2008 and Atkins being a greyshirt which gives me 25.  Where are you getting 24?  Did I miss someone?

[thatusfguy]

I have been a member of USF family for long time and I do not mean just sitting in the stands or writing on some bullspen thing. This is sad day in history of this program, for years when kids had trouble getting to other schools USF extended a hand to these kids say we care. Now we sit upon the hardest interstate schedule this team has ever had, by playing two of three big boys the state, this committee pulls this. The committee is  not only saying this kid is not good enough for USF but that USF is better the NCAA by not allowing him entire into this university. I have been here USF for Five years as a student and graduated back in may and I think that Khyri Thornton should have had opportunity to do that one day but now who knows.

[gobulls83]

Whenever does a committee actually do anything useful that a single person who has vision and strong work ethic can't do better on their own!

Do you really want someone that can qualify under the NCAA's with a 700 or lower on their SAT?

if they can play----- sure

Had this been Ryne Giddens at least half of these posts would change instantly...

If Giddens were such a bad student that he couldn't get admitted to USF, people would not have been as excited about his signing.

I have been a member of USF family for long time and I do not mean just sitting in the stands or writing on some bullspen thing. This is sad day in history of this program, for years when kids had trouble getting to other schools USF extended a hand to these kids say we care. Now we sit upon the hardest interstate schedule this team has ever had, by playing two of three big boys the state, this committee pulls this. The committee is  not only saying this kid is not good enough for USF but that USF is better the NCAA by not allowing him entire into this university. I have been here USF for Five years as a student and graduated back in may and I think that Khyri Thornton should have had opportunity to do that one day but now who knows.

You don't know **** about Thornton's work ethic as a student. You don't know anything about him in the classroom. And yet you are more qualified than the athletic committee to decide if he deserves a chance at USF or not.

Greg said in a post earlier in this thread that Thornton dropped out of the military academy as soon as he got his GPA up to the NCAA minimum, electing not to stay there through the spring. Doesn't sound like a very dedicated student to me. Being a good football player doesn't change that.

If you read what I typed the point is this will be used against us and hurt us in recruting.  You can disapparage an athlete and their talents all you want but the fact is heath took Akol in lieu of another athlete, by the time he realized the academic committee wouldn't allow him access it was to late to find a replacement for that schollie, ditto for Thornton...case in point we have Thornton and John Brown came knocking on our door inquiring about a transfer, we said 'no' because the proverbial 'inn is full' well now it's not as it appears we may only bring in 24 kids from the 2009 recruiting class and may have had room for him after all particularly after losing Thornton.

The point is when a school takes this long to let a player know that will be used negatively against us, as it should because no kid should find out this late that he isn't admitted into the school when he passed the NCAA Clearinghouse.  USF is entitled to their rules, and requirements but they need to let the staff and players know much earlier about who will make it in....they owe it to them, these are kids and this is not fair to them.  Hell Akol was already enrolled before he was ripped out of class and basically kicked out of school.

This will hurt us with recruiting, this may hurt coaching staff and academic relations, and it might hurt our sports downt the road because we never had enough time to plan continency options...once it hurts, but more and more times it begins to be very painful for a program.  Take Justin Green he was probably destine for OT, and we're entering this season without a great OT...it would have been nice to have him hear with a year under his belt at tackle, OR having signed another player to fill his absence.

So tell me what you're afraid will happen with the next recruit in his position? He'll decide he's a terrible student, so USF isn't the school for him? Is that really what you're afraid of? Because that's the only way I see USF losing a recruit because of this, and that's a recruit I don't feel so bad about losing.

[Matt]

for years when kids had trouble getting to other schools USF extended a hand to these kids say we care.

LOL.  i guess you arent that close a member of the "usf family"

we didnt extend a hand to partial qualifiers because we "cared"  we did it because we needed to build the program in the fastest way possible. 

caring was a distant second.  you didnt see us extending a hand to partial qualifyers who couldnt get into bad programs.  we took top talent kids who couldnt qualifiy.

and now that we have had some success and are in a bcs conference we have more eyes on us.  more eyes in the ncaa.  so we need to be more selective about who we let in.

the worst thing that usf did in this whole process is letting it happen so late in the process.  usf isnt at fault for telling this kid he cant play here.  usf is at fault for telling him so late that he didnt have a chance to excerise a back up plan.

[Matt]

bullspride...i am not worried about this being used against us in recruiting.  how?  if a kid has questionable grades then what other schools will go after him?  i just think that it needs to be cut and dry what the standards are.  it leaves nothing up for recruiting slander or other nonsense.

the academic committee needs to annouce their standards and let everyone know that this is a numbers game and not judgment calls.

if you have X gpa and X SAT and we offer then you are suiting up.....

if you have Y gpa and Y SAT you can still play d-1 according to the NCAA but not for USF.

that is what needs to happen and the coaches need to be upfront about it.

[Guest hm101]

this is embarassing.

we need to keep legitimate standards but this is NOT THE WAY TO DO IT