NCAA FootballWeird But True

Fair or Foul? Top Recruit Will Commit To Clemson If They Offer His Teammate A Spot

College recruiting is something of an enigma to behold. It’s sort of a free-for-all, do whatever you can to put your school in the best position to land a top prospect. At the same time, college recruiters are playing up to a group of young athletes between the ages of 14 and 18, who may not be making their demands under “academic pretenses.”

The country’s top programs are currently scurrying around trying to snatch up the nation’s best prospects. Robert Nkemdiche, a defensive end, and the number one recruit in the class of 2013, said he is close to fully committing to Clemson. What’s stopping him? He wants the Tigers to make an offer to his high school teammate Ryan Carter. It would mark the fourth of Nkemdiche’s teammates to join the Clemson squad, after both his running back and a defensive back received offers, and his quarterback gave up a scholarship offer from Mississippi State to join the Tigers.

Nkemdiche has lived with his quarterback’s family most of his life. He said it is important “to have his boys with him” in college, the main reason it appears Nkemdiche will not be headed to LSU, a school that did not extend offers to his Grayson high school teammates.

In fact, Nkemdiche will reportedly not make his decision until Clemson decides on his teammate, Carter. Carter is no schlump, receiving offers from Ole Miss, Georgia State, Tulane, Arkansas State and Southern Miss. But as of now, this is where the situation stands:

Nkemdiche won’t make any declarations, other than to say it will make him look really hard at perhaps the only school left in the high-stakes race at this point, Ole Miss, where Nkemdiche’s older brother plays college football.

Coincidentally, Ole Miss offered Ryan Carter a scholarship the day after Nkemdiche committed to Clemson. “If Clemson doesn’t offer Ryan, it would make me look at Ole Miss a little more, it would,” Nkemdiche said. “It’s very important that I have my boys with me.”

So there’s a few things at play here. On the one hand, Nkemdiche is not asking Clemson to hand offers to his friends who can’t play football. According to their high school coach, these are legitimate Division 1 level players.

Per the Grayson high school coach:

“If Clemson offers Ryan, it won’t be because of Robert,” Conn said. “It will be because of Ryan. Colleges aren’t offering guys because of Robert. Well, there’s a little bit of influence [to get their film evaluated], I’m sure. But those guys are talented in their own right.

“Ryan Carter is extremely talented. You’re talking about a guy who runs a 4.4 in the 40-yard dash. I timed him at 4.3 If you go back to the state championship game, that star running back committed to Alabama [Walton High School’s Tyren Jones], he had -19 yards rushing at halftime. A big part of that was our safeties, Ryan Carter and Kasey Gaines, coming up from the safety spot and hitting [Jones] in the backfield before he even got started.

So is it fair for Nkemdiche to ask Clemson to extend offers to his teammates? Or is the senior taking Clemson for a ride?

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