Who is DeMarcus Smith? A four star rated quarterback according to Rivals.com, and at one point he was considered the prize of the University of Louisville’s 2011 recruiting class (until Teddy Bridgewater’s commitment). Smith was a hometown kid, who was potentially coming into Louisville competing for the starting gig, he was primed for this role.
After being verbally committed to the Cardinals for several months he changed his mindand shocked everyone when he announced that he would be attending the University of Central Florida. What was the prize of Louisville’s class was now the prize of UCF’s, it was a big time recruit for the school to grab.
There is one problem though. UCF has a guy, who as a freshman, was one of the best quarterbacks in Conference-USA. Jeff Godfrey put together an unbelievable season as true freshman, and has basically cemented himself as the starter for this season, and probably the two after that. So where does that leave Smith? Well this came out.
“Today I have filed a release request with the University of Central Florida, asking to be released from my national letter-of-intent I signed in February, due to extenuating circumstances. I send my apologies to the University of Louisville and the University of Central Florida for this issue. And I would also like to apologize to the Louisville fans and community who have supported me since the day I originally committed to the Cardinal family. I view this as a private matter and will have no further comment until a later date.”
UCF has three choices here. Release him and let him go on his way. Release him, but restrict the schools he can attend. Or they can tell the kid he’s stuck, and he’ll have to wait a year to go elsewhere. The problem is, non of those decisions are easy.
UCF just doesn’t have four start talent from high school walking in the door every year. The last thing they want to do is just let go of a kid of this caliber. It could also set a nasty precedent for future recruits that decide UCF wasn’t where they wanted to go. Or even worse, current players.
If you play the ”You can go anywhere but a Conference USA school or Louisville” type thing, you’re come off looking bad to future recruits. Opposing coaches will hit that hard. “Don’t go to UCF, they’ll piss on you while you’re down.”
They can tell him to wait a year, honor is letter of intent, and if he’s still unhappy allow him to go. It seems most reasonable, but is it worth losing a scholarship for a year? The kid probably isn’t coming. He’ll likely be eating that scholarship all the way up in Louisville, waiting for January 2012 to hit so he can go somewhere else.
It’s a bad situation for the Knights. Bigger schools can let a player like this go, knowing that there will always be top caliber guys in the wings, and a strong-arm from a kid like this won’t have much of an effect on the program. In my opinion, Smith needs to honor his commitment. For whatever reason he changed his mind and chose the Knights. Unless those extenuating circumstances are really severe, it’s not something you should get out of so easily. If after a year under O’Leary & Company’s guidance you’re still not happy, move on. But don’t strong-arm. It’s not fair.
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