Someone is always watching…
Georgia head football coach Mark Richt recently told a story about how he dropped a recruit from this year’s class because of his social media activity.
“There’s guys that we drop from the recruiting process because of things that we may find out on a visit. They may come and one of our current players will say, ‘Coach, he’s not going to make it around here.’ Or we had one kid last year because of what he had on social media. He had some stuff on social media that we didn’t like.”
“We told (the kid and) we told his coach (that) we don’t condone that, and he was a guy who was already committed to Georgia. And he persisted. Well, actually he changed his (Twitter) handle and continued to do that kind of thing thinking we wouldn’t find out. And we found out about it, and we cut him.”
Richt isn’t the only college coach to admit to rescinding an offer due to tweets. Penn State offensive line coach Herb Hand used social media to send a message to prospects about their twitter activity.
Dropped another prospect this AM due to his social media presence…Actually glad I got to see the ‘real’ person before we offered him.
— Herb Hand (@CoachHand) July 30, 2014
It may seem unfair, but this is a lesson that many learn the hard way…social media matters. It’s a direct reflection of who you are and like it or not, you will be judged by it. Unfortunately, these young men’s activity cost them scholarships at a top football programs, but the lesson learned will follow them forever. Always remember the golden social media rule…THINK before you post. If can’t show it to your momma just say no.