This story is as crazy as it sounds. Houhsun Gaines is a high school defensive end at Nash Central and also a 3-star recruit. Last Friday, Gaines gathered family and friends to formally announced that he was verbally accepting a scholarship offer to attend the University of Florida for college.
Unfortunately for Gaines, this wasn’t the case.
For the past month and a half, Gaines had thought he was communicating on social media with a member of the Gators coaching staff. He said just minutes after he committed on Friday, that person was Florida assistant coach Brad Lawing.
But that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Gaines – according to Nash Central athletics director Michael Mosley – was catfished.
He wasn’t talking to Lawing, he was talking to someone who was posing as Lawing.
That’s right. Apparently, someone had been communicating with Gaines via Twitter pretending to be Brad Lawing. Gaines assumed that nothing was out of the ordinary. After all, it’s not hard to forget that just a short time ago head coach Will Muschamp was attempting to send a direct message to a recruit that accidentally was sent to all of Twitter.
At 2:05 p.m. on Friday word of Gaines’ commitment broke on social media. But according to Mosley – after that – there was nothing but confusion.
Gaines and Crudup failed to return phone calls to the Telegram. NCAA guidelines don’t allow college coaches to discuss matters regarding prospective student-athletes. But Mosley was able to get in contact with a representative for the Gators on Friday night.
He said he talked with an unnamed Florida assistant coach around 8:30 p.m. and got Florida’s side of things. They said Gaines hadn’t been speaking with a Gators coach the past few weeks. Instead, it was someone else.
“When I talked to a coach, they told me they hadn’t spoke to Gaines in several weeks,” Mosley said. “I think he was talking to someone he thought was a coach. I guess he said (on Friday) that he had talked to a coach the night before, but they said he hadn’t talked to anybody on the coaching staff.”
A quick look at Gaines’ Twitter followers shows over 70 people claiming to be affiliated with the university in some way. Unfortunately, there is no way to monitor social media.
Mosley said that Florida coaches expressed on Friday that they still have interest in Gaines (they did after all verbally offer him last spring when they passed through Nash Central High) but that interest isn’t to the point of accepting a verbal commitment.
“There is a commitment from Florida, but it’s not a commitment as far as what took place (on Friday). They want to see more from him, and that’s their exact words,” Mosley said.
Gaines may still have to prove himself to Florida, but there has been talk that the NC State Wolfpack are also very interested in him. Either way, this is just another cautionary tale that you should always been very aware of your social media activity, and never believe anything unless you have absolute 100% verification that it is true.
[h/t Rocky Mountain Telegram]