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Coaching uncertainty reaches recruits

By Jayson Jenks

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Right now, as interim coach Bill Miller talks on the phone, he’s pulling up to a high school — yet another point of interest along Miller’s winding recruiting trail.

Shortly after he ends his phone call, he’ll approach a high school coach and player, and he’ll attempt to sell a program that holds no guarantees that he’ll return as an assistant coach next year.

In so few words, Miller is merely buying Kansas football time until Athletics Director Lew Perkins selects a replacement for former coach Mark Mangino.

And his main recruiting pitch is simple: Hang in there and we’re going to get a good name at Kansas. If you like some of the things that you’ve seen or that we’ve done, hang around and see who it is.

What else is there to say?

Now that Mangino’s tenure has officially ended, much attention shifted toward the process of hiring a new coach. Yet much conversation has also revolved around the recruiting world.

With the program in turmoil for the last two weeks of the season — and currently with no coaching staff permanently in place — recruits are left with little concrete information to use in their decision-making process.

“It’s an interesting deal, let me tell ya,” Miller said. “We’re just trying to be professional about it. We’ve been asked to try to hang on to some of these guys and continue to encourage these guys a little bit longer until we can get a head coach hired. That’s really what we’re doing.”

Perkins met with Miller, defensive coordinator Clint Bowen and wide receivers coach David Beaty shortly after announcing Mangino’s resignation Thursday. In the meeting, Perkins asked the three to act as co-interim coaches in an effort to bridge the gap between coaching changes.

The situation certainly doesn’t make the ultra-competitive world of recruiting any easier.

At a time when many schools are peppering recruits with talks of bowl games and postseason play, Kansas’ assistants have been forced to simply preach patience to recruits.

“We’re interested in doing an excellent search in as quick a time frame as we can,” Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony said. “And one of the reasons to do that is to minimize the effect of the coaching change on recruiting.”

Perhaps the recruiting area most affected by the uncertainty rests at the junior college level where recruits will start making school selections in the upcoming weeks.

With so little time between now and then, Miller said many players may decide to turn their attention elsewhere.

“If you look at it from there standpoint, particularly with people who are going to have to make a decision here in a couple weeks, that’s probably not conducive to their timetable,” Miller said. “And it damn sure isn’t to ours because there is some immediate help we need.”

Keeston Terry, a senior wide receiver from Blue Springs, Mo., who verbally committed to Kansas in August, said in a text message to the Daily Kansan that his plans haven’t changed as a result of Mangino’s resignation.

Terry is rated as a 4-star prospect on Rivals.com and the 38th best receiver in the 2010 class.

But Terry also acknowledged that other schools have reopened their recruitment, noting that coaches from Iowa and Missouri have spoken with him in the past week alone.

“If there is a good player that you know is going to Kansas with all this going on, you’re going to call him,” said Kelly Donohoe, Terry’s coach at Blue Springs. “That’s just what good coaches do: A little hole and they’re going to jump in it. That’s just part of the cut-throat recruiting world.”

Farther south, in the northern part of Texas, a similar situation has unfolded at Denison High School in Denison, Texas.

Currently, two players on Denison’s roster — defensive end Jaqwaylin Arps and linebacker Jimmay Mundine — are verbally committed to Kansas, meaning that either player could change his commitment at any time with no consequence.

Denison coach Cody White said that because his team is still playing for a state championship, his players haven’t talked in detail about their situations. But he did meet with both players about the possibilities of the situation.

“A verbal commitment is nonbinding by either party,” White said. “There’s nothing signed at that point. I told the kids when we sat down and talked, ‘Is it the University or the coaching staff?

And another thing is those new guys aren’t bound to honor that commitment to you. You guys need to prepare yourselves for other options.’”

Cornerbacks coach Je’Ney Jackson, though, reassured White that Perkins and Kansas would honor previous scholarship offers regardless of who assumed head coaching duties.

Still, even with that said, the coaching uncertainty does little to aid a Kansas program attempting to find its way in the top of the Big 12.

“What concerns me right now is recruiting,” former Kansas coach Don Fambrough said. “We’re in danger right now of losing a year of recruiting.”

— Edited by Tim Burgess

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