Vidal Hazelton 2006
As Kevin Kelly was kicking GW FG -- Receiving text on a blackberry about the recruitment of Vidal Hazelton.I have been hooked on recruiting ever since. Still wondering who I was texting back and forth with 15 years ago..
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- Thread starter Sunshinedynomite 1
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I have been hooked on recruiting ever since. Still wondering who I was texting back and forth with 15 years ago..
While I heard about the commitment antics by Kevin Jones from 2001, I actually followed a bit of the Vidal Hazelton recruitment in 2006 and it was one of the first that left me with a bitter feeling in regards to PSU recruiting. The Williams and King recruiting cycle the year before probably hooked me for good on following recruiting, though.
My first 'bite at the apple' was with the Dan Kendra recruitment. That was also around the time I got internet at home for the first time (via Prodigy). I found some Penn State recruiting message boards and have been hooked ever since (I don't care as much about recruiting to be honest, but it was fun for a while). The list of crazy recruitments is long - Kendra, Jones, Hazleton, Green, Williams, Alaeze, Simms, Devlin, Henne, Pryor, Smoker, to all the recent stuff - Fields, Parsons, etc. I do miss the days where we would refresh the board to get an update from some BWI staffer who trekked to a HS to report on a commitment. The age of access to everything has made things a bit boring....
Ha! Dan Kendra from the way back machine. I recall that the only reason he was coming to PSU was because his girlfriend was going to PSU on a cheerleading scholly but then they broke up and that's how he ended up at FSU. I think I did business with the cheerleaders dad I think which is how I heard about it. I was not on the interwebs back then.
You're half right; she was a volleyball player (and a hell of an athlete). Christy Cochran.... Also, I think he de-committed from FSU because his dad was buddies with Bowden from his WVU days and he kept hounding Kendra after his commitment to PSU.
I have been following recruiting since back in the day when you learned who was recruited by whom in the USA Today newspaper. I’m old huh?
Also, at FSU Kendra became a workout warrior and bulked his way out of the QB position. IIRC, he was moved to fullback but never made a significant contribution to the offense. I have no connections to Kendra whatsoever but I heard talk back then he was moving toward a military career after FSU. If that was true, good on him.
You call that "old"? Just kidding you.
I used to get the freshman recruit list from Jim Tarman back when he was the Sports Information Officer. Neither Rip nor Joe would publish or talk about the incoming freshmen.
My very first "favorite" Nittany Lion was RB Roger Grimes. Sadly, he suffered a serious knee injury and never reached his lofty expectations as a star runner.
I relied heavily in those days on 3 sources: (1) the Parade magazine AA list (2) Scholastic Coach magazine AA list and (3) Street and Smith magazine's top 100 or so. Dave Campbell's Texas Football was a great source, but really only for Texas schools; however, it did often mention national recruits and programs like Notre Dame, Alabama, and USC. No, Penn State never made the cut then.
Obsessive wreck that I am, I still maintain a database of Penn State recruits dating back to Joe's first crop in 1966. Somewhere around 1996, I sent the whole thing to a guy named Scurry or Curry or something at one of the Penn State sites, and he actually used it for some time.
Hence, recruiting has been a major focus for me throughout my nearly 60 years as a Nittany Lion fan.
Didn’t Kendra blow out a knee or something right before he was to be starting QB? Then he overdid it with his already workout warrior ways and moved to fullback?
The military thing sounds familiar also.
Thanks. Memory ain't what it used to be,,,,You're half right; she was a volleyball player (and a hell of an athlete). Christy Cochran.... Also, I think he de-committed from FSU because his dad was buddies with Bowden from his WVU days and he kept hounding Kendra after his commitment to PSU.
Okay. Did some Googling and found Dan's story. Glad he got thru the bouts of depression after the injury. Just goes to show you the press sucks because the last sound bite I recall about him was the home bomb making incident. Also, the rumor about breaking up with the girlfriend caused him to switch to FSU was false. He became a Navy Seal at one point but is now back in PA selling medical devices. I don't fault kids for switching schools to go where their hearts are. If their heart is not at PSU than they won't give it all they got.
https://www.sbnation.com/longform/2...dra-profile-florida-state-football-recruiting
I found that too - I can't recall the last time a player had as much mystique and intrigue around him as Kendra did (maybe Wedderburn; every time the press wrote about him he got taller...before shrinking when he actually played in a game). Dude has had an interesting path for sure.
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