There is an old football cliche that goes something like this: “If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’.”
And Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini stopped just short of accusing the Ole Miss Rebels of cheating during a recent recruiting battle.
Wide receiver transfer Damore’ea Stringfellow, who originally chose the Washington Huskies as part of the 2013 class, verbally committed to Nebraska during a visit this summer. After visits to Alabama and Ole Miss, Stringfellow, a four-star recruit, decided to flip his commitment and he will attend Ole Miss in the fall.
What happened in between?
“Read between the lines,” Pelini told Huskers Illustrated’s Michael Bruntz. “I think we all know what happened in that situation.”
Since Coach Pelini suggested it, let’s read between the lines about what could have possibly happened.
OK -- I’m reading between the lines now -- what could Ole Miss have done to flip Stringfellow’s commitment?
- They paid him.
- They gave him a car.
- They offered his parents a job.
- They told him he would start right away.
- Young ladies were used as “campus aides” to woo him.
There really is an untold amount of possibilities we can think of based on Pelini’s simple suggestion.
Or -- and this is far more likely -- a teenager with plenty of options available to him changed his mind. Too bad the coach on the wrong side of the decision simply couldn’t accept that fact.
Pelini didn’t give much of an explanation for his outburst, but he seemed to lay the blame at the feet of Stringfellow’s parents.
“Especially when it’s a clueless parent,” Pelini said.
Pelini may think he knows what’s best for every kid Nebraska recruits, but he is not in any position to tell Stringfellow and his family what’s best for them.