Some coaches will do just about anything to get a high school kid to commit to their program. In the case of Jim Harbaugh, he will go as far as to sleep over at a kid’s house and go to school with him the next day if it means getting a verbal commitment.
Harbaugh is preparing to go to great lengths to secure a commitment from the nation’s top kicking prospect, Quinn Nordin of Rockford, Michigan. Nordin is rated the number one kicker in the nation by Rivals and is currently verbally committed to Penn State (you may remember the music video announcement), although Michigan has been making a strong push on the recruiting trail for the in-state talent. Because nothing is ever official until the National Letter of Intent is faxed in early February, coaches are free to make any last-minute recruiting pitches possible. The dead period in recruiting is lifted this Thursday, and Harbaugh will be waiting at the front door of Nordin’s home at 12:01 AM to come in and spend the night with the top kicker.
“Under the exact rules, he’s going to be at my house at 12:01 he said. That’s when it’s legal for him to be at my house,” Nordin said to Scout.com‘s Allen Trieu. “He said we can watch a movie, see how well we gel and he said he would sleep over after that.”
Knowing this is a school night, Harbaugh even told Nordin he will go to school with the Michigan native and have lunch with him. But where would Harbaugh sleep?
“He told me if I had a 6-foot-3 inch piece of carpet for him to sleep on, that would be enough. I said we have guest rooms, and he said ‘Tell you what, I’ll just sleep on the floor in your room.’ I said ‘Coach, I have Penn State stuff all over my walls.’ He said, ‘Tell you what, I can help you take it down.’”
Ahh, college football recruiting.