The Blue Board

Ha, I'm guessing his FB page won't jibe too well with my alternate reality? But how could I possibly find it? I alone have two friends on FB named Chris Hawkins. I can't imagine how many are on there in total...

Perhaps Chip already has one foot out the door and could care less about what transpires furthermore at Oregon after this upcoming season.

My guess is that it's for one of, if not all of these reasons combined:

1. CK doesn't particularly enjoy recruiting. No question the guy is impatient and irritable. Insert the whimsy of your average 17-year-old with a dash of entitlement and it has to give the man hives.
2. He's reticent to revisit a potential time bomb of bad press... The L Blounts and Cliff Harris' not only reflect poorly on him but they are a nightmare to deal with (see reason 1). Ergo, Oregon now goes above and beyond most schools in the 'character' vetting process. This takes time.
3. They have spent a few years spinning their wheels chasing high profile players: See Bryce Brown, Pryor, Lattimore... At least 50-60% of all the top recruits list some interest in Oregon now - but that does not necessarily translate to anything other than that. Merely interest. So now they want the kids to come to campus first to really prove it... Problem is, Eugene doesn't have a LAX. It can be a planes, trains and autos hassle to get there.
4. They have always closed late and stong... They felt they would have no problem doing so again... Hubris. Regrettably it looks like they may have been caught with their quacks in their hands here...
5. They want to make up for what they do not have in the way of homegrowns and location by creating a veneer of exclusivity. The, 'oh we don't just offer any 5 star. He has to be special.' Kind of like the velvet rope and doorman in front of a bar with five people inside... I think they are trying to create an artificial buzz

Lastly, there has been some speculation that they have curtailed some recruiting efforts as an advance 'mea culpa' to the NCAA. I don't find this very credible for a variety of reasons... But you never know.

When the sanctions were announced USC appealed knowing that they would get no relief but it gave them an extra year to get a recruiting strategy into place. They accepted the bowl ban instantly but extended the scholarship reduction until the appeal was heard.

This hyper agressive "only 15 spots available" strategy worked because the right guys were targeted and committed early. They proceeded to help the great staff recruit the players they camped with and it's worked.

Now keeping them is the new battle especially the oos guys.

Well my dear, it's better that you don't see what is all over his page...or read Ramsey's quote that it was Chris that recruited him the hardest to USC.

I can say this to you as well, Chris is a 4.0 student, and could very easily qualified, and committed to Stanford....he's looking for a program that is tradition rich, and quality academics.

LOL..that's cold, and arrogant, but I'm not talking about your Alma Mater my dear.

There is a life long Trojan fan that recently graduated from Cal...his dream school was USC, but he wasn't accepted. So...who knows?

The four California PAC-10 schools are all excellent...some a little more than others!

Thanks for that. Nice to see it broken down, I can't read all of the VIP stuff on DT. I'm sure Chip will find guys to fit his system. Plenty of athletes on the table.