I watched a documentary on Mitch Mustain this week (Amazon Prime). He was 2004-05 high school player of the year for Gatorade, Parade Magazine, UnderAmour, beating out Tim Tebow. He was from Arkansas, and committed to play at Arkansas as a high school junior, then AR fired the quarterback coach, then there was uproar from the boosters and public when Mitch said he wanted to re-open his recruiting (Jan of senior year, just before signing day), then AR hired Mitch’s high school coach (now at Auburn), and Mitch and 3-4 of his high school teammates committed to go with this high school coach to AR, but it was the boosters and AD who wanted the coach/players, not the football coach. Disaster.
After winning his first 8 starts as a freshman, Mitch was benched. At the end of the season, the high school coach left, and all the players transferred too. Mitch ended up at U Southern Cal, but was there at the same time as Mark Sanchez and Matt Leinart so he didn’t play. He was there when it changed from Carroll to Kiffen too. It really seemed like a lot of his problems came because no one would talk to him and tell him what was going on - that the quarterback coach was fired, that the high school coach quit after a year, why he was benched, what he needed to do at USC.
Anyway, it was pretty sad how this very talented 18 year old picked his school to make all the adults happy (I think he wanted to go to Notre Dame), and no one was really looking out for the kid. Like Tim Tebow he wanted to play in the NFL, so stayed in shape, played in Canada, took a baseball contract, but unlike Tim he never made it to the NFL. He’s also gorgeous and could have made a fortune in commercials.
Certainly a lesson not to base all decisions on who the coach is (or believe everything promised) and that even the most talented athletes still have a hard time finding a good fit college and team. Sometimes I can’t believe how lucky we were during the recruiting process that most coaches seemed honest, but of course D wasn’t the best player in the country.