Amari Thomas

[Spinal Tap]

Friday afternoon at 3:00 PM at his school, RB Amari Thomas (6-0 195) of Blountstown, FL will make his commitment announcement for a second time. Thomas committed to Florida State in late January and decommitted in late July.

Thomas said Tuesday night he knows his decision, which he made on Sunday night. He said he’s not contacted any of the coaches and doesn’t plan to prior to his announcement.

Thomas narrowed the field to South Carolina, Florida State, Colorado and Georgia Tech. Gamecock running backs coach Marquel Blackwell has been in touch with Thomas during this week.

“Been good. Nothing crazy. Same thing,” Thomas said. “Talked a little bit. Not too much. I like the culture, the people inside the building, things like that.”

So he goes on to say:

“What I will bring to the backfield is to be unstoppable,” Thomas said. “A player with a good mindset. That school is getting a good player, not just any good player. I wouldn’t be too cocky, but I call myself the best, just because of my confidence. They are definitely getting a good one, a great one.”

One note to add about Thomas’ commitment on Friday. He doesn’t plan to shut down his recruiting.

“No sir,” he said. “I’m not going to count nobody out. I mean, you still got December, so probably going to take some visits in September.”

He's a self-centered brat. He's broadcasting to whoever chooses him Friday that he may not be on their team anyway.

P.S. I don't like brats.

 

[18IsTheMan]

:yawn: this act is tired

So moronic. He's narrowed the field to 3 schools and is committing to one...but he's not counting anybody out.

 

[Piscis]

Hope he goes somewhere else. Is going to "commit" on Friday but says he will still go on visits and will keep his options open.

Sounds like an arrogant thug to me. Colorado is the perfect place for him.

 

[Hank Williams]

I wonder if his choice on Friday is simply the announcement of the college that has given him the most NIL money during his senior year of high school.

 

[18IsTheMan]

Sadly, coaches of the schools involved have no choice but to kiss his *ss and celebrate his "commitment" on social media. I used to think being a college football coach would be my dream job, but I would just not be able to, as a grown man, prostrate and subordinate myself before a junior or senior in high school like coaches have to do.

 

[Piscis]

Sadly, coaches of the schools involved have no choice but to kiss his *ss and celebrate his "commitment" on social media. I used to think being a college football coach would be my dream job, but I would just not be able to, as a grown man, prostrate and subordinate myself before a junior or senior in high school like coaches have to do.

I have no idea what I would be able to talk to some HS thug football player about on a regular basis. These coaches have to text or call these prima donnas on pretty much a daily basis. I can't imagine what they can possibly talk or text about.

 

[18IsTheMan]

I have no idea what I would be able to talk to some HS thug football player about on a regular basis. These coaches have to text or call these prima donnas on pretty much a daily basis. I can't imagine what they can possibly talk or text about.

Unpopular opinion, but it makes me have even greater respect for Dabo's recruiting philosophy. If you commit to us, you shut it down. If you open up your visits, we retract our offer.

 

[Piscis]

Unpopular opinion, but it makes me have even greater respect for Dabo's recruiting philosophy. If you commit to us, you shut it down. If you open up your visits, we retract our offer.

I think Dabo is a clown but I do agree with a lot of his philosophical stances on college football.

 

[Harvard Gamecock]

 

[adcoop]

We have players on our roster that did or currently doing the same thing. Don't want it to happen, but watch 3-4 recruits de-commit and go somewhere else if we go 4-8 or something. You will get several social media posts thanking the fans with a plea to please respect my decision. Just part of the business. Alternatively, we will have 3-4 additional recruits coming in that we didn't expect if we go 10-2 or something. Most won't mind at all if he is a self-centered brat.

 

[adcoop]

Hope he goes somewhere else. Is going to "commit" on Friday but says he will still go on visits and will keep his options open.

Sounds like an arrogant thug to me. Colorado is the perfect place for him.

Stereotype much?

 

[Lurker123]

:yawn: this act is tired

So moronic. He's narrowed the field to 3 schools and is committing to one...but he's not counting anybody out.

He'll have a commitment ceremony each month for a few months.

 

[Gamecock Jacque]

He'll have a commitment ceremony each month for a few months.

Will there be cake?

 

[KingWard]

:yawn: this act is tired

So moronic. He's narrowed the field to 3 schools and is committing to one...but he's not counting anybody out.

Perhaps it's the way he was raised.

 

[KingWard]

Stereotype much?

I don't know and don't claim to know. Perhaps too much generalizing; perhaps not. His behavior once in the limelight will be enlightening. Keep track. You might be able to revive this later. You might not want to.

 

[18IsTheMan]

It's the way he was raised.

I was going to go down the path of asking where the level-headed people are in this kid’s life.

 

[adcoop]

I was going to go down the path of asking where the level-headed people are in this kid’s life.

I think some of you are putting a little too much thought into this. For lack of a better phrase, "there is no honor amongst thieves.". How many coaches you think have gone in a parent's home saying he will be there throughout their kid's career only to leave months later. The one thing I will say is that the kid is being brutally honest. He is accepting a reservation to hold down a spot at a quality program, but he is open to move off of that if a better offer comes along. We have a player in the 25 class that was teammates with my son. He originally committed somewhere else. However, my son and I would needle him after every loss of that program saying aren't you ready to come home. Most posters on here were overjoyed when that player backed out of a commitment and pledged to us. It's a ruthless game from both sides and you are going to win some and lose some. Most times it won't be clean.

 

[Forkcock]

Wake me when he shows up for practice at some school.

 

[Piscis]

Stereotype much?

Stereotypes exist because they are true.

 

[Piscis]

I think some of you are putting a little too much thought into this. For lack of a better phrase, "there is no honor amongst thieves.". How many coaches you think have gone in a parent's home saying he will be there throughout their kid's career only to leave months later. The one thing I will say is that the kid is being brutally honest. He is accepting a reservation to hold down a spot at a quality program, but he is open to move off of that if a better offer comes along. We have a player in the 25 class that was teammates with my son. He originally committed somewhere else. However, my son and I would needle him after every loss of that program saying aren't you ready to come home. Most posters on here were overjoyed when that player backed out of a commitment and pledged to us. It's a ruthless game from both sides and you are going to win some and lose some. Most times it won't be clean.

These kids shouldn't be upset when their "reservation" is given away to someone else if they continue to take visits to other programs. The program should be able to move on to a better player if one comes along. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

 

[PrestonyteParrot]

I think some of you are putting a little too much thought into this. For lack of a better phrase, "there is no honor amongst thieves.". How many coaches you think have gone in a parent's home saying he will be there throughout their kid's career only to leave months later. The one thing I will say is that the kid is being brutally honest. He is accepting a reservation to hold down a spot at a quality program, but he is open to move off of that if a better offer comes along. We have a player in the 25 class that was teammates with my son. He originally committed somewhere else. However, my son and I would needle him after every loss of that program saying aren't you ready to come home. Most posters on here were overjoyed when that player backed out of a commitment and pledged to us. It's a ruthless game from both sides and you are going to win some and lose some. Most times it won't be clean.

Sounds like a job search and he's prepping for the real world, but it also creates major character questions on the negative side.

 

[I4CtheFuture]

I think some of you are putting a little too much thought into this. For lack of a better phrase, "there is no honor amongst thieves.". How many coaches you think have gone in a parent's home saying he will be there throughout their kid's career only to leave months later. The one thing I will say is that the kid is being brutally honest. He is accepting a reservation to hold down a spot at a quality program, but he is open to move off of that if a better offer comes along. We have a player in the 25 class that was teammates with my son. He originally committed somewhere else. However, my son and I would needle him after every loss of that program saying aren't you ready to come home. Most posters on here were overjoyed when that player backed out of a commitment and pledged to us. It's a ruthless game from both sides and you are going to win some and lose some. Most times it won't be clean.

It's the word 'commitment' that is the fly in the ointment here.

Don't say you're committed if you're not. It's not difficult. It's a character thing / issue.

 

[KingWard]

Stereotypes exist because they are true.

Often enough to spur generalization. There are always outliers, however infrequently.

 

[Piscis]

Sounds like a job search and he's prepping for the real world, but it also creates major character questions on the negative side.

Try going into a job interview and tell the interviewer who offers you a job "I'll let you know if I plan to take the job this Friday but you need to know I'm still going to be looking around and interviewing elsewhere. If I get a better offer, I won't be coming to work on the day I'm supposed to".

See how that works out for you. I don't think he's really prepping for the real world.

 

[PrestonyteParrot]

Vocalizing it is an insight into his brain matter

 

[18IsTheMan]

I think some of you are putting a little too much thought into this. For lack of a better phrase, "there is no honor amongst thieves.". How many coaches you think have gone in a parent's home saying he will be there throughout their kid's career only to leave months later. The one thing I will say is that the kid is being brutally honest. He is accepting a reservation to hold down a spot at a quality program, but he is open to move off of that if a better offer comes along. We have a player in the 25 class that was teammates with my son. He originally committed somewhere else. However, my son and I would needle him after every loss of that program saying aren't you ready to come home. Most posters on here were overjoyed when that player backed out of a commitment and pledged to us. It's a ruthless game from both sides and you are going to win some and lose some. Most times it won't be clean.

It would not bother me one bit if the player called a coach personally and committed and then later reconsidered and backed out. These are kids, so I expect some waffling, and with social media, there's lots of pressure to make premature decisions.

I have 2 other issues with it:

1. Making a public show and spectacle out of it, when you're saying up front that it's actually meaningless. He'll have family and friends there. Likely his parents at least flanking him, coaches, etc. All to see him make a commitment that he's saying up front very might not stick....and doesn't seem like he's even saying the school he's committing to has any particular advantage over anyone else in the process.

2. It's a drag on the program you commit to because now they have to count you among their commitments, but can't really count you among their commitments since they have no idea if you'll actually come AND they have to keep investing time and energy into recruiting a player who is committed but not really committed. I'm sure that privately, none of these coaches will put too much stock into what he says on Friday, but they'll forced to kiss his *ss anyway.

 

[PrestonyteParrot]

This is possible because coaches accept these ''commitments'' from those who are not really committed!

 

[adcoop]

These kids shouldn't be upset when their "reservation" is given away to someone else if they continue to take visits to other programs. The program should be able to move on to a better player if one comes along. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

.....and they can. Nobody said Dabo is wrong for running his program the way that he does. However, most programs don't operate that way. They recruit a committed kid until he signs with another program. Frankly, I think they should do away with commitments. They don't mean anything. Heck, the signing doesn't mean anything anymore. They can just go in the transfer portal.

 

[adcoop]

Vocalizing it is an insight into his brain matter

So, how would you prefer that he do it? He has already de-committed from a school one time and we are recruiting him anyway. The problem is the system that allows him to do this. I think it's an insight into the system being shot and emboldening kids to do whatever. I think it's poor form on our part as well. We disrespect these kids, call them dumb, poor character, whatever you want to call, but you want them to run that ball for you. An insight into some of our priorities.

 

[adcoop]

It would not bother me one bit if the player called a coach personally and committed and then later reconsidered and backed out. These are kids, so I expect some waffling, and with social media, there's lots of pressure to make premature decisions.

I have 2 other issues with it:

1. Making a public show and spectacle out of it, when you're saying up front that it's actually meaningless. He'll have family and friends there. Likely his parents at least flanking him, coaches, etc. All to see him make a commitment that he's saying up front very might not stick....and doesn't seem like he's even saying the school he's committing to has any particular advantage over anyone else in the process.

2. It's a drag on the program you commit to because now they have to count you among their commitments, but can't really count you among their commitments since they have no idea if you'll actually come AND they have to keep investing time and energy into recruiting a player who is committed but not really committed. I'm sure that privately, none of these coaches will put too much stock into what he says on Friday, but they'll forced to kiss his *ss anyway.

.....and you are right in everything that you said, but whose fault is this. The system that allows him to do this or the kid that sees a whole and takes advantage of it to an embarrassing degree?

 

[18IsTheMan]

.....and you are right in everything that you said, but whose fault is this. The system that allows him to do this or the kid that sees a whole and takes advantage of it to an embarrassing degree?

I would put more fault on the kid, but really his parents and coaches since they should be guiding kids to wise decisions. But, yes, college coaches are also guilty b/c they are willing to accept these non-commitments, but they also really don't have a choice, unless you got all 130+ FBS coaches to unanimously agree to rejecting these false commitments and adopting the Dabo approach, which will never happen as coaches would see that as giving away an edge. Really I see it as a societal problem, with these kids just reflecting the values of the culture. It is greatly exacerbated by social media. Perhaps fueled almost entirely by social media. Once recruiting turned into an industry and then you bring social media into the mix, it's just been nutty. I'm sure this kind of thing happened to some degree prior to the advent of the recruiting industry and social media, but I just don't recall this stuff back in the 80s and 90s. You couldn't live stream a signing ceremony back then. Again, maybe it happened, but I don't remember seeing a top whatever list of schools for every 3, 4 and 5 star player in the country. Back then, you might see a blurb in the paper about the top recruit in the nation being down to two certain schools. Players have admitted, though, that going public with their "top schools" list is intentional to build a social media following.

I don't know that there's anything anyone could do to do away with commitments. Unless they made recruiting silent on both sides. If coaches can't talk publicly about recruits, make it so recruits can't talk publicly about schools. But that's not enforceable.

 

[adcoop]

I would put more fault on the kid, but really his parents and coaches since they should be guiding kids to wise decisions. But, yes, college coaches are also guilty b/c they are willing to accept these non-commitments, but they also really don't have a choice, unless you got all 130+ FBS coaches to unanimously agree to rejecting these false commitments and adopting the Dabo approach, which will never happen as coaches would see that as giving away an edge. Really I see it as a societal problem, with these kids just reflecting the values of the culture. It is greatly exacerbated by social media. Perhaps fueled almost entirely by social media. Once recruiting turned into an industry and then you bring social media into the mix, it's just been nutty. I'm sure this kind of thing happened to some degree prior to the advent of the recruiting industry and social media, but I just don't recall this stuff back in the 80s and 90s. You couldn't live stream a signing ceremony back then. Again, maybe it happened, but I don't remember seeing a top whatever list of schools for every 3, 4 and 5 star player in the country. Back then, you might see a blurb in the paper about the top recruit in the nation being down to two certain schools. Players have admitted, though, that going public with their "top schools" list is intentional to build a social media following.

I don't know that there's anything anyone could do to do away with commitments. Unless they made recruiting silent on both sides. If coaches can't talk publicly about recruits, make it so recruits can't talk publicly about schools. But that's not enforceable.

Ideally, I have no problem with that. However, the world we live in is not ideal. We are looking for wise decisions in an arena where there is a lot of lying and mutual disrespect. In many situations, these parents know what social media says about their kids when they don't give them the decision they want. Now, they are a thug, immature, etc. The truth comes out. So, in many situations they don't feel anything for any of these schools. They are just a means to an end. Both sides are using each other. One for program success. The other for exposure and now money. There is no real care for each other and as a result this is what you get.

 

[KingWard]

I was going to go down the path of asking where the level-headed people are in this kid’s life.

I'm always going to come down on the side of "quality character - or the lack thereof - begins at home".

 

[Piscis]

I'm always going to come down on the side of "quality character - or the lack thereof - begins at home".

I imagine home is where the problem lies.

 

[sclawman77]

5 star OL Darius Gray is announcing in two weeks on 8/22. I think he's a lean to us. I learned that from JC Shurburtt's podcast this morning as I don't typically follow recruiting.

 

[bayrooster]

We need a RB yesterday. Who's carrying the rock if Faison isn't on the roster this Fall?

 

[sclawman77]

We need a RB yesterday. Who's carrying the rock if Faison isn't on the roster this Fall?

Attaway, Fuller, Howell, and the back from Colorado. Faison looks better than all of them though.