I had typed that very same statement about the written offers vs. the verbal offers in my initial post, but I deleted it before posting because I knew it could start a pissing match.
I'm not taking anything away from Hardy as a D1 player (because he is) by saying that Gene promoted him. Anyone who doesn't believe this happened needs to go read all the scout articles about him from the beginning. He updated the kid everytime his headcoached scratched his ***.
Gene did the same thing with Chaz Ramsey (until the AU commitment) , Chris Garrett (until the LSU commitment) and Lee Chambers (until the Miami switch). In those cases, the extra attention may have backfired.
When either Gene or Yancy think a player is going to commit to their school, the hype machine starts churning.