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Aww, Joe Tiller Is Mad
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5 CommentsPurdue football coach Joe Tiller is a sore loser. That was obvious last fall when he kept his starters on the field against Michigan in hopes of making the score look more respectable after the Boilermakers got blown out, and it was obvious last week as he had some interesting comments on the subject of losing commit Roy Roundtree to Michigan.
Roundtree committed to Purdue in May and reaffirmed his decision many times since.
He signed with new Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez after a visit to Ann Arbor, Mich., last weekend.
“If we had an early signing date, you wouldn’t have another outfit with a guy in a wizard hat selling snake oil get a guy at the last minute, but that’s what happened,” Tiller said.
If the image of Rich Rodriguez in a wizard hat selling snake oil doesn’t make you laugh, wait until Tiller questions Roundtree’s high school.
“On the other side of the coin, maybe the guy did you a favor. It makes you wonder about the guy, the people surrounding him, the people in that building who would let that happen. I can say this: We won’t go back in that building again and we won’t be the only institution not to.”
Considering those comments, I don’t think Joe Tiller would be welcomed back to Trotwood-Madison High School in the future anyways, so I really doubt it would be Tiller’s choice.
Tiller continued on and brought up an apparent “unspoken rule” that Big Ten coaches have where you don’t go after a recruit if he commits to another school in this conference. What I find funny is that so many fans of other Big Ten schools on blogs and message boards are agreeing with Tiller and are questioning the recruiting ethics of Rich Rodriguez. I wonder if they’ve ever heard of the pot calling the kettle black.
The fact of the matter is that yes, recruits decommit. It is a common practice now-a-days and will likely never let up. At the same time, Big Ten coaches recruiting people that have committed to other Big Ten schools is a common practice as well. Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio tried to recruit nearly every Michigan commit after Lloyd Carr announced he was going to retire. Illinois and Penn State both recruited Boubacar Cissoko after he committed to Michigan. Jim Tressel offered Patrick Omameh a scholarship literally hours after he committed to Michigan. Last year Jerimy Finch decommitted from Michigan to Indiana (eventually ended up at Florida). And even Lloyd Carr reportedly continued to recruit Fred Smith after he committed to MSU. I could go on, but all I would be doing is validating my point. Oh, and to add to the list, Joe Tiller poached a Michigan State commit a few years back as well, so apparently he has a selective memory.
All I can say to the people upset about Michigan recruiting other Big Ten commits is that the only difference between Rich Rodriguez and these other Big Ten coaches doing it is that Rodriguez actually got two of them to change their commitments. I stated above that commits going from one Big Ten school to another has happened in the past, but just in this last year coaches have been trying their hardest to get players to decommit and have failed most of the time. So it looks like Coach Rod’s success rate is just higher.
One final thing I have to add to this whole argument is that Joe Tiller must have forgotten what he did right after he found out Roy Roundtree decommitted. Although it wasn’t an attempt to poach a recruit from another Big 10 school, he still would have been a guy in a wizard hat selling snake oil in the eyes of Ball State fans had this recruit actually changed his commitment.
On a side note, Hoke addressed two major happenings on signing day. One was Page, who got a call that morning from Louisiana Tech offering him a visit and they told him not to commit to us, but he kept his word and sent in his stuff and told LA Tech no. Secondly, was about Orsbon. Purdue lost Roy Roundtree to Michigan and began the search for a WR, #1 on their list was Briggs and they called him to offer, but Briggs had sent his paperwork in to us early in the morning (he was the first to send it in) and so Purdue lost out!!!!
Enjoy those sour grapes, Tiller.
Very timely comments. You guys been on vacation?
Hey MSC, did Ball State get invited to the Big Ten last week?
I guess that comparison makes little sense. One of the biggest problems Tiller has with the issue is that BT ADs met last year and put together an agreement. Granted, teams like UM and tOSU got an out clause because they’re “extra special” at least in their own eyes…But Illinois, PSU & Purdue all claim that this agreement exists.
The thing that stinks about Roundtree’s commitment to UM more than anything is not what tactic Rodriguez used, it’s the lying by Roundtree, his high school coach and UM’s coach that recruited him. According to Roundtree @ 11:00 pm, he was going to sign w/ Purdue @ 9:00 am.
That is a misuse of the phrase “sour grapes.” Sour grapes are what the complainer didn’t get. Tiller would be calling Roy Roundtree sour grapes, to make the analogy work, because he couldn’t have him. You should have said “We will enjoy these delicious sour grapes, Tiller!”
I would agree that it’s sour grapes because he would have been Purdue’s top recruit. And I think he’s allowed to be pissed about the way two kids bolted from commitments the way Shaw and Roundtree did.
If you want to be pissed at Tiller for being pissed that he lost his top player. Fine. Maybe he shouldn’t have used the wizard hat and snake oil, but it was pretty funny and I think more coaches should exercise more personality. Now Michigan and Purdue fans really want to kick the crap out of each other and this brings some added flavor to an otherwise one-sided dull matchup.
However, it is convenient that RichRod got FOUR decommits to commit to his school. It may not be shady but it looks like it.
We could go back and forth all day about past poaching, the fact is, not a lot of teams got 4 guys to do it within 3 days of the LOI signing day.
I can see a couple guys every year changing their minds. I just think that having four guys do it at the relative last minute looks shady.
Also, to keep this to facts, if you think Tiller kept his starters in too long then how did Purdue’s backup QB account for 40% of PU’s pass attempts? Painter’s last action in the game was with 14:14 left in the 4th quarter so the backup played most of that quarter.
Let’s get our terms right. No one “decommitted.” There is only one way to officially commit, and that is in writing. Until a school has a written commitment, it has nothing. Tiller is truly mad!