Things are not always as they seem, or as reported!

By now, everyone knows about Fredo's, errr...I mean Jay Paterno's screw up of the late June unofficial visit of Ohio running back Mike Shaw. In my opinion, this was recruiting's equivalent of standing directly behind an elephant that recently ingested a laxative. Unfortunately these screw ups seem to happen at least once per year at Penn State. Admittedly, the following is a one-sided account of the unusual circumstances of the bizarre world we call college football recruiting.

On the day news broke of the apparent screw up, Penn State's staff called Trotwood-Madison HS and accepted full responsibility (as they should have). The staff explained that this treatment was not indicative of how they felt about Mike, or how they operate relative to recruiting a prospect. At that time, the staff assured Mike, his family, and his coaches, that the entire Nittany Nation wanted Mike to become a Nittany Lion, and requested that Mike hold off committing elsewhere. To their credit, the Penn State football staff overcame this very embarrassing situation, and as of August 12th, 2007, Mike is a member of the Penn State Family.

Some of the circumstances surrounding this potentially damaging day are currently unknown by the general public. We at laschout.com wish to provide you with an account of the facts and circumstances surrounding the recruitment of Mike Shaw.

What started as a day of anticipation for most fans, quickly turned bitter, and ultimately pitted two sectors of Nittany Lion fans against one another. If that wasn't enough entertainment, one recruiting "Guru" decided to not only engage a competing business rival in open warfare, but also a high school assistant coach, and the Trotwood-Madison High School Administration as well.

The coach from Trotwood, who I will refer to as "Coach B," acted as a recruiting adviser for Mike Shaw and his family. Coach B contacted a friend of his, a guru known as "The Pitt Shill," to inform him of the screw up by Penn State on Mike's scheduled unofficial visit. The Pitt Shill immediately made the information known to paying members of his network. It was certainly groundbreaking news, especially as it relates to Penn State football recruiting. What happened from here can only be described as chaos.

Exchanges of banter between two competing Penn State premium message boards quickly divided the opinion. One board had received accurate, timely information provided directly from a party involved in the recruitment of Mike Shaw. This board community quickly labeled the screw up as inexcusable, irresponsible, and incompetent.

Followers from the competing site, which at the time had no direct contact with anyone involved in the recruitment, took their cue from a well known rival "Guru"--an individual who seemingly seizes every opportunity to toot his own horn. State that it is a beautiful day, and this "Guru," we'll call him "The Pilgrim," will take credit for predicting it. This coupled with his knack for never finding anything negative or remotely troubling with Penn State football means many of his subscribers remain blindly loyal. It is important to keep in mind however, that the Pilgrim has been in the business of reporting Penn State football news for over 25 years (we actually commend the Pilgrim for sustaining a loyal membership for all these years), as he so often preaches to his subscribers. The Pilgrim's grandstanding warranted or not, seemingly occurs anytime he has an audience. Needless to say, the Pilgrim tried painting this Michael Shaw saga as more positive than it appeared, declaring "it was blown out of proportion." Par for the course.

Refusing to believe the possibility that their Pilgrim could be wrong or misinformed, the Pilgrim's sheep induced unjustified personal attacks upon "The Pitt Shill." What made the situation even more surreal was that there were conflicting reports that Mike Shaw's father worked for an airline, and that the tickets were provided free of cost, and not pre-paid. This was factually inaccurate. The Shaw family paid out of pocket for the airline tickets intended for the scheduled visit to Penn State. In addition, Mr. Shaw does not work for an airline. Doh!

A Trotwood-Madison coach agreed to appear in a chat room on FightonState.com (part of Scout.com network), in hopes of clearing the air about the chain of events leading up to Mike Shaw's visit cancellation. Some have questioned the motive and agenda of Coach B for even appearing in said chat, and perhaps due to emotion of the ordeal, Coach B left little room for gray area. In chat, Coach B was adamant that no one from the Pilgrim's website ever spoke to Mike Shaw. However, between the time Coach B agreed to participate in the chat, and the time it actually took place, (to their credit) a staff member from the Pilgrim's recruiting site was able to speak directly with Mike Shaw on the telephone.  Reportedly, the results of that telephone conversation were shared with premium members of the Pilgrim's recruiting site. Coach B had no idea this conversation ever occurred while in chat some thirty minutes later, and refused to believe there was a possibility that it could have occurred. Reportedly, Coach B stated repeatedly that nobody associated with The Pilgrim's website had spoken to Mike Shaw. According to the Pilgrim's posts on his recruiting site, this was simply not true. The Pilgrim was doing what most good journalists do; go right to the story, Mike Shaw himself. Seems that Coach B was misinformed.

Perhaps due to the emotion of the entire ordeal, fair or not, Coach B stated in chat that because of past experiences, the Pilgrim and his staff were prohibited from contacting Trotwood football players.  Thereafter, some of the Pilgrim's loyal followers returned to his recruiting website and informed their fearless leader that Coach B disputed the assertion that anyone from the Pilgrim's staff had talked to Mike. It seemed like a simple misunderstanding, where Coach B was not accurately informed of the alleged telephone conversation between Mike Shaw and a staff member from the Pilgrim's recruiting website. No biggie, right? Wrong! What followed next was like a scene from a bad movie.

As with most plans promulgated by the Pilgrim, the outcome was not what he desired. In what has been confirmed by Coach B, the Pilgrim attempted to bully and intimidate the coach, and made it known to his subscribers and Coach B that there was a tape of the telephone interview with Mike Shaw conducted by a member of the Pilgrim's recruiting website.

According to Coach B, the Pilgrim called the Trotwood-Madison High School Administration, threatening legal action if Coach B did not make a public retraction of his belief that the Pilgrim's Mike Shaw interview and subsequent article was false. After he was made aware of the Pilgrim's phone call to Trotwood-Madison HS Administration, Coach B contacted the parent company of the Pilgrim's web site. As a result, the parent company's Big Ten Site Manager called Trotwood High School and apologized for the trouble. (A very professional move on their part). Embarrassed by the situation, Coach B then spoke with the Pilgrim and explained how upset he was to have his job threatened and career jeopardized by the actions of the Pilgrim. (In fairness, we hope and believe the Pilgrim's phone calls to the Trotwood Administration, were intended to protect his professional reputation, and not cause a High School coach professional ruin over a miscommunication.) Reportedly, the Pilgrim responded that he called the school because he felt Coach B was an imposter in the aforementioned chat. Needless to say, Coach B was not an imposter and was simply trying to set the record straight to the best of his knowledge. Apparently, that did not satisfy the Pilgrim. Right or wrong the Pilgrim thought his professional reputation was severely damaged, and apparently wanted to clear the record. The Pilgrim was about to play his trump card.

Coach B was informed by the Pilgrim that the coach's belief, that no one from the Pilgrim's staff contacted Mike Shaw, was wrong. The Pilgrim stated openly that he had a taped conversation of the Mike Shaw interview that his staff member conducted. Coach B repeatedly asked to hear the tape to see if he could recognize Mike Shaw's voice, so that the story could be put to rest. For whatever reason, the Pilgrim refused to play the tape for Coach B, citing that the voice might not be recognizable over the phone. According to the coach, the Pilgrim pleaded with Coach B to accept responsibility for the misunderstanding, so as to not damage his credibility and endanger his "multi-million dollar deal" with his network. (Yes, we too believe we are in the wrong line of work upon hearing of this alleged multi-million dollar deal.)

After further discussion, and to his credit, the Pilgrim apologized and even offered to contact Coach B's superiors to explain and atone for any problems he may have caused. (We found this to be very professional on the part of the Pilgrim especially since the Pilgrim was not completely at fault.) Coach B simply requested that the Pilgrim did not contact anyone further, and in fact, informed the parent company that the Pilgrim would not be covering ANY of Coach B's football recruits ever again. This deal was agreed upon by the Big Ten site manager of the parent company.

One would think that the logical thing to do, would be for the Pilgrim to inform his subscribers that there was a misunderstanding surrounding the reporting of the Mike Shaw recruitment, and let bygones be bygones.

As you might have guessed by now, that did not occur. Instead what followed was the Pilgrim providing his subscribers with 3rd party accounts of the Shaw recruitment, and inferring that they were his own. On a couple of occasions, the Pilgrim did state that he received information from other contacts and sources about Mike Shaw, but also reportedly posted of talking to Mike Shaw or the Trotwood staff when offering updates to his paying customers. With that I say, things are not always as they seem, or as reported in the world of Recruiting Gurus!

An attempt was made to afford the Pilgrim's website an opportunity to comment on content of this article, but at the time of publishing, no response was received.

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