 | Finch (9) switched from Michigan to Indiana, then gave Florida a look. Darron Cummings/AP |
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By George Dohrmann
WARREN CENTRAL
Indianapolis
Jerimy Finch, one of the nation's top defensive back prospects, announced last spring that he was committing to Michigan. No surprise. Michigan had targeted the speedy, 6'2", 212-pound safety when he was a freshman at Warren Central High (Indianapolis) and had recruited him harder than any other program. But a few weeks ago Finch turned his back on the Big Ten power and switched to Indiana, a school that hasn't played in a bowl game since 1993. "We didn't see that one coming," says Jeremy Crabtree, an analyst at Rivals.com.
Many top prospects have been changing their minds this year, partly because of the increasingly intensive recruiting process. Kids are pressured to choose earlier than ever, and they try to end the bombardment of e-mails, letters, phone calls and text messages by picking a school. Then a few months later, with the most dogged schools still pursuing them, the players change their 18-year-old minds. A few prime examples: QB Nick Fanuzzi (Churchill, San Antonio) jumped from Miami to Alabama, OL Chris Little (Twiggs County, Jeffersonville, Ga.) left Florida State for Notre Dame, and DL Sidell Corley (McGill-Toolen, Mobile, Ala.) went from Florida to undeclared.
Finch has said he switched to Indiana because it "just felt right." It didn't hurt that Indiana gave scholarships to three of Finch's Warren Central teammates. The school had also hired the academic adviser at Warren Central, Marni Mooney -- an IU alum and graduate student -- to work with Indiana's athletes. "[Mooney] had a good rapport with Jerimy," says Warren Central coach Steve Tutsie. "IU identified what they needed to do to get him and got it done. I told IU, 'Good for you.'" For now, anyway. Nothing is over until Signing Day on Feb. 7, and this case may have one final twist: Last weekend, Finch made another official visit -- to Florida.
FLIP-FLOPS FOR FLORIDA
Even if Jerimy Finch holds with the Hoosiers, BCS champion Florida looks to be the leading beneficiary of the trend toward switching commitments in 2007. Its recruiting class, rated No. 1 by Rivals.com headed into Signing Day, already includes three top prospects who bolted to the Gators: Quarterback John Brantley (Trinity Catholic, Ocala, Fla.) switched from Texas; defensive end Justin Trattou (Don Bosco Prep, Ramsey, N.J.) forsook Notre Dame; and offensive lineman James Wilson (Nease, Ponte Vedra, Fla.) reneged on his pledge to USC.
The case of Wilson a 6'5", 305-pound guard, shows how futile it can be to rush a high school athlete into signing. Says his Nease coach, Craig Howard, "He decided he wanted to play again with Tim Tebow [Florida's freshman QB, also from Nease]. He went to the U.S. Army All-American game and met guys going to the schools he was still looking at. And, of course, Florida won the national title. That always helps."
