When the University of Connecticut reneged on a scholarship offer to Raritan High School senior football player Ryan Dickens earlier this week, the controversial decision appeared like it would only impact one spot on the Huskies roster.
But four days later, New Jersey high school coaches and players are warning that UConn's move could spark a Garden State backlash against the Huskies program.
“It certainly didn’t lend itself to any comfort here,” said Rich Hansen, head coach of powerhouse St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, which has sent recent recruits to Alabama, Notre Dame and Rutgers. “People at the high school level are not happy, for sure. When UConn speaks, you’re going to look at it a little differently now than you would have two weeks ago.”
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The raw feelings stem from what happened Sunday to Dickens, who verbally committed to UConn and former head coach Bob Diaco in June, and spurned overtures from other schools over the ensuing months to stick with the Huskies. UConn fired Diaco in December and hired Randy Edsall on Dec. 28, marking a change in power and philosophy. But Edsall called Dickens New Year’s Day and assured him the school still wanted him and his scholarship was safe, his parents said.
Then came Sunday night, when Edsall phoned Dickens again and told him the school no longer had a scholarship for him, leaving Dickens without any options just 17 days from National Signing Day.
Derek Sininsky, head coach of Jersey Shore power St. John Vianney, said UConn’s actions “definitely could hurt” the school’s ability to recruit effectively in New Jersey moving forward. He noted his players from St. John Vianney were “bothered big time” by Edsall’s decision to rescind Dickens’ scholarship and they were discussing the situation in the team’s weight room this week.
“UConn needs New Jersey,” Sininsky said. “They can’t rely on Connecticut. They can’t rely on Rhode Island. They can’t rely on Massachusetts. They need us. To me, that wouldn’t be very smart from a recruiting standpoint only because New Jersey has such great stock in football and a lot to select from. They’d be killing themselves.”
In addition to Dickens, UConn also pulled an offer Sunday from St. Joseph of Montvale running back Jordan Scott, who is uncommitted.
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St. Joe’s coach Augie Hoffmann said he did not have a problem with UConn’s decision since Scott had been offered a scholarship by the previous coaching staff and he had not verbally committed to the school.
“At the end of the day, I get it,” said Hoffmann, a former top recruit who played college football at Boston College. “Am I hurting for my kid? Absolutely. I feel for him as a young man that wants to play Division 1 football. That was his shot, and it got taken away from him. But do I understand that Randy Edsall as the head coach doesn’t think that Jordan Scott can help his program and be successful? Absolutely I understand.”
J.C. Shurburtt, the former national recruiting director for 247Sports.com, said it’s understandable that New Jersey coaches and players are upset, but he doubts it will have a tangible impact on UConn’s ability to recruit in the state.
“When I’ve noticed these situations everyone vilifies the college coach, there’s a lot of rhetoric about not being able to recruit in the future and it very rarely comes to fruition,” Shurburtt said. “Come spring when coaches are on the trail and everybody’s out recruiting and guys are getting offers, opportunity is opportunity.”
But Shurburtt added UConn’s move to pull Dickens’ offer “doesn’t make it easier” to recruit in New Jersey.
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“It’s not a good look,” he said. “The optics are not good.”
He compared the situation to when Will Muschamp replaced Steve Spurrier as South Carolina’s head coach in December of 2015. Even though he didn’t pursue much of that year’s recruiting class, Muschamp vowed to honor all the program’s verbal commitments.
“Some of the guys ended up going elsewhere, but some of the guys stuck and they honored it,” Shurburtt said. “In the South, when you’re recruiting in the SEC, you don’t want to drop kids from Atlanta and Alabama and North Carolina and places like that where you have to go recruit each and every year. So from that standpoint, [the UConn situation] definitely could have been handled a little better, especially considering how it’s blown up.”
NJ Advance Media staff writer Patrick Lanni contributed to this report.
Matthew Stanmyre may be reached at mstanmyre@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattStanmyre. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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