Supposedly had offers from Temple, Buffalo, and Toledo at one point.

Really, it's a two-way street, however. We have players that rescind their pledge to a school, some as late as the last day. The real solution would probably be to have an early signing period, just like basketball does. That would help small schools taking a risk on some players who they're getting in on the ground floor but could also help students who would then be protected from injuries in their senior campaigns.

Don't forget the coaches. Clawson can pack up and get paid with no consequence, and the student is out in the cold.

This is a very different example. Ohio sends out about some initial offers, and all of those are with the caveat that they are first-come, first served. If Ohio wants 5 offensive linemen, and sends out 20 offers, the first 5 than accept get the scholarship, and number 6 does not. There is nothing underhanded or sneaky about that. Each offeree has an equal opportunity to accept and get the scholarship. If one waits too long, hoping for a "better" offer, and then tries to accept after five others have accepted, it is his own fault that one is no longer available.

In this case, Tyree accepted the offer early, and was told it was his. He did not promote himself to other schools because he believed it was a done deal. He did nothing wrong. Instead, the new coaches at BG simply decided they didn't want him. That is entirely on the BG coaching staff, and not on him.

January 2005 is before I was coming here. When Solich came to Ohio, Knorr no doubt already had many offers out. I know that Solich cancelled some of those which had not been accepted yet, and made offers to different players. Had any players accepted Knorr's offer already? If any did, did Solich honor those? I would hope that he would have.

What probably happens is that they go ahead and take him, but take one less person at some other position. I think that's what happened with McCray this year. I think they only wanted 4 offensive linemen, but when he became available, and wanted to verbal, they accepted, and ended up taking no defensive tackles except Clark.

In the case of Brunis, they had made an offer to Papi White, a running back, and probably had promised to leave it open until his visit on the 24th. When White announced on January 20th that he was going to choose SMU, Ohio immediately made an offer to Brunis.  What is significant to me is that they didn't do the ethically questionable "oversigning" trick - get the verbals first, and then figure out how to get back under 85.

Well, once you get down to the last scholarship, there would seem to be only three ways to go:
1. You can offer them sequentially - first to one, then the other, if the first one turns it down
2. You offer both via the musical chairs route - let both know there is only one left, and whoever takes it first gets it
3. You go the oversigning route, and offer both, prepared to accept both, and then hope you can fix it later.

I think #1 is the most reputable, and #2 is also reputable, but #3 not so much. Yes, if someone else had offered Brunis on, say, January 15th, Ohio might have been left without either by offering them sequentially. That's why some big name schools go route #3, and then end up having to yank scholarships, or making someone grayshirt, to make room for excess verbals.

I think that the way Ohio handles it is very professional and fair - if a player gets an offer, he can accept it, and know that it will be honored.