It's this one: "Coach, you've sold me.  But another program is doing a great job of selling their program too.  I just can't decide yet."  This showed up in a recent post, and dalter mentioned it was ambiguous -- could mean I'm either winning or losing.  Meanwhile, I'm getting campus visit responses like "Coach, the trip to campus was sweet!  Alabama is great!  Definitely my kind of place.  Unless another school really wows me, I want to end up at Alabama."

So, I'm embarrassed to be asking this in my 38th season of coaching, but -- am I winning, or not?

The only real way to know is off of scholarship messages, and even they can be hard to understand.


Edit - Oh, the first one was a ship reply. Its close, but I think you are slightly behind.

That's what I thought.  But then why the "I want to end up at Alabama" messages in the next cycle, with no change in the scholarship message?  Am I the only one finding this a little bit confusing?

apparently the messages are intentionally ambiguous...you may be slightly winning or slightly losing, but the race is very close...

Two further $10 phone calls got the following response: "I think I would be a PERFECT fit for Alabama.  Thank you for contacting me!  I promise I won't let you down."

Then, this one is similarly weird.  On a different player, after getting mostly lukewarm replies from campus visits, I get the scholarship message "I REALLY love your program, but I have to tell you, another school looks like it might be a great fit for me too.  I just can't decide yet."  Ambiguous.  So, I do two $10 telephone calls, both of which gets the response "Coach, you really sold me on Alabama.  Right now you're my primary school," immediately followed by a new scholarship message, "Coach, you have a little more selling to do -- don't get me wrong, you're close, but there are other schools that have indicated a possible interest in me."

My first question, of course, is how do I get a new scholarship message after just two phone calls (these are DI five-star recruits).  The second is, these are the most ambiguous scholarship messages ever, paired with responses that tell me point blank I'm his top choice.  And in the second case, I went from responses that showed what I thought was me losing to showing me as his primary school, with the only further investment on my part being $20 in phone calls.  

What the heck is going on?

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it doesn't matter a lick what they say on the phone calls.  They may have another coach on the other line, telling him the same thing.  As far as I've heard, only the scholarship messages matter in determining how close you are to landing the guy.

Correct: the only messages that matter are the scholarship messages.  Don't read into any phone call or visit messages.

At this point, I assume you are behind Jeff, and you should continue to assume until you get a message regarding the scholarship that is pro him signing with you.

Posted by jeffdrayer on 7/12/2010 1:42:00 AM (view original):
That's what I thought.  But then why the "I want to end up at Alabama" messages in the next cycle, with no change in the scholarship message?  Am I the only one finding this a little bit confusing?

I think you are slightly ahead. But I certainly wouldn't take it for granted.

Also, these recruit responses aren't new, same as before.

Yeah, I think you're right. 
And that's funny -- it's been so long since I've been in a battle, I don't even recognize any of the scholarship emails anymore... :)

Posted by bscoresby on 7/12/2010 8:08:00 AM (view original):
Correct: the only messages that matter are the scholarship messages.  Don't read into any phone call or visit messages.

At this point, I assume you are behind Jeff, and you should continue to assume until you get a message regarding the scholarship that is pro him signing with you.

And yeah, I know those are the only ones that matter; my only point was that when every further visit, trip and call results in a variation of the "I love you" message, I can't help but think that is a reflection on the state of the scholarship -- leading me to believe that I'm slightly ahead.