For months, Northwest senior running back Tony Nelson had daydreamed about the national signing day ceremony that will take place today in his high school auditorium.
He saw himself sitting at a table with his friends, quarterback Ike Whitaker and wide receiver Darren Brownlee. And as Whitaker and Brownlee signed letters-of-intent to play at Virginia Tech and West Virginia, respectively, Nelson would put his signature on a national letter-of-intent for Clemson.
Tony Nelson will sign with U-Mass. today after Clemson pulled its scholarship offer on Jan. 4.
(Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)
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Northwest quarterback Ike Whitaker completed 157 of 262 passes for a school-record 2,586 yards, with 28 TDs and only 10 INTs in leading the Jaguars to the Maryland 3A championship. He is The Post's Offensive Player of the Year.
North Stafford defensive lineman Cordarrow Thompson had 102 tackles, including 43 for a loss, and nine sacks in 13 games to lead the Wolverines' smothering defense. He is The Post's Defensive Player of the Year.
• All-League Teams
• Fall 2004 All-Mets
• All-Mets Since 1990
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"It would have been nice," said Nelson, who gave a nonbinding oral commitment to Clemson last summer. "Those are guys I grew up with, and we always dreamed about it."
About three weeks ago, however, Nelson's dreams about signing day changed. On Jan. 4, Clemson's recruiting coordinator, David Blackwell, called Northwest Coach Randy Trivers and told him Clemson had pulled Nelson's scholarship offer.
Blackwell said Clemson was withdrawing its offer because it considered Nelson, who has not yet met the NCAA's freshman academic standards, a high-risk recruit, Trivers said. Trivers, however, noted that several of his players in recent years have signed letters-of-intent without having qualified, and Nelson is much closer to eligibility than those players. He also said he felt that Clemson's decision to pull its offer came far too late in the recruiting season, leaving his player with few options.
The oral commitments given by high school football players before the NCAA's signing period -- which starts today for football and several other sports -- are nonbinding to the school and the player.
But either side backing out of a commitment often creates a stir in recruiting circles.
"It was appalling," Trivers said of Clemson's decision to pull Nelson's offer. "Everyone I've come across in college and high school football is shell-shocked."
Clemson, through its sports information department, declined to comment for this story, citing NCAA regulations that forbid colleges and their coaches from commenting on high school players until they sign official letters-of-intent.
Thanks to some last-minute scrambling, Nelson still will sign a letter-of-intent today, but it will be with the University of Massachusetts, a Division I-AA football program.
"I guess it's just a business," Nelson said. "They're out for what they can get and sometimes things just don't go your way."
Clemson first showed interest in the 5-foot-10, 208-pound Nelson last May, when then-Tigers defensive coordinator John Lovett visited with Trivers at Northwest. Lovett met Nelson later that day, Trivers said, and took game film of Nelson back to Clemson.
"After getting back [to Clemson] from being on the road, he calls me back and says, 'Coach, we're going to offer Tony a scholarship,' " Trivers said. "'Burton Burns, the running backs coach, loves him, and I love him and Coach [Tommy] Bowden is on board with it.' "
Trivers and Nelson attended a one-day prospect camp at Clemson on June 11, where Nelson worked out with other high school running backs, toured the campus and had several meetings, including one with Bowden.
