Scotty Beam Me Up to UCLA

I shine and rhyme at the same time
The mastermind of the sport called the rhyme...

No surprise that Darrell Scott is leaving the CU program. We’ve been hinting at it all year in our PROPS and DROPS, and while on the surface this may seem as no big deal and a “don’t let the door hit ya” type deal, the long term effects will be pretty substantial.

Let’s get the easy parts out of the way. Yes, he showed up out of shape, he was beat out by a 5-7 no-star player, and he struggled to learn the playbook. And yep, he’s going to UCLA with his uncle MC Josh Smith and that great mentor of running backs Rick Neuheisel. Uh-huh, Scott didn’t really show that huge break away speed, the crazy jukes, or even straight knock you in the mouth mojo- he wasn’t the next Adrian Peterson as many thought. Yes sir, he bailed on teammates in mid year, on an already sinking ship.

All that pales to the message this sends to the recruiting life line of any college football program: that five star recruits not need apply. CU has to make its hot spot Southern California and their native son is returning home after a failed Boulder experiment. Think other SoCal kids won’t take notice? They don’t care that Rodney Stewart is better, all they hear from their man is that he got ganked.

For a program who is currently 11th in the conference in recruiting (looking up at Baylor!?) this won’t be good. Cut throats like Neuheisel, Steve Sarkisian, and other Pac-10ers can and will use this. “Hey blue chipper, I love Boulder, but look at what happened to Darrell there. They brought him in to return kicks!”

Would a 17 year old kid take that to heart? Throw in Dan Hawkins and his ineptitude at the helm? You bet your ass he would, and like Darrell Scott he’d take his football up and down the West Coast rather than to Boulder.