Many felt the recruiting of Clayton Northmont star defensive end Nii Adjei Oninku ended with his verbal to Michigan State. We were wrong, or were we.
In a turn of events, the Spartans pulled the offer off the table after
getting his verbal. It seems the Spartans staff had offered Nii Adjei during the
summer, along with Kansas State, Louisville, Pittsburgh , Kentucky and Iowa.
Nii Adjei then took an offical visit to the East Lansing campus and gave the
Spartans his verbal commitment. But as Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast my
friend" It seems that Spartans head coach John L. Smith had a different plan.
Smith was out of town and doing work for the Spartans trip to the Alamo Bowl
during the visit. When he returned he informed Oninku that
the offer had been pulled and the Spartans would be taking two JUCO players at
his position instead of him.
The problem for Nii Adjei was that when he called both Pittsburgh and Iowa,
he was informed they had filled his offer with other recruits.
While we often see players changing their commitments, its very rare to see a
school pull a stunt like this. This should have recruits taking notice into the
practices of the Spartans recruiting and open several high school athletes eyes
about opening their recruitment.
***OPS NOTES*** Until you sign your letter of
intent, any school that has made you an offer can pull the offer for any reason.
Even if you gave them a verbal commitment, and they said yes.
***