Guys, you have to stop bashing kids on Twitter and other platforms. They see this stuff man. If you want kids to come to this school and help the program this is not helping at all. Especially when the kid is at a local powerhouse school that continuously produces good players. Not smart at all.
Antonio Williams Twitter
- Thread starter ThatBoyCaleb
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Guys, you have to stop bashing kids on Twitter and other platforms. They see this stuff man. If you want kids to come to this school and help the program this is not helping at all. Especially when the kid is at a local powerhouse school that continuously produces good players. Not smart at all.
It happens everywhere. Every fanbase has these “grown men”. That being said, yes it is ridiculous and needs to stop across America.
I don’t have twitter, and would never put a kid down because of his or her choice of a college. If these kids are going to bash adults for bashing their choice, they should at least use spell check. Is that a thing on twitter?
That's a lousy excuse. We've been called about by prospects too much to justify it, regardless your feelings in if it's fair. The only thing I see Clemson fans say to our guys is some snark like "have fun losing" or crap like that.
Justify it? Can you read? I literally said it needs to stop.
Regardless, you’re a fool if you think these folks don’t do the same in other fanbases. Do you actually follow every recruit that might say something like this about every other school, or do you follow the guys we recruit and hear it when they say it about us because you follow us? It goes on everywhere. But it’s ridiculous across the board.
You have never heckle players, have you???
It happens everywhere. Every fan base has its nut jobs. My suggestion to any athlete such as Williams…grow thicker skin and learn to ignore it. Oh, also, $20 the guy who wrote him in that tweet is a Clemmy fan.
Oh you can best believe there are posters soon to chime in here that will swear to you nothing any of us say or do can possibly affect our team or our chances of success. No amount of posting on message boards, tweeting, Facebook posting, letters to the editor, not even complaining to friends could ever be construed as an overly negative fan base and a part of the kids decision about where he might want to go to school. They will assure you it could never happen.
Anyone can troll another schools board and make it appear that comment is from their board. We have so many Clemson trollers on this board it is beyond belief. I do not have any negative comments to say about Antonio Williams, but I will say a lot more goes on in recruiting than what we are aware of. This is part of the world we live in. All schools have issues to deal with from other schools. One last thing there is more to the Antonio Williams recruitment that we will never know.
I don’t think anyone really will deny this. I know for a fact their coaches in college will tell them over and over again to stay off boards like this. Honestly, this is a bad representation of the Gamecock Fanbase, just as Twitter is a bad representation of the real world. It’s not a real place. The vast majority of fans are reasonable and hate that we missed out on the kid and hate to see him at Clemson. But reasonable fans will wonder how we lost a kid in our backyard and wonder how we can keep that from happening again, rather than heckling him for going to Clemson or any other school.
I will say people see and hear what they want to hear. Deep down they know it would be the same if they chose us over them. We saw it with Clowney, Burch, Pickens, etc…. These recruits are praised until they sign or commit somewhere else. When they don’t get the player, he’s all of a sudden not as good as people think or people just say stupid stuff. But we didn’t lose this kid because folks bashed him on Twitter. We lost him and then he got bashed on Twitter. That being said, fans who bash them are morons because we all know a commitment means nothing until the player is signed. But whether or not we could get him, the bashing is foolish.
Still, you can look up every single player in the top 300 and some fanbase is likely bashing them unless it’s just a situation where the kid has been committed to a place since day one. It’s remarkable how people don’t understand everyone doesn’t feel about their university the same way they do. Heck, I’ve stated many times that if my son were a 5* recruit, I wouldn’t discourage him from going to SC, but I wouldn’t encourage it either. I know there are better schools to go to for football, academics, etc. I still love my Alma Mater. No reason to hammer kids that choose otherwise. They’re kids. And they aren’t emotionally attached like some of us who have attended, graduated, or even pulled for us for years. But it is the same everywhere. And in each case it is foolish and pathetic.
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Only at the ballpark and it will be a while before I catch up or break even to all my sarge Frye antics
Really good post. And my ADD usually doesn’t allow my attention span to read something this long…LOL.
We don’t lose recruits because of what is said on social media and if we do those kids are so soft they won’t cut it in the SEC anyway. It’s never ok to bash a teenager for where they go to college. At the same time, no one picks a school because they have the most positive Twitter account.
My bad, I was distracted and I think I leaped back and forth over something. If seems the schools that recruit better don't get that bent out of shape because I've seen their fans (Georgia's and Bamas if the world) react way better when we get them. I also see Florida fans amused by the chaos just accept that they're not getting anything this season. I've seen LSU, Tennessee, Texas fans react like this, but I've seen it hurt us when the ones who beat us can afford to have a more "win-some, lose-some attitude, I understand the difference, and they'd all probably react worse if they changed places with us in recruiting, but it still sucks for how we perceived. Sorry I replied to half your post.
And social media gives them a platform nuts couldn't have dreamt of 20 years ago.
And if you assume everything you read online is put there by "grown men," you are misunderstanding the platform.
I can tell you from working in a school the kids read social media and talk about it. I can’t speak on how much it truly plays into decisions. However, human nature makes it impossible for some of the comments to sting.
That said, I was surprised he didn’t end up with Kiffin and that offense…unless he didn’t figure Kiffin would be there long enough.
That said, I was surprised he didn’t end up with Kiffin and that offense…unless he didn’t figure Kiffin would be there long enough.
Nope. Social Media, for the very most part, is awful. People have no filter. They say things they feel that they’d never say face to face.
Shane will learn something quickly about his pal dabo. Tateru and everyone associated with them bad mouths USC to every recruit, family member, and a majority of the high school coaches. It's been going on forever but dabo has pushed this behavior more and more. I'm not saying it had anything to do with this guy, but our coaches need to learn ASAP on how dirty things are.
Dude, I literally had a 2-week argument with a couple of posters on here just a couple of months ago about exactly this. They don't believe anything the fans do affects the team in any way.
If "social media" has such a strong impact on recruiting why did this kid pick clemmy? Carolina fans kissed his ass right up until he committed to clemp.
Fact is NOTHING any nut or loser on the internet says on social media has anything to do with where these kids sign. They might use it as a crutch/excuse but they go where they want without worrying about any bad tweets or losers and imposters on FGF! posting bad things.
Fact is NOTHING any nut or loser on the internet says on social media has anything to do with where these kids sign. They might use it as a crutch/excuse but they go where they want without worrying about any bad tweets or losers and imposters on FGF! posting bad things.
No one said it has such a strong impact. Not that I know of anyway.
What I am saying is, why I risk it? Is it so hard to be complimentary to the school you supposedly love? Is it that hard to keep negative thoughts and words to yourself until the cards have been dealt?
I can explain it to you but you surely will not agree.
Here is the simple answer...... The internet and social media does not exist just so some snot nosed high school boy can be told he is great and never get his feelings hurt. It also exists for the loser who wants to trash him.
No argument about that from me whatsoever. It absolutely exists so people can be assholes. But I won't be doing it, not when it hurts my own school. It's about making better choices, but you know that.
I don't think you read his whole post. He said:
"But we didn’t lose this kid because folks bashed him on Twitter. We lost him and then he got bashed on Twitter. "
Was there something else about this story that led you to believe message boards caused this kids decision?
Wait, isn't this exactly what happened? The negativity was unleashed after the cards had been dealt and he chose another school, right?
Do you have real factual proof that it was a Carolina fan? You do know it’s possible to make up an account to make it look as if it belongs to someone else. Just sayin…
That’s because they live in a no-accountability bubble. Because to admit otherwise would mean they need to change their behavior.
Was there anything about this story that said message boards made this kids decision? Or, as has been pointed out, did the backlash hit him after he committed elsewhere?
You've made your point. Honestly wasn't declaring such a distinction nor do I care. It's the constant negativity before, after, during, or otherwise that is detrimental. I know you disagree so carry on...
I remembered sitting with Sterling Sharpe at the basketball games, heckling the ball players.. Coach Foster wanted the hecklers to do our magic with the basketball program...
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But his point is you have no proof that it's detrimental. That back and forth you mentioned having earlier had you proclaiming that so-called "negativity" somehow had an adverse effect on the team's on-field play.
Another poster rightfully pointed our that Michigan fans were frothing at the mouth and ready to run off Harbaugh on a rail this very year. And yet here they are in the CFP with a decent chance to play for the national title.
Doesn't seem like internet angst hurt them very much this year, does it?
Lol... Just because it didn't happen to affect this recruit this time means nothing. One anecdotal episode doesn't change the fact that negativity can be damaging. My original comment in this thread was in response to the original poster confirming that the kids DO see this stuff and it does matter. The fact that those comments happen to have come after he committed to another team is inconsequential to the fact that he did see the comments and they do matter. I stand by my opinion. These things can hurt recruiting.
What your Michigan example proves is that the fans were dead wrong and probably should have shut up all along! So I don't think that confirms your side of the argument at all.
But you go on believing
there's no repercussions for constant negativity. Continue believing your actions are without consequence. Hell of a way to go through life.
