High School Football Player Commits To Florida, Was Catfished And Never Actually Got An Offer

Dan Regester11 years ago

Within the last few years, high school football players have all tried to cash in on 15 minutes of relevance with their college announcements. ESPN has an entire day dedicated to these overhyped assholes putting on a hat. Hell, any two-star recruit will set up a press conference in his high school gymnasium and try to fake out the one local reporter covering the event by pulling the ol’ ballcap switcharoo. It’s overplayed, and honestly, it doesn’t mean a damn thing to fans until you start making plays on the field. Jeff Driskel was a five-star recruit, after all. How’s that working out for you, Gator fans?

Speaking of the Gators, three-star defensive end recruit Houhsun Gaines, a senior from Nash Central High School in Rocky Mount, N.C., just committed to play at the Swamp. There’s one problem though: Will Muschamp and company never gave him an official offer.

From The Rocky Mount Telegram:

Friday at a ceremony in front of family and friends, Gaines committed to what he thought was a scholarship offer to play for the University of Florida.

For the past month and a half, Gaines had thought he was communicating on social media with a member of the Gators coaching staff. He said just minutes after he committed on Friday, that person was Florida assistant coach Brad Lawing.

But that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Gaines – according to Nash Central athletics director Michael Mosley – was catfished.

Society has officially hit a new low. Sure, there are plenty of lonely, low-life people on the internet who will pretend to be your girlfriend–we haven’t forgotten you, Manti–but to fuck with a high schooler’s future is a completely different animal. What kind of asshole troll spends months of his time convincing a kid to accept a nonexistent scholarship?

But at the same time, Houhsun, you’re at fault here, too. Going completely off of Twitter direct messages from an unofficial Florida account is anything but a smart strategy when picking a school.

Florida coaches were, unsurprisingly, shocked to hear news of the commitment.

None of them were expecting Gaines, a three-star recruit with other offers from Virginia Tech, N.C. State and Miami, to commit to the Gators.

Mosley said that Florida coaches expressed on Friday that they still have interest in Gaines (they did after all verbally offer him last spring when they passed through Nash Central High) but that interest isn’t to the point of accepting a verbal commitment.

“There is a commitment from Florida, but it’s not a commitment as far as what took place (on Friday). They want to see more from him, and that’s their exact words,” Mosley said.

Gaines will have plenty of time to show the coaching staff more. National Signing Day isn’t until Feb. 4.

Houhsun, maybe this time around, either wait for a coach to visit and get some proper documentation, or at least look for an email from a .edu account before committing to a university..

[via The Rocky Mount Telegram]

Image via Adam Jennings