Penn State’s offensive line coach sent out a pretty interesting tweet on Monday morning, saying the school has stopped recruiting a high school prospect because of his “social media presence,” likely meaning his Twitter account.
Dropped another prospect this AM due to his social media presence…Actually glad I got to see the 'real' person before we offered him.
— Herb Hand (@CoachHand) July 30, 2014
Herb Hand then followed up that tweet by linking to a Bleacher Report article titled “NFL Teams Make Prospects’ Draft Stocks Plummet by Probing for Character Flaws.”
THIS–>RT @fieldhousemedia:"We have every tweet they have ever made.When we interview them,we’ll ask them." http://t.co/yRR5VVEZvQ"
— Herb Hand (@CoachHand) May 2, 2014
It isn’t exactly earth-shattering breaking news that a person’s social media presence can turn them off from a potential employer or, in this case, scholarship, but it’s also something that people seem to often forget. It probably happens a lot more than we know of in college athletics, but just so happens that this one was publicly shared by Penn State’s coaching staff.
Good rule of thumb to keep in mind if you’re a highly-touted prospect: Don’t be a dumbass online.
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