[BostonCard]

Although there were definitely some cases where Harbaugh gave recruits the cold shoulder, and a couple where recruits looked elsewhere, I seem to recall that most of the decomitments were because of admissions casualties.  Many of the cases where a recruit publicly backed off his commitment to "explore other options" it was because either test scores or grades were below the targets or they got an early negative word from admissions.

The blog quotes one article as saying

Stanford's elite admissions turned away a few prospects, and one could argue it was the school not Harbaugh that had final say, but a staff should have a pretty good feel from the onset which players have the grades to be admitted and those that do not. At Stanford, Harbaugh was willing to accept pledges from an abundance of borderline prospects.

Yes, it is true that Harbaugh accepted pledges from borderline (for Stanford) prospects.  Still, that this comes from a perspective where there are hard lines in the sand as for what is admittable, or where has a certain number of chips that they may cash in.  Admissions at Stanford is an inexact science in the best of cases, and in the early years Harbaugh had a little bit of difficulty coming to grips with the reality of the process.

BC

[BostonCard]

Although there were definitely some cases where Harbaugh gave recruits the cold shoulder, and a couple where recruits looked elsewhere, I seem to recall that most of the decomitments were because of admissions casualties.  Many of the cases where a recruit publicly backed off his commitment to "explore other options" it was because either test scores or grades were below the targets or they got an early negative word from admissions.

The blog quotes one article as saying

Stanford's elite admissions turned away a few prospects, and one could argue it was the school not Harbaugh that had final say, but a staff should have a pretty good feel from the onset which players have the grades to be admitted and those that do not. At Stanford, Harbaugh was willing to accept pledges from an abundance of borderline prospects.

Yes, it is true that Harbaugh accepted pledges from borderline (for Stanford) prospects.  Still, that this comes from a perspective where there are hard lines in the sand as for what is admittable, or where has a certain number of chips that they may cash in.  Admissions at Stanford is an inexact science in the best of cases, and in the early years Harbaugh had a little bit of difficulty coming to grips with the reality of the process.

BC