Academic issues for signees
Most of UCLA's freshmen football class will move in Sunday and begin summer school Monday, but three signees are in danger of not qualifying academically and have academic issues to clean up during the summer in order to enroll when August training camp begins.
Irvine High offensive/defensive lineman Nik Abele and Long Beach Jordan linebacker Taniela Maka both have work to do before being accepted into UCLA, according to sources.
Both players still have the possibility of taking care of their academic business before training camp begins, and if they do, both will enroll. However, if the academic situation is not rectified, either or both could still enroll in January 2010.
Also, as previously reported, Mt. SAC offensive lineman Eddie Williams has course work to complete and, provided he completes it, will enroll in August.
This whole academic qualification thing confuses me. Don't the coaching staff and the recruits themselves know whether or not they're academically qualified to enter the hallowed doors of UCLA before they sign on the dotted line? I always wanted to attend UCLA, and being from out of state, I knew I had to work my tushie off my senior year at Scottsdale High to get in. After graduation, I realized that I still wasn't qualified, having goofed off my first 2 years of high school, so I enrolled at Phoenix College, spent 2 years breaking my butt lifting my overall average and finally was able to get into my favorite university. Point being, I always knew where I stood with the academic side of things. Why can't these young players do the same thing? And why can't our coaching staff check on the players' grade-point averages before even offering them? The disappointment of losing top players due to academic enrollment deficiencies is gut-wrenching.
I'm not sure there is any bright-line rule that UCLA's Admissions Staff stands by. As a result, its probably hard for UCLA's coaches to advise these kids on what exactly they need to do to be admitted. They look at overall gpa but also progress made and other indicators that give that indicate to them that the student-athlete will succeed at UCLA. Its too bad about Nik and Tani. I hope that they do what they need to do in this summer and are able to enroll in the fall. Luckily, neither were going to be counted on to contribute and I think UCLA and both kids will be fine if their enrollment is delayed a bit.
Good luck to both of you future bruins. The work will be worth it - trust me.
No offense to Abele and Maka, but I am really glad it wasn't one of our prized recruits
taylor embree was a one star recruit... just saying.
Rick's taking chances of this class of recruits? Hope it doesn't backfire big-time if a lot of them fail to qualify. That would lead to a severe shortage.
Losing Abele would probably hurt. I hate to see lost recruits from DT and O-line positions. I'm trying not to get concerned with the recruiting situation. The "not getting enough love" sentiments surprise me. Hoping bruins will land new commits soon. Trusting in Rick, Norm and other coaches to deliver.
Brian, this is not good if both of these guys go to public schools. Abele may be OK as there is summer school in OC this year, but LA school district has no summer school. Could this be why Koster was taken as a back up?
bbruin and others:
Typically what happens in these cases is that a student, whether athelete or not, will be given notice of admission to the school based on their first semester performance. Typically this means that a student must complete their UC prerequisite subjects with at least a C. Therefore, if Abele or Maka got say a D or worse in a core competency like English or Math and such, they would be required to get a C or better before landing on campus. This happened to me when I had a family tragedy that caused me to have to drop my Calculus class. I simply went to Adult School and completed the course in independent study and got an A. I brought the Adult School transcript to UCLA and it was all good. It only took me about two weeks. You finish these packets independently and then take tests. You can knock out weeks of class in one day.
I assuming this is what happened to them. If so, they could make up a passing grade at Adult School. If this is what happened with these two, there is no way UCLA would know unless the kid told the school beforehand or until we received their final transcripts. It is possible that these kids did not know whether or not they would get the minimum C they needed in a class until after finals.
Brian, is Rick still short of scholarships?
Did Andrew Curtis get invited to camp? 2-way starter from Loyola High admitted with an academic scholarship. great player, great kid.
People, these athlete-students didn't get into UCLA because they were smart.
Football is their major. As long as they can read the name on the back of their jerseys the NCAA should just let them play.
veriteAMDG,
Word around Loyola is that Curtis will join the team in January of freshman year so I don't think he was invited to camp. He was offered a spot to walk on at USC and Oregon State...didn't know he earned an academic scholarship to UCLA. Just another succesful Loyola student athlete!