When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from 1-10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
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FACT OR FICTION: Greg Schiano would have been a better hire for Vols
CLASS OF 2021 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State
CLASS OF 2022 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State
COVERAGE: Rivals Transfer Tracker | Rivals Camp Series
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THE STORYLINE
Boston College has recruited well in a lot of areas across the country, especially throughout the Northeast, but the Deep South has not been a traditional recruiting spot for the Eagles even under first-year coach Jeff Hafley.
That seemed to change over the last few months as Marvin Martin, a Mississippi native who is now playing at Cedar Hill (Texas) Trinity Christian, made his pledge to the ACC program.
However, in recent days Martin has backed off that pledge and reopened his recruitment with Kansas State as a probable landing spot for the talented three-star safety. It was not an ordinary commitment in the first place and in the end, it happened that Martin was not meant for Chestnut Hill.
Boston College currently has the eighth-best class in the ACC just ahead of NC State, Florida State and Virginia Tech in the conference.
The Eagles have loaded up with talented defensive backs in this class, although keeping Martin could have opened up a new pipeline for top talent in the South.
LOCAL REACTION
"My understanding is Boston College really thinks Martin has a bright future, but there's some back story here. I'd expect BC to add a player at the position in the pretty near future. But they expect Martin to land on his feet at a good program.
"This is a really unconventional year for recruiting with no visits and the calendar so different than usual, and I think in a typical year Martin might not have even committed to Boston College in the first place. He's from Mississippi and making that transition to BC was going to be hard for anybody. He's a safety and if there are positions BC has recruited more successfully than any other under Jeff Hafley it would be those spots in the secondary." - Justin Rowland, EagleAction.com
Sting factor: 3
NATIONAL REACTION
“This wasn’t a surprise to BC and they won’t be hitting Mississippi hard in recruiting, but they will try to spot recruit Texas and this would have helped that a bit. However, this seemed more of a mural parting of ways and both sides will be better off.” — Mike Farrell, Rivals.com National Recruiting Director
Sting factor: 3