Three-Point Stance: Silly camp war, Big 12 recruiting, fifth-grade QB

Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell’s Three-Point Stance is here with the LSU-Texas satellite camp battle, a look at the new and exciting Big 12 recruiting landscape and even more recruiting ridiculousness.

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It’s not a good look for Ed Orgeron, honestly. For the third time this offseason, Orgeron and LSU forced the cancellation of an in-state satellite camp that the Texas Longhorns were going to attend by pressuring local high school coaches and authorities.

The latest cancellation, a camp that was to be held at Div. III Belhaven University, frankly just gives Tom Herman more fuel in recruiting than if the camp actually went off as scheduled. Now Herman, who was LSU’s first choice to replace Les Miles before Texas took him away, can point out to every big-time Louisiana prospect that LSU is afraid of the Longhorns when it comes to recruiting. Far-fetched? Perhaps, but recruiting is all about spin, momentum and notoriety and Orgeron has given Herman all three by overreacting.

In many ways all the media attention about this is a massive win for Herman. He looks like the good guy, the coach who wants to give kids in Louisiana a fair shot to earn a big offer to Texas while Orgeron plays the villain, the petty coach who doesn’t want a recruiting rival working with his in-state kids. This is the way it will be played out by the coaches in Austin and heck, other programs might just uses it against LSU as well.

Orgeron is under tremendous pressure in Baton Rouge to not only flex his known recruiting muscles but to also win the SEC West and a national title in the next two or three seasons. Herman is under similar pressure to win the Big 12 and return Texas to the top, but right now it looks like the new coach at Texas is under the skin of a big-time recruiting rival in the big, bad SEC. Not only did Herman flip LSU commitment Caden Sterns this spring, but now he’s on the good end of the public relations fallout over these cancellations.

LSU-Texas has always been an intense recruiting rivalry, at least since I’ve been covering recruiting (Ryan Perriloux ring a bell to anyone?) and now it’s heating up even more. Based on the latest happenings, I’d say advantage Texas.

Speaking of Herman, he has some company now at the top of the Big 12 when it comes to young, exciting recruiters as Lincoln Riley takes over at Oklahoma.

Remember when Big Ten recruiting was somewhat boring? There were very few flips, there wasn’t a ton of animosity between coaches vying for recruits and not a ton of attention was paid to recruiting battles. Then what happened? Urban Meyer arrived and flipped the conference upside-down, changing the way many programs recruited. And he was later joined by Jim Harbaugh at Michigan and the the Big Ten has been one of the most exciting conferences to cover ever since.

More recently, remember when Big 12 recruiting was boring? The focus on Big 12 recruiting, from a national perspective at least, was about a lack of five-stars choosing the conference, how being considered the weakest of the Power Five conferences was hurting recruiting all while commitment flips were few and far between. Now, with Herman at Texas and Riley replacing Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, the Big 12 is in the news again. Herman has been flipping kids from other programs, including Oklahoma, and already Riley is returning serve by swiping defensive lineman Ron Tatum away from the Longhorns. And Herman’s dust-up with LSU can only help the Big 12 brand as it tries to keep the SEC and other conference out of their geographic footprint while trying to steal a few from SEC country as well.

The more public battles the Big 12 can get into with other power programs in addition to the budding recruiting rivalry between Herman and Riley will lead to more recruiting interest for the conference from big-time prospects.

Okay Hawaii, you did it. You outdid Lane Kiffin when it comes to ridiculous “look at me” recruiting stunts. I don’t know much about Hawaii head coach Nick Rolovich, but I know this: offering 5th grade quarterback Titan Lacaden is beyond ridiculous. This is nothing against the 11-year-old at all, but the NCAA really needs to put an age limit on verbal offers to recruits now because you know Kiffin is scouting 3rd and 4th grade film as we speak. My goodness.