The Baby QB’s JC Journey Begins

SILLS.WR.2I’m not sure you want to read yet another story on David Sills, but this is a long one from Bleacher Report. It seems to blame Sills’ overhyped reputation on Lane Kiffin offering Sills a scholarship as a 13-year-old prodigy.

That seems harsh and I’m no Kiffin fan. What about the benefit to Steve Clarkson, who could say he coached a 13-year-old that had an offer from USC? Or Sills’ father, who helped build the football facilities at Red Lion Christian Academy. And then created Eastern Christian Academy, which the story says had a student body where 90 percent played football.

No, there were a lot more people than Kiffin to blame for Sills’ overblown reputation. Next week he starts playing for El Camino College in Torrance. Full story here

 

20 thoughts on “The Baby QB’s JC Journey Begins

  1. I read the article and there is enough blame to go around aside from Sills himself. It sickens me when “adults” who claim to have a child’s best interest at heart use that child as a pawn to increase their program’s visibility; like a school like USC needs to enhance their football programs visibility by offering a 13 year old a scholarship, or increase their own business profile, Clarkson. And lets not leave Daddy Dearest out of this also. He reveled in all of the attention this charade received. In short, there is no way this kid will ever live up to the hype and he more than likely be known as a bust.
    #dreammakermya$$

    • You are so right. Just ask Naked Todd if his parents pushed him a bit. Early childhood classes cite his case as the worst case scenario of kids living up to parents dreams.

  2. I have to agree with SW on this one. You can’t blame Kiffin for offering a kid at age 13, its always good to get the jump on talent and I’m sure this was a learning lesson for Lane going forward to evaluate kids longer and closely before making an impulse decision. Kiffin offered the kid, but at the same time you could say the parents should have held him back from making a commitment or kept it under wraps so it wouldn’t be a distraction. And maybe Steve Clarkson was feeding the parents and Kiffin crap and wasn’t pumping the kid up too much. I feel sorry for him, but I hope he gets a shot soon.

    • Steve’s end game is making money .. The kid probably showed some skills for his age and it was shared with Kiffin who is close friends with Clarkson.

      By doing this Clarkson is at fault, and yes the kid probably thought he was great ..

      Here is where the NCAA should step in and enforce a no commitment policy to under age kids.. Or that school loses an opportunity to sign a full class (-1)..

      Poor kid has jumped around too much, feel bad that he was taken for a ride by Clarkson .. Lesson learned I bet!

      • If there was a rule put in I think Junior year should be the earliest for a kid to make a commitment, and immediately after their sophomore year would be a good time to allow offers to be made to players, anything before that might build up pressure or impulse decisions on a high schooler.

        • They’ll never be able to enforce a rule dictating when a kid can tell a school he’s coming, especially since commits aren’t binding anyway. It’s a free country and some really good kids who are superior athletes know absolutely where they want to play in college before they’re in high school. They call it a childhood dream. IMHO those kids should have the right to commit whenever they want.

      • Rather than a “no commitment policy” there should be a “no offer policy” – the problem arrises not because of the commitment but because of the publicity surrounding the offer. Plus you are better off policing the schools and not the players.

  3. Did Sills take advantage of the system or did the system take advantage of Sills? Both.

    The kid is still trying to hang onto his dream and he’s being given plenty of opportunity to do so. He was clearly over-rated, just like about 1/3 of the other highly-pubbed prospects at all positions out there. There’s hundreds of them every year.

    Sills and his dad were both happy to suck in all the recog from a system that thrives on handing it out to make a buck. Nobody’s at fault here. It’s just business as usual. Some dreams come true. Some don’t.

    Kiffin probably thought he had a real tiger by the tail, but he turned out to be wrong. Just a gamble that didn’t pay off but was never gonna hurt USC anyway. Nobody was harmed. It’s not Clarkson’s fault the kid hasn’t panned out so far as a QB. It’s Sills’ fault. Much ado about nothing.

  4. I completely agree with Scott Wolf. Never thought I ever would but I do. I for one, and I am sure there are many, do not want to read another story on the David Sills fail. I don’t. But will that stop the blogger? Of course not. He thrives on this crap. He is obsessed.

  5. Sills isn’t at USC. Kiffin isn’t at USC. How is this “Inside USC” and even relevant to USC now as it prepares for a huge game against Alabama?

  6. Welcome to the Inside El Camino blog. Everything You ever wanted to know about never were quarterbacks and nothing about USC.

  7. It is easy for me to be on my high horse because I wasn’t an elite athlete and my kid wasn’t one either. But , that being said, I could not finish the whole article.I found it to be upsetting a bit disgusting. David Sills was a kid when this entire debacle started and not one single adult protected him or looked out for his well being. They can say all they want about David being driven and special and wanting to pursue his dream; but the reality is that every single adult failed this kid. It was their responsibility to ask the questions and make the hard decisions. As adults they had the benefit of having life experiences and David did not. IMO , all of this mess falls at their feet.

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