Lineman rebounds after his ASU snub

Frank Thompson happily will sign a national letter of intent on Wednesday to play football for Stephen F. Austin, a university in Nacogdoches, Texas. His parents, Robin and Eric, will beam with pride during the ceremony at Frank’s school, Peoria Liberty High.

And all involved will be relieved that Frank’s recruiting is over, because while all ended well, the process involved more tears and anguish than any of them imagined.

That’s because Frank took Arizona State up on its offer of a scholarship last summer, then gradually watched the Sun Devils back away until Dec. 10, when they called to tell Frank the offer was rescinded.

Eric was traveling that day, eight days before the early signing period started, when Frank called him.

“I’m in the airport in Cincinnati and my kid calls, crying,” he said.

The Thompsons aren’t looking for sympathy. They hesitated to tell their story at all, because Frank is excited to be signing with Stephen F. Austin, and the school’s coaches apparently are excited to add the 6-foot-3, 285-pound offensive lineman from a team that won the 6A title in Arizona.

They are telling it, they said, in the hopes that other athletes and their parents might learn something from their experience.

Frank preferred his parents tell this

story. He’s busy with school and preparing for the state wrestling tournament later this month.

It started last June when Frank attended a big man’s camp at ASU. Frank had a good day, Sun Devil offensive line coach Dave Christensen was impressed and offered Frank a scholarship then.

A few days later Frank accepted and called coaches at Northern Arizona, which was recruiting him hard. Trips to visit San Diego State and Boise State were cancelled.

It was Frank’s “dream offer,” his parents said. The family is full of life-long Sun Devil fans. One of Frank’s greatgrandfathers, Richard Law, won a varsity letter there in 1949. On his desk, Eric has a bottle of Coke commemorating the Sun Devils victory over Michigan in the 1987 Rose Bowl .

“You’re going to help get us another one of those,” Eric told his son.

Frank’s senior football season was challenging. He suffered a concussion in the season opener and missed the next game. On the first play of the third game, he suffered a broken bone in a foot, but played on it throughout the season.

In late October, ASU informed the Thompsons they wanted to “blue-shirt” Frank. Players in that category report to their first camp without a scholarship, and any future aid would count against the following year’s scholarship totals.

Looking back, it was a sign that ASU’s interest was waning. Looking back, Frank probably should have re-opened his recruiting then. Looking back, ASU should have made a clean break from Frank then.

But the Sun Devils didn’t. And ASU was Frank’s dream school, so he and his parents agreed to the blue-shirt arrangement.

Then on Dec. 10, Frank received a text from Al Luginbill, ASU’s director of player personnel, asking Frank to call him. Frank did and was told the scholarship offer had been pulled.

Early signing day was just more than a week away. Many schools, big and small, had moved on and filled their scholarship spots. Frank and his parents feel fortunate Stephen F. Austin wanted Frank.

But

ASU?

Was it based on performance? The kid played hurt all season.

Maybe ASU didn’t know that. Academics? Frank was on target to graduate and start classes at ASU in January, just as Sun Devils coaches requested.

Or did ASU determine it made a mistake in the first place by offering Frank a scholarship? And then compounded it by not rescinding the offer sooner? I’m guessing it was the latter. “We just wish Arizona State would have had that figured out before Frank what happened, exactly, with got caught in the middle of said.

Through the school’s media relations department, ASU coaches and Luginbill declined comment, because it’s a NCAA rules violation to discuss recruits who have not signed letters of intent.

Frank’s coach at Liberty, Mark Smith, declined comment other than to say what happened was “unfortunate.”

What this isn’t is a unique experience in college sports.

Promises are broken all the time. It’s not unusual for a football program to make hundreds of offers during one single recruiting season. It’s not unusual for athletes to change their minds, “decommit,” and then commit to another school, sometimes at the last minute.

In this case, however, it was the youngest person involved who did everything right. It was the adults at ASU who made the mistakes.

What is a bit unusual about Frank’s situation is that ASU backed away from an Arizona kid who plays at a high school, Liberty, that has a history of success and produces its share of college prospects.

“It seems kind of like bad business,” said Jason Jewell, who ran a recruiting service for in-state players before becoming Brophy’s head coach last year. “You’d think you’d want to keep the relationship with them.”

Jewell added that he’s never had an issue with ASU coaches, who have been on campus numerous times in his tenure.

If they were allowed to talk, ASU officials likely would admit mistakes were made. The Sun Devils are trying hard to convince the best Arizona kids to stay at home, and they haven’t had much success.

Maybe Frank’s story won’t hurt their efforts, but it certainly won’t help.

If the Thompsons had to do it over again, they wouldn’t have been in a rush to take the first offer that came from a member of a Power Five Conference. They would have kept their options open for a longer period of time.

But they were so excited by the offer, and to put an end to the recruiting process.

“It’s a very said.

Chances are, things will work out just fine for Frank. By all accounts, he’s a good kid. He loves the coaches at Stephen F. Austin and has a chance to play as a freshman.

So, the smiles today at Liberty will be genuine, despite the drama of the last seven months.

At first, Eric and Robin were worried that re-telling the tale might take away from today’s moment, but quickly changed their minds.

“Maybe there is some family out there who needs to hear this,” Robin said. “That’s why we’re doing it.”

Maybe there’s a college football staff who can benefit from hearing it, too. stressful it,” Robin thing,” Robin