Does a verbal commitment really matter anymore?

Recently, Rivals.com covered an offensive line prospect from the state of Texas who had committed to Oklahoma State.  But because these commitments are not binding on both the side of the coaches and the players, it really is not worth a whole lot.  That was on full display this past weekend as this recruit, David Grant, had his scholarship offer pulled. 

The good news is for Grant is that he had a number of other schools before committing in early August so expect many of those schools to get back in the picture now that Oklahoma State has made their intentions known.  And because this was not too late in the process, it gives this standout plenty of time to explore other options and see new schools that he may not have looked into. 

To see the full article, click here now (It does require a Rivals subscription) but there were some things that really stood out to me in the article.  Here is a quote from Grant, "Well, they rescinded my offer because, well, my coach told me that the OSU coaches felt I wasn’t calling him enough.  I guess he thought I wasn’t really interested in going to their school and he might have thought that I was talking to other schools and might not go to their school at all so he just pulled the offer. He flew down one weekend and I wasn’t there because I had gone to a wedding."

There is little doubt that Grant is in a good situation and appears programs like Oklahoma and others will now be knocking at the door.  One thing for recruits to learn from this article is that anything can happen.  If your recruiting coach thinks that you have a rocky relationship, they can pull the offer at any time and move on in the recruiting process.  Know that if you are lucky enough to get a scholarship offer, it can be pulled at any time or other prospects can take the offer. 

I remember a few years back there was a basketball prospect who was very sought after early in his prep career.  He had offers from two of the top basketball programs in his state before his sophomore year ended.  But instead of jumping on the scholarships, he decided to wait and see what happens.  One school changed coaches and never ended up offering him again.  The other school ended up getting a commitment from his AAU teammate and closed the door on that recruiting. 

While this player is going to a solid Division I school, he is having to go out of state and try to help this school build a program instead of being apart of it somewhere else.  Like I have said, anything can happen and feel lucky that you have a scholarship offer at any level.  That is something only a select amount of players receives each year.