Hazards of Hype

Mitch Sherman takes part of the blame for the Harrison Beck situation in today's Omaha World-Herald:

He (Beck) was a bust, maybe the biggest ever in Lincoln, considering the expectations heaped upon Beck two years ago in the months before he graduated from Clearwater (Fla.) Countryside High School.

Whose fault is that? Certainly not Beck's. He didn't ask for the attention.

Other factors, no doubt, helped lead to his eventual downfall. But perhaps the single most destructive force in Beck's crash-and-burn stay at Nebraska involved the unreasonable media coverage devoted to a football player who had accomplished nothing at the collegiate level.

Beck, as Bill Callahan's first star quarterback recruit, had almost no chance but to fall short of expectations.

As news media, we are guilty of fueling the fire. Beck was portrayed as a perfect prospect, the savior of a program desperate two years ago for a big personality with an even bigger right arm.

Actually, I'll blame services like Rivals and Scout.com far more. These "recruiting" services with their "star" ratings and evaluations lead some folks to believe that national championships are won in February. The rest of the media merely follow along, lemmings to Tom Lemming, setting these high school kids as the "next" Matt Leinart, the "next" Adrian Peterson. And some fans eat it up, swallowing it hook-line-and-sinker.

Now that Beck has left, it's now fashionable to bash him. I've had my concerns about Beck's maturity level, but I'm wishing him the best as he moves on. For his sake, a year at a junior college out of the spotlight might do him some good.