The Early Offer is RecruitingNation's regular feature, giving you a daily dose of recruiting in the mornings. Today’s offerings: Almost every recruiter will tell you he’s against the idea of offering middle-school prospects. But when a “can’t-miss prospect” comes along, the rules of the game suddenly change, as they did with Zadock Dinkelmann.
Dinkelmann’s going to be different
LSU’s decision to offer and accept a commitment from Zadock Dinkelmann, the eighth-grade quarterback from Somerset (Texas) Junior High School, was met with a lot of criticism by media observers and fans across the country. Hopefully, Dinkelmann, the nephew of former Heisman Trophy quarterback Ty Detmer, stayed away from social media because some of the comments were downright nasty and uncalled for. But the discussion about Dinkelmann’s age -- he’s only 14, by the way -- and LSU’s insistence in offering him before he’s even taken a snap of varsity football, is fair game in my opinion.
When I talked to coaches at the American Football Coaches Association convention in January, I heard nothing but criticism about the idea of offering eighth graders. But as I talked to coaches again on Saturday and Sunday after the news broke about Dinkelmann’s commitment, it became clear that LSU’s offer wasn’t going to be the only one he would have received this spring.
“This kid is the real deal. You can tell by just watching him throw the ball in 7-on-7s and other things that he’s a can’t-miss prospect,” said one Big 12 coach who recruits Somerset, which is just southwest of San Antonio. “I cringe when I hear about middle-schoolers getting offers, and I hate the idea that we’ve gotten to this point with recruiting, but I know we were thinking hard about offering, too. If you know a quarterback is going to be good, you have to offer him now because they’re the first to come off the board.
“I’ve always said there’s no way I would ever offer an eighth-grader, but times have changed.”
Critics were quick to compare Dinkelmann’s situation to David Sills, who was 13 when he committed to USC in 2010. Sills was a prodigy who was tutored by nationally-recognized quarterback guru Steve Clarkson, but he hasn’t turned into the elite prospect people envisioned. Sills, who is going to be a senior this season at Elkton (Md.) Eastern Christian Academy, is only a three-star prospect, and the Trojans recently took the commitment of No. 2-ranked Ricky Town of Ventura (Calif.) St. Bonaventure.
However, something tells me Dinkelmann’s situation is going to be different. He already is 6-4 and 190-plus pounds, and he had to play middle school ball with a varsity-sized football because his hands were too big for the lower-level ball. He’s also been a regular at underclassmen events, and camp organizers told me he “made throws you often don’t see from juniors in high school.”
But most importantly, he’s a Detmer, the nation’s first family for quarterbacks.
Dinkelmann is the son of Ty Detmer's sister, Dee. Dinkelmann's father, Johan Dinkelmann, played at Cincinnati. Dinkelmann will play at Somerset for his grandfather, Sonny Detmer, a Texas high school coaching legend and Ty's father. Koy Detmer, Sonny's other son, is an assistant for the Bulldogs, and his son, Koy Detmer Jr., is one of the top quarterbacks in the 2015 class in the Lone Star State.
“The fact that he has grown up in a football family where everybody he knows has either played college football or college basketball or has coached helps tremendously,” Johan Dinkelmann said. “It’s not really an expectation because of his family, it’s a given that he’s going to go play college football somewhere for somebody at some time.”
Now only time will tell if he truly does pan out.