RECRUITING DOT-COM PLAYERS, COACHES CAUGHT IN WEB OF INFORMATION - AND MISINFORMATION.

Byline: Matthew Kredell Staff Writer

Steve Smith loathes answering the phone. The ring alone, comforting to most teen-agers, makes him grimace.

Most of the time, he won't even pick up the receiver. He leaves that to his father, Steve Sr., who recently added caller ID to the phone bill.

``Internet recruiting sites always want an update,'' said Smith, one of the top recruits in the nation from Taft High of Woodland Hills. ``We had to tell them to stop calling. It's getting pretty bad. At first, it was kind of exciting. But when they keep calling all the time, it gets on my nerves a bit.''

College football recruiting hasn't begun to heat up. Smith said he won't make his decision on a school until near signing day in February - a journey that will be documented weekly, and eventually daily, online.

Smith can do without the attention because he's received enough already, thanks to the Internet. In the past, even though his 185 receptions during the past two years speak for themselves, he would have had to send out highlight tapes and attend camps put on by colleges for exposure.

None of that is necessary anymore. There is no need to show coaches his talent. It has been discussed on the Internet since he was a sophomore.

The Internet has had the greatest impact on college football recruiting since the video camera. Recruiting is now year-round and throughout the nation, regardless of the school.

There are no dead periods. In times when coaches can't talk to athletes by NCAA rules, they can read what the players say about their schools online.

There are no players under the radar, hidden away in small towns. Everyone is out in the open.

``In the old days, you might be able to hide a guy under the rocks, so to speak,'' UCLA coach Bob Toledo said. ``There are no surprises anymore. Everybody knows everybody else's business.''

It can be a hassle for elite players such as Smith, and coaches complain about inaccurate information. But no major university and few top athletes will make a decision without first scouting the Net.

``It's truly a different world,'' Oregon State coach Dennis Erickson said. ``You can sometimes find out more about a kid on the Internet than by talking to him. They seem to talk to (the sites) a lot and say more than they would to a coach. If you thought you had a good shot at a kid and they don't even mention you, then you know you're in trouble.''

Changes

The Internet became one of the most important tools in recruiting almost overnight. Current college seniors barely dealt with Internet sites. They were reported on by newspapers when they made a commitment. Now a prospect's thought process is detailed in Internet articles, then debated on message boards.

College football junkies are in heaven. They can know as much about a player as the coaches doing the recruiting. They hear reasoning previously privy only to the player, coach and the couch in the player's living room.

There are hundreds of recruiting sites, though most fall into two groups - Rivals.com and TheInsiders.com. Each group is broken into many sub-sites representing individual schools and conferences.

With all this information in the open, the game of recruiting has changed. The Internet regulates what players and coaches tell each other.

Coaches know what other colleges are being considered by players. Players know the other athletes to whom coaches are offering scholarships.

``Before, a college would say, `You're my top guy, we haven't offered anyone else,' '' said Greg Biggins, a writer for pacwestfootball.com in TheInsiders group. ``Now the player can look on the Internet and see a school has offered five guys at his position. There are no more secrets out there.''

The online boom has created more work for coaches and prospective players. Football programs now have assistants assigned to comb the Internet and print pertinent articles for the coach to read.

``The Internet requires our attention all the time, not really because of the information but the misinformation,'' Washington coach Rick Neuheisel said. ``You have to stay on top of it. (The sites) can talk to athletes more than we can. You have to tell the players, `Don't trust that, trust this.' ''

Rumors abound

Five Pacific-10 Conference coaches cited misinformation as their main problem with Internet recruiting sites. There is questionable information on the sites because of writers who are fans and not journalists, teen-age players who don't always know the facts and message boards where anyone can anonymously post an opinion.

Most Internet writers seem well-intentioned, but some, as fans, ask leading questions and hear a player's comments with a bias toward their favorite school.

Kyle Wright, a quarterback from Northern California whom many sites rank as the top prospect at his position in the nation, went on a trip in mid-August in which he visited Florida State, Miami, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Texas.

Throughout the trip, he received phone calls from sites representing all of those schools, as well as the other college he was considering, USC. His favorites were USC, Miami, Tennessee and Texas. One day, the Florida State site on Rivals.com reported the Seminoles had drawn even in the race for Wright's services, quoting him as saying, ``Florida State is about the same as the other schools.''

Three days later, the Miami site on Rivals.com quoted Wright as reiterating that Florida State was behind the others. By the end of the month, he had eliminated Florida State from consideration.

Wright said it wasn't that he changed his mind from day to day but that he didn't want to disparage Florida State to a Seminoles site.

``They had the right info but blew it up a little bit,'' Wright told the Daily News. ``Florida State was still a little back. But I didn't want to say I didn't like a school as much and have (the university) hear it through some Internet guy.''

Sometimes players purposefully give out information they know to be false. These are 17-year-old kids being treated as celebrities. They are asked the same questions over and over again. Occasionally, they have fun with the attention.

Winston Justice, a freshman at USC, was one of the top offensive line prospects in the last college class. He gave USC a secret oral commitment early in his senior season at Long Beach Poly, then told Web sites he was favoring UCLA. Rumors he was headed to play for the Bruins persisted until the month before the signing deadline, when he signed a letter of intent with the Trojans.

``I was trying to have some fun before I came here,'' Justice said. ``I still wanted some kind of publicity. Once you commit, they forget about you. In my mind, I wanted to go to USC from the second game of my senior year of high school. (USC coach Pete) Carroll knew I was coming to USC. I gave him my word.''

Under microscope

Wright, on the other hand, wouldn't mind being forgotten by recruiters temporarily. He's a fan of Internet recruiting sites and visits them daily to read what is written about himself and other prominent players he has met.

``I enjoy reading about all the other kids and what they're doing,'' Wright said. ``It makes the U.S. a little smaller. I think I can definitely get a feel for the other types of players schools are recruiting. I keep track of all those kids. I know more about them than they'd probably like me to.''

But Wright decided to announce a decision before the prep football season began to concentrate on being a senior. He announced his intention to attend defending national champion Miami the day before playing his first game.

Biggins remembers five years ago when Bobby Burton of Rivals, Allan Wallace of PrepStar and himself were the only people from the Internet calling recruits.

``Honestly, It's gotten to the point where I just dislike calling kids because I don't want to bug them,'' Biggins said. ``I know I'll probably be the eighth guy calling them, and I'll probably be asking the same questions. I try to be respectful and ask if there is a better time, if they are eating dinner or studying. They are bombarded, and I feel kind of sad for them.''

Future

College recruiting sites are only beginning to grow. More and more fans, especially with the coming of younger generations, will use the Internet as their main resource for recruiting information.

Web sites can post the latest news instantly, have infinite space and allow for multimedia - a combination no other medium can match. Most sites don't take enough advantage of it now, but Biggins and Burton said to expect video clips of all top players available with a click of the mouse in the future.

Small schools and Division II programs don't have the pull to get top players but are starting to realize ways to use the Internet to their advantage. They have Web pages where players can submit information about themselves, expressing their interest. Descriptions of the college programs also are available. Entire media guides are beginning to pop up.

Dale Widolff, the coach at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, estimates 20 percent of the players in his most recent freshman class came via Internet contact.

``It's been growing every year for three years,'' Widolff said. ``We don't have a 300-page media guide to send all our recruits, but if we can have a sharp, well-put-together Web site, we can have the equivalent of a media guide at a low cost.''

Major-college coaches and players will continue to adjust to the Internet. Coaches like to do their own research. But it's getting to the point where coaches can see everything they need to know about a player on the computer.

``The Internet has entered us into a new era of recruiting,'' Toledo said. ``I don't think you need it, but it's definitely here to stay.''

CAPTION(S):

box, drawing

Box:

RIVALS' TOP 10 PLAYERS

Drawing:

(color) no caption (football player emerging from computer screen)

Illustration by Jon Gerung