So it looks like Elijah Fields has let the news slip early (hat tip to BurghGuy68). Both Rivals.com and Scout.com have the teaser headline behind their paid firewall, so it isn’t actually confirmed (though both list him on his individual page). It does however jibe with earlier stories today.

Also, Pittsburgh Sports Report sent out an e-mail update saying the same with some quotes from Fields.

While Keystone Recruiting was interviewing his Duquesne teammate, wide receiver Fitzgerald Bobo, earlier this week, Fields let it slip that he planned to attend the University of Pittsburgh and wanted his friend to do the same next year.

While the 6’4 1/2″ 190-pound Bobo has yet to receive an offer from Pittsburgh, the junior is regarded as one of the best wide receiver prospects in the east next season and it seems likely that he will receive an offer.

As for Fields, he does want to dispel some rumors. Many following his recruitment thought that Penn State would be his eventual choice because he was apparently waiting to receive a written offer from the Lions.

“That’s not true,” says Fields. “They offered me in writing months ago.”

Another rumor is that Fields may not qualify academically. But he doesn’t see it that way.

“I am fine with all of that,” says Fields. “I will be eligible next season.”

So much for the expected spin from the Lions.

Out in the Akron area, a guy, Nate Reed, Pitt was looking at for the future as a kicker decided to stay close to home and go to Kent State. Pitt hadn’t actually offered a scholarship, so he finally decided to take the free ride.

Pitt verbal commit Jared Martin is featured in this story on the “feeding frenzy of recruiting information.”

His high school coach had warned him that he would be heavily recruited, but Martin, was not prepared when the onslaught began.

“At the beginning of the year, I was buried with phone calls,” said Martin, a 6-foot-1, 288-pound defensive tackle from Davie.

Then, as the time to make official visits came closer, Martin started getting calls from correspondents from Rivals.com and Scout.com, the two most popular Web sites devoted primarily to college recruiting.

“They were very persistent. I would get calls as soon as my plane landed, then at the hotel before I even had a chance to unpack,” Martin said.

But Martin didn’t tell them to stop. He was looking at the Web sites himself, and it was intriguing to follow his own saga, as the correspondents posted his comments within an hour of his conversations with them.

“I guess I’m too nice of a person to say no,” Martin said.
…
Martin learned just how fast recruiting news travels when he made his verbal commitment to Pittsburgh.

Martin called Pitt at 10:30 p.m. Dec. 8, after getting home from the North-South All-Star Game, and then went to bed, planning on calling coaches from the other schools he had visited in the morning.

The calls started coming before 7 a.m. the next morning.

“I saw the numbers, and went back to sleep,” he said.

The first calls were from Rivals.com and Scout.com. “Are the rumors true?” they asked.

Then came the calls from coaches at Arizona State, Colorado and Minnesota, saying they had read on the Web sites that he had committed.

“I felt bad about that, since I had met those coaches on my visits. I told them I was sorry, that I had no idea word would get out that quick,” Martin said.

I suppose I should sympathize with the Maryland people over what has happened to them this past week. Still these thumbsucker articles get under my skin.

Today’s prep stars crave attention, and we’re only too willing to give it. So Logan-El flashed a Florida Gators cap and smiled as he dropped it to the ground. Then a Tennessee cap. Then a Maryland cap. Then a Penn State cap. The suspense built, and the fans, family members and cheerleaders could barely breathe.

The kid finally showed a picture of him standing next to Penn State coach Joe Paterno, and that stood as his decision. He’d be a Nittany Lion.

Terrapins fans were annoyed that Logan-El played bait-and-switch with their emotions. He asked Maryland coaches, to whom he had orally committed two years earlier, to set aside a scholarship. He showed up at a recent Terps basketball game wearing a Maryland jersey and singing the school fight song. He gave all indications that he was coming to College Park. And then he broke everyone’s hearts.

Fans, boosters and even Friedgen’s wife were on hand to witness the spectacle in person.

Most of us don’t care if Logan-El attends Maryland, Penn State or Harvard’s cosmetology school, but the scene was sickening because of the larger trend that it represented.
…
Friedgen can’t talk specifically about Logan-El, and he probably wouldn’t want to, anyway. With less than a week before signing day, no coach has time to chew on sour grapes. But Friedgen did note that when he returned to the college game in 1997 after spending a few years coaching in the NFL, something was different.

“In those five years I was away, the Internet became an integral part of recruiting,” he said. “It’s just amazing to me. There’s a lot of people making a lot of money off of these kids. And look at what’s happening to the kids’ egos. They eat this stuff up. The people who are around the kid – relatives, parents and street agents – all help to inflate the balloon.”

Coaches used to learn about their signees from a telephone call – not an ESPN announcer. By now, most big-time coaches have felt victimized by some kid’s juvenile script.

[Emphasis added.]

Yeah. It used to be it was just the coaches who were making money off of the kids with their contracts, endorsements, radio and TV gigs. Now it’s all those “others.” Totally wrong.