Grinded Out

Andrew Grinde

One of the most heralded, nay touted, incoming freshmen in the entire Ivy League is heading home.

RB Andrew Grinde has left Yale just a few days into training camp. He does say he hopes to return next year, but there is no other significant information about his departure.

This comes less than a month after this glowing article was published featuring numerous quotes from Yale's Running Backs Coach Derrick Lett. Because Grinde actually came to Yale early and had been taking classes, he was supposedly making the Montana-to-New Haven transition quite well.

I don't think I have to use this story to remind everyone how dicey the recruiting process can be in college football. And in the Ivies, it's even dicier because of the academics and the culture involved. It should be noted that Columbia offered him a slot too.

But some Ivy recruiters, especially the Columbia coaches, have started to put more emphasis on finding players who show more signs of being able to handle the whole package of what it means to play varsity sports in this league. A lot of savvy recruiters have started to notice that the best Ivy players are mostly the guys who ended up having the best head on their shoulders as opposed to pure athletic ability.

In the existing freshmen class at Columbia right now, I know of two players who were extremely high on our recruiters' lists because they showed the greatest signs of that kind of "heart" to go along with athletic prowess. I won't name them now, but I can say that so far they've actually exceeded those expectations in just two days of training camp.

I wish young Mr. Grinde the best despite the fact that he's still technically a Yale commit. Perhaps we will see him again soon.