Gary Green II was taken to a strip club during a recruiting visit.

Relax, Kansas University football fans. It wasn’t in Lawrence.

“They do that at a lot of schools,” said Green, who also made official visits to UCLA, Pittsburgh and Wisconsin before signing a national letter of intent Feb. 4. “We went by one on one of my other visits. I didn’t care. That’s not what I’m going to do when I’m in college, so I’m glad they didn’t do that at Kansas.”

Green, 18, declined to identify the school he was visiting when players made a brief stop at an 18-and-over strip club, but he made it clear it wasn’t KU.

“It’s legit at Kansas,” said Green, an all-city and all-district running back from San Antonio Madison High. “I thought about that also, because I’ve heard about what’s going on at other schools. I’ve got no worries at Kansas. They showed me a good time without any of that crazy stuff. We went bowling, and they took me to a fraternity party Saturday night.

“There was no pressure for me to do anything bad, and that’s good, because I’ll be around good people.”

Winter of discontent

Plenty of bad news has swirled around college football recruiting this winter. So much, in fact, that the NCAA recently appointed a committee that will consider rule changes for campus visits.

Most of the problems have involved teenagers behaving badly with women, alcohol or both:

The recruiting sex scandal surrounding the Colorado football team has led to calls for the dismissal of Coach Gary Barnett, seen here during the Buffaloes' game against Kansas University on Oct. 11, 2003, in Boulder, Colo.

• Miami recruit Willie Williams violated his probation during a Jan. 30 recruiting trip to Florida when the linebacker allegedly touched a woman without her permission, hit a man at a bar and set off fire extinguishers at his hotel. Williams was less than two weeks from the end of his probation, which stemmed from felony burglary charges in 2002.
• Highly touted recruit Lydon Murtha spurned Minnesota after Gopher players took him and three other recruits — one of whom was 17 — to an 18-and-over strip club during a December campus visit. More Minnesota recruits later acknowledged they had been taken to a strip club during other recruiting weekends.
• Colorado coach Gary Barnett was placed on leave in the midst of an ever-expanding sex scandal. Three women have filed lawsuits against CU, alleging they were raped by players or recruits during a party in 2001. A total of seven women have accused Colorado players of sexual assault since 1997. In addition, an adult-entertainment business alleged it has provided strippers for CU recruiting parties on a regular basis.

“My head’s not buried in the sand,” KU coach Mark Mangino said. “I’ve read in the last six months about things that happened and things that could have been done to prevent it.”

Preventing it

Mangino said recruits making official campus visits stick to a “highly structured schedule” that includes appointments with KU’s academic staff, support staff, assistant coaches, and tours of the campus and city.

The Crimson Crew — which last season was a student group of 46 women and six men — help recruits reach those meetings on time and answer questions along the way. The volunteers also attend football games with recruits and answer questions for players and their parents. With all those questions, members must have a grasp of KU academics, student life and the football program.

And no, it’s not a dating service.

“The young ladies are not put in position where they could be put in harm’s way,” Mangino said. “They’re almost constantly around coaches. When there’s not a coach, there’s two young ladies with the recruit. … It’s carefully monitored and carefully structured, and we’ve had no problems.”

Crimson Crew members are given a book with NCAA recruiting guidelines and KU policies designed to protect them.

Several members of the Crimson Crew — including associate director of football operations MaryKay Schmelzle, who is in charge of the group — declined comment for this story, but Mangino praised the people involved.

“They’re young ladies that want to improve their marketing or communications skills,” he said. “They represent KU well. We haven’t had any young ladies that have had agendas other than that.”

Players as recruiters

Crimson Crew members don’t have contact with visiting recruits off campus. That job falls to members of the football team, who give recruits tours of Lawrence, the campus and Jayhawker Towers.

Coaches pair players with recruits based on position, geographical background or common interests.

What they do with them varies.

“It depends on what type of guy you get,” said senior quarterback Bill Whittemore, who helped land center Joe Vaughn last winter when he took the junior-college transfer to a party at a friend’s house. “You’re going to do whatever he wants to do — to an extent. Most of them want to go out and see nightlife. You have to take them in the right direction. You can’t take them to a place that might be trouble. There are places we’re not supposed to go.”

Mangino declined to discuss what rules are in place for recruits and player hosts, but he stressed that the players know them well.

“Our players know exactly where we stand on every issue because we talk constantly about doing the right thing,” Mangino said. “It boils down to good, common sense.

“We tell our kids to use good judgment. We trust they do. They’re doing the right things, and, if they don’t, I act expeditiously.”

While coaches scout recruits on film and on the playing field, the player host reports back to the staff about a recruit’s personality, behavior and whether he might fit in.

“Most of the time feedback is positive, but if we hear there is a guy they’re not sure about — or if a young man wants to do something that player host doesn’t want to do — we make note of that,” Mangino said. “A lot of times we’ll stop recruiting the young man. We take the opinions of our players seriously.”

Not striking out

While tales of strippers and alcohol have filled many recruiting stories elsewhere, KU recruits contacted by the Journal-World unanimously named the Jaybowl as one of the highlights of their campus visits.

“I had the highest score in my group — beginner’s luck,” said defensive end Charlton Keith, a transfer from Minnesota West Community College. “I thought it was pretty cool. It’s not all football all the time. I love football, but I don’t want it to be everything. It gave us something else to compete at.”

Crimson Crew members and the coaching staff also hit the lanes with the recruits, and Shawnee Mission Northwest linebacker Mike Rivera said it was “pretty cool to see the coaches razz each other.”

Rivera’s parents — Mike Sr. and Judy — also attended their son’s official visit for the entire weekend, a move that could cut down on poor behavior by recruits and help in the decision-making process if more parents followed suit.

The Riveras were on hand for bowling as well as dinners at the Hereford House and the Adams Alumni Center, a luncheon in the Memorial Stadium press box and breakfast at the training table. They also met with the academic staff, toured Jayhawker Towers and attended the Jan. 25th KU men’s basketball game against Colorado.

Rivera attended six of KU’s seven home football games and had already made an oral commitment to Kansas before his visit. The all-state selection and his parents still appreciated the effort by KU’s staff less than two weeks before the Feb. 4 national signing day.

“Missouri made an offer,” Mike Rivera Sr. said. “We met with Gary Pinkel, Andy Hill and the other coaches. They did a great job recruiting, too. But the KU staff felt like more of a family. It seemed liked they had more of a family atmosphere and really cared about the players.”

Lawrence nightlife

Rivera’s parents went back to their hotel while KU players took the 18-year-old out to clubs, such as The Hawk and Abe & Jakes Landing.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

“You can go to most places as long as you’re 18,” Rivera said. “You just can’t drink.”

Keith, 21, attended a fraternity party with player host Lyonel Anderson during his visit the weekend before signing day.

“I’m the party type, but I don’t drink,” Keith said. “I just like to go and dance. I don’t like going to bars.”

Green also attended a fraternity party with player host Charles Gordon, but that’s not what he remembered most about his visit.

“I had a feeling while I was there that never left me,” Green said. “They welcomed me with open arms, and I felt like I was a member of the team the minute I go there.

“They have a nice campus … sorry, we have a nice campus.”