Ole'Miss, Really?

          Last Wednesday was national signing day for all high school seniors wanting to compete in their sport at the next level. The University of Mississippi received one of the most coveted recruits in the entire recruiting class this year, Robert Nkemdiche. Not to mention several other highly sought after recruits. None the less, there are people, like myself, who wonder how in the world does a program who had no big record get such great recruits.  Tommy Tomlinson on sportsearth.com and Ryan Rudnansky on bleacherreport.com both use logos and ethos to show both sides of the story and how Ole’Miss was able to be so successful so far in the recruiting season.

          Tomlinson uses logos when he talks about how Nkemdiche decided to go to Ole’ Miss basically because his brother goes there and his mom really wants him to go there as well. He also uses logos in explaining how coach Freeze got the coaching job at Ole’Miss starting with the whole Michael Oher story. Because Tomlinson did some research into connections of players, like Nkemdiche, and into the leader behind the team, coach Freezer, he is using logos to persuade readers to understand the truth behind Ole’Miss’s top recruiting class.  Rudnansky uses logos by quoting ESPN interviews with Nkemdiche’s mother stating how most other schools looked at her son like a machine and not a human being, which was not what Ole’Miss did to her son. Because Rudnansky researched exactly how Nkemdiche’s mother felt at Ole’Miss he is using Lagos to persuade his readers that Ole’Miss has no scandal involved in their top notch recruiting class.

            Rudnansky uses ethos towards the end of his article not only by being a writer for one of the biggest sports recruiting websites in the nation, but with his personal anecdote of liking a restaurant because of its good service. Tomilson uses ethos in talking about his views on how college football recruiting works. He says that “recruiting is asking for a date. It's about acceptance and rejection. It's about mystery and pride. It leads to a 17-year-old sitting at a table with a row of hats in front of him, like some strange three-card-monte dealer, before he picks up a hat and makes some fans happy and others sad.”  With his diction in this quote he shows credibility because he understands the process. The college recruiting process is just one part of the overwhelming aspect of college football, which is definitely at the heart of our American culture.