Chris Murray

cmurray@rgj.com

When Cameron Darling, a tight end from Texas, verbally committed to Nevada in June, his father, JD, told him it was like a marriage and he had to stay true to his word until February’s signing day rolled around.

The 17-year-old Darling said he would, and the family made the 2,700-mile round-trip plane ride from McKinney, Texas to Reno three times during the 2016 season to watch the Wolf Pack play. But when signing day arrives Wednesday, Darling won’t be signing with Nevada. In fact, he won’t be getting a scholarship at all.

JD Darling said Tuesday that Nevada reneged on its offer to his son, a 6-foot-5, 245-pound tight end listed as a two-star recruit, which ultimately caused Cameron to not earn an FBS scholarship.

Shortly after Wolf Pack coach Brian Polian was fired Nov. 27, JD Darling said then-Nevada offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey flew to Texas to tell Darling the Wolf Pack would honor his scholarship offer. Darling said Nevada athletic director Doug Knuth re-iterated that message in a phone call Dec. 1.

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“On Dec. 1, Doug called me and confirmed that no matter what, the scholarship would be honored,” Darling said. “It didn’t matter who the coach was, what the system was, the scholarship was good.”

Forty days later, on Jan. 10, Darling said his son received a call from newly hired Wolf Pack inside receivers coach Timmy Chang and was told he no longer had a scholarship offer to Nevada but could walk on with the team.

JD Darling said he called Knuth seven times, including four times on Jan. 10, and never got a return call. Darling said he also called Nevada head coach Jay Norvell and the Wolf Pack staff but never heard back.

“I haven’t heard from anybody at Nevada since Dec. 1,” Darling said. “Nobody contacted me when they took his scholarship offer. Nobody on the coaching staff has gotten back to me. They ended up calling my son, who is 17 years old, to inform him of this. You’d think they’d have a little bit of respect to at least call the parent and explain why the promise that Doug gave to me was no longer valid.”

The Wolf Pack, citing NCAA rules that prohibit commenting on recruitable athletes, said it could not talk about Darling's situation.

Two other parents of one-time Wolf Pack commitments said Knuth told them following the coaching change that their son's scholarship offer would be honored no matter who was hired because they had committed to the university and not a coaching staff. Both of those parents said the offers were eventually rescinded after the new staff was hired.

Darling said he understands coaching changes sometimes lead to revoked scholarships. He said if Nevada told his son on Dec. 1 that his scholarship status would be up to Nevada’s next coach, he would have re-opened his commitment and looked at other schools. Darling said his son had full-ride scholarships from three other FBS schools but by the time Nevada revoked his offer they had dried up.

“If they would have said Dec. 1, ‘We advise you to start looking around,’ we would have opened our recruitment,” Darling said. “Tulsa, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana-Lafayette all would have come into play with full rides. They all said that. But I told my son when he committed, ‘When you make a commitment, it’s like a marriage. You stay true to your word and they'll stay true to their word.’ Unfortunately they didn’t.”

Darling said by the time Nevada revoked the offer 40 days after saying it would honored, none of those three schools had scholarships remaining. Instead, Darling will walk on at Louisiana-Monroe over preferred walk-on spots at Oklahoma State, Tulsa and Lafayette.

“The thing that frustrated me was the untruthfulness and the unwillingness to own up to pretty much lying to us,” Darling said. “There was zero attempt to contact me by the new coaching staff. Nobody would return my calls. Don’t give us your word and go back on it without any explanation whatsoever.”

Darling said his son was looking forward to playing at Nevada and offered to move to offensive tackle since the Wolf Pack is moving to an Air Raid offense, which is less dependent on tight ends than Nevada’s run-first scheme used by Polian. Instead, he will try to earn a scholarship at Louisiana-Monroe.

“He’s crushed,” Darling said of his son. “He was totally disappointed. I just explained to him, ‘You’re getting a taste of real life early.’ It’s unfortunate. This was not the way business operates, but I guess it’s the way they operate. If they would have been honest from the start that would have been fine. He feels like he got screwed by them by waiting until Jan. 10 and he lost his other opportunities.”

Something similar happened at Connecticut earlier this month and drew national headlines. Ryan Dickens, a linebacker from New Jersey, committed to the Huskies under former coach Bob Diaco. Dickens said he was reassured his scholarship would be upheld by new coach Randy Edsall after Edsall was hired Dec. 28. However, the scholarship offer was revoked Jan. 15. Dickens eventually committed to Lafayette, an FCS school in Pennsylvania.