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Every once in a while, a recruiting rumor from the interwebs turns out to be true. This is one of those times. Earlier today, we were talking in the May Recruiting Thread about the rumor going around that new Baylor commit Jordan Tolbert had torn his ACL and would miss most, if not the entirety, of this coming season. That rumor is apparently true.
Ridge Point coach confirms #Baylor CB commit Jordan Tolbert suffered torn ACL. BU will honor his pledge.
— Max Olson (@max_olson) May 15, 2014
That this news wouldn't change anything with respect to his recruitment by Baylor shouldn't surprise you. We already have one recruit from the 2015 class, QB Chad President, working his way back from an ACL tear suffered this past season. Thankfully, we don't live in the world of 20 years ago where an injury like this would probably mean the end of the athlete's playing career. Instead, Tolbert, as President did before him, will likely have surgery to fix the tear before missing anywhere from 6 to 9 months, depending on severity. It's not a given that he will return to peak shape following his rehabilitation, but the chances of doing that are better now than they've ever been before. Playing this season is almost certainly not an option unless the "tear" is quite small, but in all likelihood, Tolbert will arrive on campus in the summer of 2015 with no ill effects beyond the loss of playing time his last season in high school.
As fans of the college to which he's chosen to commit, we're obviously taking a bit longer of a view on things than Jordan himself probably is. I can't speak for everyone on this, but I don't particularly care if he plays at all his senior year. I'm sure he does. So while the long-term view is positive, the short-term isn't. I'm not saying you should flaunt the NCAA's unenforceable rules to wish him luck in his recovery on twitter or let him know you're praying for him (if indeed you are), but I'm sure he'll appreciate it, if you did.
Oh, and it really should have gone without saying that Baylor would honor his pledge, even if the injury were significantly more serious. The downsides to not doing so are far too great. Nobody wants to be the school who told the injured recruit he didn't have a place with them anymore.