Columnist Dean Juipe: Will local player live up to hype?

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2000 | 9:59 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@vegas.com or 259-4084.

Lynn McGruder's name has been in the headlines several times in the past week, as the Cheyenne High School lineman narrowed his collegiate choices to UNLV and Tennessee.

He eventually selected Tennessee, which seemed to be a mistake although that's neither here nor there.

What is of interest is McGruder's seemingly sudden emergence as a prominent prep athlete with major-college size and ability. The fascinating aspect of his development is how very few people appeared to recognize it.

In fact, one man who saw McGruder play in at least two games this past season said he came away unimpressed. He said McGruder didn't really appear to be as large as he was listed in the program (6-foot-2, 290 pounds) and that his effort was lax at times, perhaps as a result of playing on a mediocre team.

But shouldn't a player who earned second-team All-America honors by a prominent paper like USA Today be going hard on every snap, no matter the circumstances? Shouldn't a truly great player manhandle the daylights out of an inferior opponent on a routine basis?

McGruder seems to be a very respectable young man with excellent ideals, yet he may also be an example of how word of mouth has the ability to lift a player from obscurity to national attention.

Here's how it goes: One "evaluator" sees McGruder and likes him, and he tells another evaluator who in turn tells another. Just like that, a player establishes a top-flight reputation even though few in the industry have seen him play or can personally attest to his abilities.

In essence, those who compile recruiting newsletters and the like not only share information but may add unsubstantiated names to their list so as not to be embarrassed in the event the kid turns out to be the real thing.

"There are very few evaluators that I trust," UNLV head coach John Robinson said Monday. "What happens is that one guy talks to another and they begin to accumulate information on players maybe neither one has seen. So when All-American teams come out, they're based on these judgments on players who come mostly from big-city teams."

While he definitely wanted McGruder and -- unlike Tennessee -- would have played him as a freshman, Robinson alluded to the possibility that McGruder may not have always given his best effort.

"He's an extremely powerful young man who played good in spurts," Robinson said. "Other times, he didn't play so good. A lot of why we liked him was based strictly on potential."

Further, Robinson caught himself thinking of lineman Darrell Russell while recruiting McGruder.

"Russell was a guy I had at Southern California (for the 1994-96 seasons) who kind of loafed at the high school level," he said. "He was our No. 1 recruit that year yet I had to lie to myself about him, because I just wasn't sure.

"But he went on to become an excellent player and it goes to show that with big guys you're often recruiting solely on potential."

McGruder has that element of the package, for sure. The "150 calls" per night and the "10,000 recruiting letters" he received more than vouches for his potential.

Now all he has to do is live up to his clippings.