Many of us like to believe the recruiting of football and basketball players by colleges is simply a covert auction. But the truth seems to be, in general, rather more sinister: You have a whole lot of adults, some coaches, some slightly pimpish substitute father figures, trying to induce feelings of undying loyalty in teenage boys. 

From an L.A. Times article on some of the new assistant football coaches hired by UCLA in recent weeks to divert high school recruits loyal to them to UCLA:

Klemm announced it with the tweet: "8 clap!!!!! My boy meat doin' work!"

Rick Kimbrel, publisher of Bruinblitz.com, said staff changes can lead to awkward situations. 

"You're in a living room one night expounding how great it is at Cal," Kimbrel said, "and you're calling the kid the next day saying you're going to Washington and, 'I think you should go there too.'" 

Klemm confirmed that is exactly what happens. 

"You have been talking to kids for another school and now you're recruiting for UCLA," he said. "You just have to make it known why you came here. It's the same reason why you want them to come here."