Brandon Shields: Some walk-ons aren't not open about it

National signing day 2017 was one of the most successful for rural West Tennessee. Looking at the entire region, there were a total of seven athletes who signed scholarships to play for NCAA Division I FBS programs.

There have been years in the past where the area didn’t get one — other than maybe a walk-on here or there.

We listed a total of 48 players across the region, including 11 we know were walk-ons.

I’ll be honest with you. When planning National Signing Day coverage and discussing our plans with other sports writers from across the state, I had a couple of people give me a puzzled, “Why?”

What they were questioning was including walk-ons with our list of signees. That’s not something sports writers are generally interested in doing. It’s a legitimate question because it’s national signing day. Walk-ons don’t actually sign anything official.

Here’s my reasoning. I’ve been doing this long enough to have seen a good number of athletes who I felt deserved scholarship offers from NCAA Division I schools get an opportunity to walk-on and chose to either walk-on or accept a scholarship at an NAIA school.

No matter how much film work, scouting, combines and discussion go into the process, recruiting isn’t a science. There will be four- and five-star athletes who won’t pan out in college for various reasons. Meanwhile there will be a handful or one-, two- and three-stars who will seemingly single-handedly push their program to the next level before they move on from college.

So knowing recruiting and scholarship offers are a gamble, my question was this: Does it make a difference if an athlete is offered a scholarship as long as the coaches want him in the program and that athlete is getting his college education while continuing to play the sport he loves four more years? Obviously, the discussion is more complicated than that, but that was the crux of the argument.

Here’s why I’m reconsidering that after Wednesday when I look ahead to national signing day 2018. My thinking this year was based on the honor system that everyone would be up-front about what they’re doing. Coaches who knew their players were walking on were honest. Some players tried not to be as up-front about it.

I attended a college’s fan event in which the coach discussed his team’s signees. He didn’t discuss everyone people wanted to know about because some players whom fans had heard were committed hadn’t signed an actual document linking them to the program. They were walk-ons.

There were a few athletes who were “offered” and “committed” and signed something, but we’re not sure what that “something” was other than a piece of paper. I learned yesterday to make sure to verify whether it’s a scholarship, a student loan application or a sheet of notebook paper with the handwritten words: “I want to play for (insert college name here).”

That’s not the way you want to start your college career, because that potentially exposes a character flaw to the coach from the outset that may make him question how much of a chance he will give that walk-on. If I’m a coach, can I trust this walk-on to do what we need him to do to get ready for scout team work and in workouts to make my program better, or will he do the minimal amount to get by and say he’s part of my program while needlessly taking up space in my facilities?

If you were part of a celebration as a preferred walk-on, you no doubt deserve congratulations because you’re in a program and have a chance to play college football. I’m glad to recognize your accomplishment because only 48 of the approximate 500 football players in rural West Tennessee got to enjoy that this week.

If you’re a walk-on masquerading as a scholarship athlete to your high school buddies, I still hope you earn a scholarship once you get on campus. But Wednesday wasn’t the best way to start that effort.

Brandon Shields is the high school sports columnist for The Jackson Sun. Contact him at (731) 425-9751 or at bjshields@jacksonsun.com. Follow him on Twitter @JSEditorBrandon or on Instagram at jacksonsunsports.