As per several reports, Auburn wide receiver Tim Hawthorne broke his foot this morning in non-contact workouts, and he's going to miss several weeks at the least. Most of them think he's going to miss all of Fall practice, and he might not be back in time for the season opener against Louisiana Tech. He'll be back at some part early in the season, but given the lingering nature of foot injuries (ask Greg Hardy), it's probably going to be a long time after that before he is 100%.

Anyway, the reason I point this out is because Hawthorne presents the epitome of a perfect example as to why hot-shot recruits shouldn't run their mouths. I don't know if you guys remember his recruitment back late 2005 / early 2006, but he was highly recruited, and he was a drama queen to the very end. He promised more excitement than Fred Rouse's recruitment, talked of a big surprise to the very end, gave umpteen official visits a ten, had his Dad talking him up 24/7, gave out conflicting stories to different recruiting sites, constantly re-shuffled his "favorites," said he would make a big impact as a true freshman, had a huge announcement, even had ESPN covering the thing... only to sign with Auburn, which is exactly what everyone expected him to do all along. At the end of the day, he probably had the most diva-esque recruitment of any prospect from the state of Alabama this decade.

And how has it ended up? Despite the high talk, he had to settle for a redshirt his true freshman year, and the following Spring he was injured in a major auto accident in which one of his friends died. That Fall he had four catches, almost all of which came in garbage time against the East Popcorn States of the world. The Spring after that he breaks his arm, and made no impact last year. Now, going into his fourth year, after it looks like he might be about to emerge, he's got a broken foot that will likely limit him a good deal as a redshirt junior. He'll probably emerge next year as a fifth-year senior without having really done anything, and literally with more broken bones in his career than big catches.

The moral of the story is simple... don't run your damn mouth as a recruit, I don't care how highly-touted you are. Survey the landscape, pick the school that's right for you, and leave it at that. I obviously don't have any firm data to back this up, but it seems to me like the kids are the biggest divas on the recruiting trails are the most likely of all to get a big, bitter taste of the harshness of reality once they arrive on campus. Hawthorne would certainly be a good case study in support of that argument.