**Recruiting Horror Stories™ are posted every Tuesday to provide athletes' first-hand experiences of what can go wrong during the recruiting process.

Jake Kradel is a senior offensive lineman for the University of Pittsburgh. Coming out of high school, Jake was one of the highest recruited offensive linemen in the state of Pennsylvania. Of course, this meant that he was being looked at by some big name football schools, one of them being Vanderbilt.

Related school rating: Vanderbilt

After constant communication with the Vanderbilt coaches for about a month, they invited Jake to come for a visit, mentioning that they will give him an “offer.” Jake decided to make the 9-hour journey down to Nashville to meet the team, watch the practice, and talk with the players a little bit. Everything about the trip was going well, until the Vanderbilt coaches decided to drop a bomb on Jake, telling him right then that they had no more scholarships to offer.

Related: Athlete of the Week: Jake Kradel

After all the time spent researching the Vanderbilt football program and traveling to Nashville, Jake found his trip to be a waste of time due to poor communication and lack of information. At no point did they mention that no scholarships were available, so they just had Jake down for fun. Jake used this trip as a learning experience, and at all future visits he had, he made sure to have a clear line of communication with the coaches and staff. In doing so, he ended up happily at Pittsburg.

Related school rating: University of Pittsburgh

* Originally published on November 23, 2021, by Brayden Koch