Hartley is an important piece of recruiting, being the special teams coach. Every high school coach and parent knows this is where (special teams) a Freshman is going to begin their college football journey. When one of the key coaches in recruiting engages in a twitter spat immediately after an away conference division game, it tells that HS coach, parent, and player that this guy has some immaturity issues himself. Parents and HS coaches want their kids to go in and learn how to be men. The last thing they want to see is someone getting reactionary and defensive on social media. It looks weak. REAL WEAK, especially when you are 6-5 and play in the ACC Coastal. You can call it "defending the players" but I guarantee you no parent, recruit, or HS coach is looking that deep in to it. They see a grown man balls deep in a silly comment section engaging with a random fan and that's all they need to know. RED F*CKING FLAG.
Our social media behavior is emotional. Recruits are seeing it and simply saying "I want to play football, not join a sorority." In New Orleans, the top high school coaches require all players and staff to sit through a lecture on social media behavior. Most high school teams here have player implemented social media rules. They don't get on social media and start crying and saying they want to transfer. If a kid gets on social media after a game crying about playing time, the other players will make that kid roll. So when they see college players trolling and crying and even a coach replying to a comment on twitter - RED F*CKING FLAG
