A quick disclaimer before I start this: I’m not siding with or against Texas A&M wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead. His Twitter rant after the decommitment of five-star quarterback Tate Martell was probably immature and at worst ill timed.

And I’m not going to knock four-star wide receivers Mannie Netherly and Tyjon Lindsey for their decisions. Netherly decommitted after Moorehead’s rant and Lindsey made the decision to no longer consider Texas A&M. That’s their decision to make.

My question is simple: What happen to a little decorum and responsibility when it comes to communication?

Why did Netherly have to make his announcement on Twitter? Couldn’t he have taken the time to call Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin and explain his decision before making it public? That would seem like the responsible thing to do.

Now I can’t say for sure he didn’t call coach Sumlin, but his Twitter post didn’t give me the impression he talked to any of the A&M coaches.

Unfortunately that’s recruiting in a nutshell right now. Everyone from the coaches to the players on the team to the prospects has to make everything public. I don’t know if it’s a desperate plea for attention or responses or coverage from the hundreds of news curating websites that track Twitter posts and help them go viral.

Speaking about this with one of my former co-workers she reminded me of Aaron Murray’s recruitment, which seems like a lifetime ago now. Minutes before Murray made his commitment to Georgia he went into his high school coach’s office and called then-Florida coach Urban Meyer. He told Meyer his decision and said he wanted the Gators coaching staff to hear it from him first.

Murray said it was one of the tougher phone calls he had to make. During the recruiting process he had to eliminate schools and each time they got a phone call and an explanation. Maybe it was the distance; maybe it was the scheme or the depth chart. But time and time again he did what he believed was the responsible thing to do and informed each coach personally that he was eliminating their program.

I’d like to think that most prospects still handle their business that way, but they don’t. And coaches are just as bad. I’ve read many text messages from prospects of coaches pulling their scholarship offers late in the game. Don’t think I’m just picking on recruits because coaches have even less excuse. They are supposed to be the adults in this relationship.

I wish Netherly plenty of luck. He has a ton of other options. I don’t blame him for feeling like Moorehead wasn’t the right coach for him and being put off by his childish rant.

But I hope he also learns a lesson from this rather strange incident and is willing to confront the coaches recruiting him with good news or bad news in his future dealings. Because there is still a right way to handle the stress of recruiting and posting all of your feelings and business on Twitter isn’t the right way.