Tennessee Pulling 4-Star DE Marques Ford's Offer Shows Dark Side of Recruiting

National signing day is less than two weeks away, and classes around the country are beginning to be finalized with future college football stars.

Unfortunately, though, there's a downside to the stretch run for some prospects who may be on the lower end of their school's priority list.

Marques Ford, a 4-star defensive end from Gibsonton, Florida, decommitted from Tennessee on Wednesday and committed to Rutgers the next day.

Why? As Scout.com's John Garcia Jr. puts it, it's time for the "flip game."

According to Ford's high school coach (via Matt Slovin of The Tennessean), Tennessee coaches pulled Ford's offer, which left the player "a little bit angry."

"It's an ugly business," said Frank LaRosa, coach at East Bay High School. "In the nasty business, they kept it sort of honest by at least saying that they had other commits and they were pulling his commitment."

Photo: 247Sports.com

Should Tennessee be criticized for this?

No, as long as it handled it properly, as LaRosa said it did.

The Vols have 28 commitments so far in the class of 2015, 10 of which enrolled early and could be counted back to last season if they need to make room. Three of those early enrollees are defensive linemen, 4/5-star defensive end Kyle Phillips, 4-star defensive tackle Shy Tuttle and 4-star defensive end Andrew Butcher.

More defensive line help is on the way this summer, when 5-star monster Kahlil McKenzie, 4-star defensive end Darrell Taylor and several other defensive linemen are slated to head to Rocky Top.

It's a tough break for Ford, but this is how things work.

As classes start filling up and some players who coaching staffs may not have been counting on begin to flip to them, somebody has to go. It's better that the players know now rather than on national signing day, when it's darn near impossible to find a home.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

It could be worse.

In 2012, former Arkansas defensive lineman Darius Philon—who recently declared for the NFL draft after his redshirt sophomore season—announced his commitment to Alabama on national signing day, only to sign with Arkansas later in the day, according to Mike Herndon of AL.com. 

Philon, who had been an Alabama commit since September 2011, was asked to grayshirt by the Tide once their class of 2012 began to fill up.

That's the worst possible scenario, and the Vols were proactive in making sure Ford didn't suffer the same fate.

Over the last few years, less emphasis has been placed on national signing day, and more emphasis has been put on building classes early and getting players on campus in January.

Because of that, players at the bottom end of classes in the weeks leading up to signing day are forced to keep their options open down the stretch, in case the team they are committed to gets hot and runs out of room.

It's unfortunate, but, as LaRosa said, it is the nature of the business nowadays.

Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a co-host of the CFB Hangover on Bleacher Report Radio (Sundays, 9-11 a.m. ET) on Sirius 93, XM 208.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of cfbstats.com, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.