Forget Florida and Tennessee. The North Miami Beach and Western Michigan camps have taken some pretty harsh shots at UCF today.

North Miami Beach High School Coach Jeff Bertani told the Kalamazoo Gazettehe was stunned when players Nico Flores and Kemal Ishmael opted to sign with UCF instead of following the school's pipeline of standout players to Western Michigan.

Bertani lamented negative recruiting tactics employed by the UCF coaching staff trying to lure Flores and Ishmael to Orlando after he said they already had committed to Western Michigan. Kalamazoo Gazette beat writer Graham Couch throws in his own opinion, calling the tactics he heard were used by assistant coach David Kelly and head coach George O'Leary 'ridiculous and shameful for grown men who claim to be educators.'

UCF coaches have declined to comment on the record about any battles leading up to signing day, but there are allegations from the Knights' camp that Bertani engaged in heavy negative recruiting against UCF and strongly pushed his athletes to pick Western Michigan over the Knights. It also is unclear whether Flores and Ishmael ever actually committed to Western Michigan, with no one ever directly quoting the athletes saying they had committed before signing day."

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