For as many benefits as the NCAA’s new early signing period for football offers, there are perhaps an equal number of unknowns, if not more.
One thing for certain is that the college football world at large should have a better feel for it all by Wednesday night or maybe Thursday morning, once the fax machines shut down and high school seniors around the country put away their writing utensils.
“In a way, it’s good; in a way, it’s like … I don’t know what’s gonna happen,” Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said earlier this year. “We won’t know until after that first signing day — who signed, how many signed, what we have left, and what are we gonna go push for? I’ll let you know [afterward], I guess.”
Thanks to reforms approved in the spring, a long-suggested idea of moving up the date when football prospects are allowed to sign their binding letters of intent became a reality, and now it’s finally here. Wednesday, starting at 7 a.m., will be everyone’s first experience — from college coaches to recruits to the third parties — with this precursor to the previous main event in early February.
One thing Narduzzi knows and has been consistent in saying since May is that if any players who are verbally committed to Pitt don’t sign as soon as they’re able to, he’ll be uneasy about their status. That includes anyone who wants to wait even until Dec. 22, which is technically when this early period ends and all official decisions must be tabled until the first Wednesday in February, like old times.
“Our guys are signing on that date. You’ve seen in the past a guy signs a week later [but] I don’t understand why we’re gonna sign a kid two days before Christmas. It just makes no sense. Our guys are gonna sign on the 20th,” Narduzzi said in late October. “If they don’t sign on the 20th, then I’m assuming they’re not signing with us until the next one, but we’re gonna be looking for new players, too.”
Narduzzi’s take-it-or-leave-it approach isn’t quite the same tact that James Franklin’s Penn State staff will follow, at least not admittedly. Terry Smith, the former Gateway High School coach who’s now the Nittany Lions assistant head coach and defensive recruiting coordinator, said the shift in dates won’t change how they recruit.
“Hopefully the guys who are already committed to us will all sign on the 20th. If they don’t, we’ll keep working hard to get them to sign in February,” Smith said late in the regular season. “It’s an ongoing process and there hasn’t been any hitches or hiccups — knock on wood — to speak of right now.”
If you were making a pros and cons list of the new recruiting protocol, it might look something like this:
Pros
• Prospects who have been verbal pledges to their schools for a long time and are firm in their decision can now end it all sooner. This was essentially the impetus for the legislation.
• For coaches, many can now get a better jumpstart on recruiting for the following year, given that much of their classes will be wrapped up by mid-December. This could benefit stable big-time programs the most as they reload with elite players each offseason.
• You might see fewer high schoolers being jerked around or basically “cut” at the last minute by programs or new coaches that no longer want to offer them a scholarship. Then again, that could still happen, except with more time to figure out a next step, which leads us to …
Cons
• Narduzzi and others worry the accelerated timetable may lead to more 18- and 19-year-olds making a decision before they’re ready or completely comfortable.
• From a coaching standpoint, December has now become even busier, especially for those preparing for bowl games. Another recruiting change that passed with the NCAA’s new calendar is allowing for earlier official visits for high school juniors, which Narduzzi called “bad for the game” because it forces coaches to place more attention on recruits and less on current players.
• There will likely be even more signees than usual who officially tie themselves to a program, only to see assistants or possibly even the head coach they committed to change jobs after the season. In fact, Yahoo’s Pete Thamel predicts that it’s “easy to see” almost 400 assistants shuffle around next month, when all Football Bowl Subdivision programs are permitted to hire a 10th full-time coach for the first time.
Plenty of other tentacles branch out from this new world of recruiting, but as Narduzzi noted, most of the aftereffects won’t be realized until all is said and done. Steve Mooshagian, the Ventura College coach who handed off quarterback Ricky Town as a junior-college transfer to Pitt just this week, is seeing it all unfold from an outside perspective.
“Oh, it’s absolutely crazy,” he said, then repeated himself for emphasis. “It is absolutely crazy. I don’t think everybody knows how to navigate it yet. … It’s gonna be a while until everybody figures it out.”
Odds are, they have no choice.
“I think it is permanent,” Franklin said Friday in between questions about Penn State’s Fiesta Bowl matchup. “I don't think this is a trial basis.”
Staff writer Dave Molinari contributed. Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.
First Published: December 19, 2017, 4:50 p.m.