Coaches Split On Early Signing Period

Weis, Davis in favor while Spurrier, Meyer against

Aug. 15, 2007

By Adam Caparell

CSTV.com


	ADAM CAPARELL Adam is CSTV.com's football editor and national football writer. E-mail here!

Some coaches love the idea. Others despise it.

We're not talking about a college football playoff or a plus-1 system or even the new rules changes set to take effect this season. Rather, we're talking about the idea of instituting an early signing period for football. And opinions on the subject couldn't be more different.

The majority of coaches in the ACC like the idea, along with those in the Big 12 while the Pac-10 and the SEC, for the most part, have been against it.

Some have clamored for years about the benefits of an early signing period while other high profile coaches bemoan about how harmful it could be. But even for those who agree that an early signing period is needed for football - just like basketball - even they can't agree on the perfect date.

"I would be in favor if it was in December," North Carolina coach Butch Davis said, echoing a sentiment shared by many in favor of the early signing period.

December would be ideal, according to Davis, for many reasons. Recruits have just finished their high school season, schools would either be in the process of preparing for their bowl game or the beginning of their off-season and recruiting efforts could be overlapped with JUCO signing day which just happens to fall in the third week of the month.

"If they could somehow coincide an early signing date with the one the junior colleges use (Dec. 20)," Davis said, "that would give everyone three recruiting weekends in December and an opportunity to evaluate and recruit in the fall and basically eliminate an enormous dead period."

Coaches are limited in their recruiting efforts from Dec. 15 until the conclusion of the national coaches convention that wraps up a few days after the national championship game in January. And all that dead time equates to a lot of worrying on coaches' part and plenty of wasted money from the schools.

"You're basically just baby-sitting," Davis said. "Kids already know where they want to go, they've already taken their trips and we spend an inordinate amount of resources and money going and taking care of kids that clearly they know where they want to go."

An early signing period would allow schools to have the majority of their recruiting class set before signing day, significantly cut down travel and correspondence costs, and then let coaches focus on the roughly 5-10 kids remaining on their wish list, rather than all 25 heading to February's national signing day, arguably the most hectic and nerve wrecking time of the year for coaches.

"I'm in favor of that, too," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said. "I think the assistant coaches group would like one in November and December so that you know what you have before Christmastime, so you know how to finish it off for February. I personally would like one in August, and for a different reason."

An August signing period, the other time frame coaches in favor of an early signing period point to, would not only take a considerable amount of pressure off of coaches who have to pursue recruits throughout the fall when they barely have time for their own families, but could potentially be a huge relief to the teenagers as well. They could stop the incessant letters and barrage of phone calls - but no more text messages - each receives during their senior season and put the worries aside of how an injury could affect their scholarship prospects.

"I think one of the biggest problems high school coaches have is the kids on their team not having the security of knowing where they're going to school before their senior year starts, and if they haven't accepted a scholarship, they risk losing a scholarship if they get injured," Weis said.

Officially committing early also would build a relationship of trust, something very important to Weis.

"It's them committing to me, but it's me committing to them," Weis said. "So if something happens during their senior year, they're still coming here on a scholarship. I'm not going to say, 'oh, you tore your ACL, you're not coming here anymore.' I think that you protect the players and let them play uninhibited in their senior year without worrying about, 'well, I'd better not play. My hammy hurts a little bit and it might end up costing me a scholarship.' "

Then on the other end of the spectrum, there are coaches like Urban Meyer who would hate to see an early signing period.

"An early signing period would be a tragedy of recruiting, terrible, because there goes all relationships now," the Florida coach said. "A kid is picking a school because he likes their helmet. That's not good. That's a recipe for failure when you start making decisions without all the necessary resources."

Meyer encourages recruits not to commit early and take full advantage of all the official visits they're allowed. He likes the process of building relationships with families, sitting down in their living room or kitchen, and sharing a meal together.

Probably more importantly to the big time coaches like Meyer, an early signing period would hurt teams used to coming in at the last minute and stealing a recruit right from under another school.

It's a regular occurrence every February and two SEC schools - Auburn and Alabama - have convinced recruits to switch their commitments on more than a few occasions. Meanwhile, teams like Miami, LSU and Weis' Irish all were victimized right before signing day last February by late commitment switches.

So not surprisingly, Steve Spurrier is also against an early signing period. He's all for kids committing early if they really have made up their mind, but he thinks many of them should have the full allotment of time to change their mind, if they're so inclined.

"I always relate it to like if you got a girlfriend in the summer before your senior year, in February of the coming year she may not still be your girlfriend," the South Carolina coach said. "You know sometimes they look pretty to you, then six months later they don't look so good."

Leave it to Spurrier to put the recruiting game in its proper perspective.