Signing Day, Signing Days, or no specific Signing Day. One is a better option depending on which Pac-12 coach you talk too.
The landscape of NCAA football recruiting changes from year to year and the coaches have to adjust constantly. Signing Day will come along twice this upcoming season. Once in December and once in the following February. Arizona Football Head Coach Rich Rodriguez has said before; he doesn’t feel there should be one day set aside for verbal commits to sign a letter of intent with a college.
There are many reasons why the second Signing Day was added. One reason for this change was to minimize the number of recruits who would verbally commit to make sure they are serious about the commitment. Maybe they just wanted to get attention from other programs, or maybe they got excited after their visit before they visited other schools.
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There are other ramifications to the addition of a second day. Players may not be looked at early while they are developing, so the school may lose out on offering them, and the player may get fewer offers. Highly touted recruits who wait too long to sign may see less qualified recruits taking their scholarships. Along with an additional signing day, recruits can now visit the schools from April through June.
Rich Rodriguez, the President of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), will meet with his fellow coaches and discuss new and existing rules including signing day. The Pac-12 coaches also met in Phoenix on Tuesday.
Standford Head Coach David Shaw, Arizona State Head Coach Todd Graham, and Rich spoke about their thoughts on the early signing day on the Pac-12 coaches call on Monday.
On Signing Day, February 1, 2017, Coach Rod stated, “The pursuit of good football players is a daily endeavor here at Arizona,” and proceeded to inform the media that it was just the beginning the recruiting period. That would explain his stance on Signing Day, here is Rodriguez statement:
“I’ve been saying for several years now there should be no signing date. I don’t think there should be a date set at all. I think if two sides come to an agreement no matter when it comes, they sign the letter of intent.
There will be some parameters put in there that if the head coach is not the same head coach that signed the letter of intent, then February of their senior year, the student-athlete can get out of it. You are not allowed to sign more than 85 total because that’s the total amount of scholarships you have.
I think just moving it up; I think having official visits for three months, April, May, and June is really ridiculous.
So I am ready to have some AFCA meetings and Pac-12 meetings in the next couple days and I’m sure we’ll discuss it.”
Stanford’s David Shaw has a different point of view:
“I’m concerned about pushing the signing period any earlier. I think December is palatable. Going any earlier than that, I think people are kidding themselves to think that that’s actually going to work.
I think some of it are reasons that are incomprehensible to me, honestly. That we want them to sign earlier, so we don’t have to recruit as long.
But the bottom line is if these kids want to change their minds, they are still going to change their minds. Signing the document is not a legally binding document.
So, you sign a linebacker — in August, he’s still 17 years old. He may change his mind when he gets to February. Or your linebacker coach that recruited him may go to be a head coach or coordinator somewhere else and he may want to follow him.*
So you just went three or four months without recruiting a linebacker because you had one. Now he gets to leave, and now you gotta go back and start recruiting guys again. It’s not in their best interests to sign early in my opinion. It closes doors on them, and we are supposed to be opening doors for these young people.”
*Yes, Coach Shaw, that happened to the Arizona Football program when Donte’ Williams left to Nevada. Now the top Arizona recruits did not necessarily follow him, two of them (Greg Johnson, and Jody Lewis) committed to USC.
Todd Graham had a third opinion, if you can follow it, you’re a better interpreter than me.
“I’m fine with where it’s at, you know they moved it up to December. I think that’ll help you to be able to kinda know, you know, where you are at, where the kids have time.
You know my big deal is, you know I spent – a little over probably less than half of my career as a high school football coach. Allowing them to visit earlier is..you know most of them make their decision, probably, I don’t know, probably 60 or 70 percent of the kids are committed by August.
And in the past, you know, they couldn’t even take in a visual visit until September 1. So, I’m for making it better for the players, you know, the kids that are coming. These decisions are decisions that are going to affect the rest of their life. You know it has to do with their education and a lot of these guys future careers.
So I am not for moving it up earlier than that because — I don’t think it is the best thing for High School football players to accelerate that decision and moving it forward up to where it already is. I think we have helped ourselves in giving them the visits in April, May and June. I think that’ll help parents to be able to, you know, at least they can come visit before the kids commit.
You know most of them commit before the season. Where the signing date is, I think it is fine. Kids know where they are going in December and gives you a month to regroup. I wouldn’t be for moving up before their senior season. I just think that’s too early.”
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Well, we will see what they think after they met on Tuesday, or maybe we won’t hear anything. Either way, it is evident what the President of the AFCA wants, and that he doesn’t necessarily feel the same way as some of his fellow Pac-12 coaches. C’est la Guerre (‘Such is War’ in French.)