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Today’s newsletter is all about recruiting, and Sam Khan Jr. will join us to break down one coach’s iconic recruiting strategy.
Signing Day Shakeup
Early signing day moving up
College football’s national signing day is changing … again.
On Wednesday, the Division I commissioners voted to move the December signing period from the middle of the month to the Wednesday before the FBS conference championship games. In some years, that could mean signing as early as late November for high school seniors.
Here is what the calendar will look like in 2024:
- Dec. 4: Early signing day
- Dec. 7: Conference championship games
- Dec. 8: Final CFP rankings released
- Dec. 9: Winter transfer portal window opens
- Dec. 20-21: First round of CFP
The early signing period was implemented in 2017 and quickly stole the spotlight from the original national signing day on the first Wednesday in February (which remains in place after this week’s change).
Signing in December lets players take advantage of early enrollment and participate in spring practice, but the timing of the early period has been met with criticism in CFB’s increasingly chaotic December schedule (bowl season, coaching turnover, the transfer portal opening and, starting this year, an expanded College Football Playoff).
A solution to the madness is unclear, but as one director of player personnel told The Athletic’s Grace Raynor and Sam Khan Jr., maybe the problem is with signing day itself.
“My question, and I don’t have the answer to this, but it would be worthy of discourse … is what even is signing day?” the director of player personnel asked. “What are you even doing? You can transfer as many times as you want. So you’re locking yourself in for a year, allegedly. That’s my question.”
Maybe that’s a valid point.
Mack Brown was Texas’ head coach from 1998 to 2013. (Cooper Neill / Getty Images)
Texas Recruiting Phenomenon
Mack Brown’s notorious junior days
Sam and Max Olson detailed Brown’s prestigious (and perilous) early recruiting strategy at Texas in a story yesterday.
The Longhorns were known for their best-in-class junior days long before the early recruiting tactic became nationwide practice. Brown earned the nickname “Mr. February” for getting recruits to pledge early, and from the Class of 2005 — the first to participate in a Texas junior day — through the end of the Brown era, the Longhorns went 88-29.
I brought Sam in today to answer a few questions about his reporting.
What made Brown’s Texas junior days so unique?
A combination of Texas’ success at the time, the program’s prestige, Brown’s charisma and the exclusive nature of an invitation and a Texas offer. Other programs had junior days back then, but nobody had as much success in landing commits off of them as Texas.
The Longhorns often had 90 percent of their class committed and locked in by late spring, largely because of their junior day success.
What was the most interesting junior day anecdote you heard from a player or coach?
My favorite one didn’t make the story! Russell Shepard, who played at LSU and was an NFL receiver, was a five-star recruit and the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback recruit in the 2009 class. He wanted to play QB, but Texas wouldn’t guarantee it. Oscar Giles, the former Texas defensive line coach who recruited him, said on junior day that Shepard told Brown point blank in his office, “Coach, tell me I can play quarterback at the University of Texas and I am committing right now.”
Brown wouldn’t promise that, and Shepard visited LSU a few weeks later and committed to the Tigers. Of course, Shepard only played QB some as a freshman at LSU and wound up at receiver in his last three seasons there.
You refer to Texas not offering Andrew Luck in your story. Were there any other big-name recruits the Longhorns missed out on because of their early evaluation strategy?
Most fans remember the big-named misses who went on to win the Heisman Trophy: Robert Griffin III and Johnny Manziel. Griffin was offered by Texas as an athlete but wanted to play quarterback; Manziel never got a Texas offer. But I always thought Brown got unfairly piled on for that because there were plenty of other schools that didn’t offer Griffin as a QB or didn’t offer Manziel.
There’s no doubt the early commitment strategy backfired at times, and even Brown admits that it caused Texas to miss out on some late bloomers. But not taking Luck — because Texas was all-in on Garrett Gilbert for the next recruiting class — is probably one the Longhorns regretted in hindsight.
Recruiting Big Board
Storylines from uncommitted 2025 prospects
Let’s take a look at the current recruiting landscape, shall we? Here are the names I am most interested in from Ari Wasserman’s list of the most impactful uncommitted 2025 prospects and why their recruitment intrigues me:
- 5-star S Anquon Fegans: The Nick Saban effect. The No. 2 player in Alabama hasn’t committed, while the state’s No. 1 player, Na’eem Offord, has pledged to Ohio State. Is this what we can expect post-Saban? This recruiting cycle will start to show us what life will be like for the Tide without Saban.
- 4-star QB Antwann Hill: QBs running low. The top seven QBs in this class are committed, leaving Hill as one of two QBs left in the top 100. Plus, Ari says there is already serious scarcity at QB in this cycle. Florida, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Duke and UNC are among the top suitors for Hill.
- 4-star TE Linkon Cure: Welcome to Kansas. The state of Kansas has had two top-100 players in the same cycle just twice before. And right now, the state is home to two top-50 players: Cure and T Andrew Babalola (No. 26 overall).
Quick Snaps
Speaking of KansasMax Olson has a great story today on how Jayhawks head coach Lance Leipold has established himself as one of the greatest program builders in college football.
Former Purdue RB Tyrone Tracy embraced a position change after five seasons of not meeting his potential as a receiver. It was successful and his payoff could come in the NFL Draft.
Some fans wonder why they have to pay for players when the money is flowing in for the schools. Seth Emerson takes a look at NIL and donor fatigue.
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(Top photo of Jaheim Merriweather: Brianna Paciorka / USA Today)
2024-03-07 23:48:36
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