Is it wrong to think that if Nick Saban and Urban Meyer are against something, I should probably be in favor of it?
Two marquee coaches who have remained steadfast in their opposition to adding an early signing day are Alabama’s Nick Saban and Ohio State’s Urban Meyer.
Saban’s objections are that an early signing period reduces the amount of time coaches have to evaluate prospects athletically, academically and socially. Also, he said a player signing early may not play as motivated his senior high school season and added there might not be any available scholarships for late-blooming prospects.
“We would probably make some academic, character and maybe evaluation mistakes, because you aren’t even seeing a guy play during his senior season,” Saban said several months ago. “The other thing from a high school coaches’ standpoint, I mean what is really the guy’s motivation to play, and really work hard to get better to play for his team in his senior year?
“Ultimately, every player should have the opportunity to make official visits, to develop relationships.”
Meyer has been even more outspoken opposing an early NSD.
“I hear the reasoning is because there’s so many decommitments,” Meyer said. “What the hell does that mean? So because 18-year-olds – excuse me, 17-year-olds – are decommitting, let’s give them a legal document so they can’t decommit? That’s not very smart. Young people have a right to choose where they want to go to school. Period. Let them decommit a hundred times. That’s why they’re called 17-year-olds.
“So I don’t understand, whether it’s lazy, whether it’s, you know, I don’t understand why this big push. Now they want to move junior, like have official visits in their junior year. There’s some kids that don’t even have ACT scores. They’re bodies are gaining 18 pounds. Why not move it back to their sophomore year? It’s bizarre. You’re going to see more transfers and more mistakes made in recruiting than ever if they keep pushing this thing up.”
Chaos, I tells ‘ya! And that can’t be good for Alabama and Ohio State.
By the way, Nick’s doing great in the character evaluation department. He just needs more time.
Get The Picture 
Don’t these guys make offers when kids are in the 9th and 10th grades? Why even have a signing period? Make any offer binding on the school, whenever it happens.
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I think it’s funny Corch says, “Let them decommit a hundred times.” Where’s his moral outrage over allowing a kid in good standing to transfer without penalty or restriction when he wants to because he decided another place would be better for him athletically, academically or socially? Saban is more than happy to allow a kid to commit and then yank his scholarship on signing day for someone else. Why can’t that kid sign his paperwork whenever he wants? Bunch of hypocrites …
How about no signing period? A kid can sign his paperwork anytime his family and the offering school come to mutual agreement. If a kid wants to sign his paperwork on his birthday in July and the school wants him, sign the paperwork in July. If the kid wants to sign on the first day of school his senior year, why does anyone care if the school is willing to offer the scholarship. If the kid wants to sign the paperwork during a visit his freshman year, what’s wrong with that?
Everyone wants to end the ridiculously early offers … that’s the way to do it.
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The early signing period is Dec 20-22 this year. How is that radically different from the first week in February. If you don’t have a letter of intent sitting in front of you from the school you think is going to sign you then you have 6 weeks to find a new home. If you don’t have that letter on Dec 19th. Somebody is using the kid as a back up plan.
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I thought the early signing period is currently for early entrants not for Fall ’18.
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My concern is this. The signing period is for a letter of intent, not a scholarship agreement. If a kid signs in December he is bound to the school, but the school is not bound to him. It can keep recruiting kids for his position, and if the school signs four more guys at his position in February the December kid is locked in. He can’t change his mind and go somewhere else if a 5 star playing his position commits in January.
Also, the LOI does not obligate the school to offer a scholarship, so that the December kid is at risk of the school not even offering a scholarship.
To illustrate, let’s take a hypothetical running back. We will pick a name out of hat and call him “Toneil.” Toneil signs in December after a head coach travels to his home to see him. Toneil is locked in to that school and cannot accept a scholarship anywhere else. Then, hypothetically, Toneil’s school gets a commitment from an even higher rated back. I picked the name “D’Andre” out of a hat. The head coach then thinks, “We don’t need two backs, we can use the scholarship for another position.”
Toneil is at risk for the school to which he gave the LOI saying, “sorry, no room for you, wait until January 2018. And, that’s an order, not a request, because you have no other choice.”
That is why I am against an early signing day.
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That’s a rational position. I think the LOI should be binding on both sides for a 5-year scholarship. Get rid of the 1-year renewable BS. We had commitments from both guys for a long time. Problem was Nick and Sony decided to come back, and we couldn’t take him in January.
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Making the LOI binding on the school to put the kid on a scholarship for the coming season would cure more problems for the young men than creating an early signing period would
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Normally I’d agree that the opposite of what they say is a good default position, but in this case we benefit in the same way Alabama and OSU do. The early signing period would help Tech and not us. That’s the end of the discussion as far as I’m concerned.
Brendan Douglass would have been a terror running that dive play at Tech. Fortunately for us, he’s on our team and not there’s.
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I think he has graduated.
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I’m inclined to agree, but for other reasons. I feel signing restrictions should be lessened – in favor of the players. Having them legally commit even earlier before they graduate HS is a step in the wrong direction.
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He just needs more time.
Williams and Hayes admitted to the attack, which caused cuts to the victim’s face, a mild concussion and severe swelling, according to the warrants.
The player said that they stole the victim’s backpack, which contained his Apple laptop computer.
In a second robbery, Williams admitted to police that he punched a student’s head and face while Pettway and Hayes stood by and watched. He said that he stole the student’s wallet and later used his student identification card to buy snacks from a vending machine in the football player’s dorm.
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“Let them decommit a hundred times. That’s why they’re called 17-year-olds.”
And here I thought they were called that because they were 17 years old.
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