“It’s the most wonderful time of the year”. It’s time to celebrate Christmas, New Year’s, and best of all the 2017 college football bowl season. This bowl season is special featuring the biggest and most interesting coaching carousel that football fans have seen in a long time: Tennessee, Florida, Florida State, Nebraska, Oregon, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Central Florida, UCLA, Arizona State and Nebraska. Added to the chaos, was the first ever early signing period from December 20th to December 22nd. Unfortunately for many of these football programs (Including Tennessee), the early signing period has had some adverse effects on their institution.
For decades many high school football commits signed their national letters of intent each year on the first Wednesday in February. Players are recruited as early as high school freshmen and can commit and/or decommit at any time to a college; however, when said player actually signs his national letter of intent to a college he is bound to that institution. While players can sign at any time, many wait and have a ceremony and sign on the national signing day in February, and this allows college coaches and their assistants to finish up their seasons, play their bowls and wrap up the recruiting class for the next season.
Like many other sports, college football has a new early signing period. Although many preferred the early signing days to take place in the summer, the NCAA decided December, right in the middle of bowl season, would be the ideal time. Coaches now have to juggle preparing for their bowl games while landing recruits. The new signing period is proving especially difficult for the new coaching hires. They must hire their staff (Nine coaching assistants, four graduate assistants, strength and conditioning coordinators, etc.) and recruit players with little or no staff in place. According to ESPN’s recruiting rankings, only Oregon has a class ranked in the top 15, Florida has a top 20 class, but the rest are outside the top 25. Many of these schools have had top classes in the past; sadly, players are hesitant to sign on a dotted line with so many uncertainties. These coaches still have a chance to assemble their staff and recruit some players to sign on the national signing day in February. Hopefully, Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama and Clemson left some desirable players.