Football signing period is a much longer haul than Day One for high school seniors

February 5th, Wednesday, will be a wild one in college recruiting.  That’s the day most high profile football seniors will be inking their letters of intent with big time programs.  But remember, please, that the actual signing period goes all the way to April 1, so there will still be a lot of pens touching paper after all the flashes subside and ESPN has returned to their next big thing.

NCAA DI programs will be finished, for the most part by week’s end, but a majority of high school seniors will not sign until afterward.  That’s when lower level DI, DII, DIII, NAIA and JUCO programs will do their best to solidify their 2014-15 freshmen classes.  And lest we lose sight of the importance of all this, let’s for a moment redirect our focus on the fact that the futures and lives of far more athletes will be decided from February 13th through April 1 than during this one-week of frenzy.

There is a myth that college programs below the DI level wait to see which athletes didn’t get the high-DI offers they had hoped to receive.  That simple is untrue.  Every college football program in the country is busy year round recruiting the athletes they believe will provide them with stability and improvement.  To get their allotment of players, they are in touch two-, three-times that number of athletes.  They have cast a wide net over these youngsters knowing that some will commit and sign while other will not.  It’s a numbers game, start to finish.  And every program includes a large list of bubble athletes that are skilled enough to play at the next level.  Again, some will come, some will not.   But rest assured, when they learn of athletes on their list which have decided to go elsewhere, they move on to the next one.  There is no time to mope.  They have to move and move quickly to secure their optimal signing class.

That process takes time.  Connecting with all their white-board athletes is their first priority.  Those that choose other schools come off the board immediately and are replaced with the next athletes on their recruiting depth chart and it’s on to them.  And that is why so many athletes sign later than others.  It isn’t because these players are less qualified or deserving. It’s because they happen to be down farther on the list.

For these athletes and their families, it is excruciating watching all the others sign.  But that is the process.  It is the way recruiting works.  Our best advice?  Stay in touch with the coaches interested in you beyond the Dead Period.  Continue to express your interest.  In the end, a coach’s call may be determined by the player that sincerely wants to come to school there and play for that coach.