Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1072455
I
n January 2017, Alabama welcomed 12
members of its recruiting class to
campus, the biggest contingent of
early enrollees in the Football Bowl Sub-
division that year. Just 12 months later,
one of those players – quarterback Tua
Tagovailoa – ended up throwing the
winning touchdown pass in the champi-
onship game of the College Football
Playo<.
The Crimson Tide had taken the early
enrollment trend to the next level, but it
was growing everywhere. Georgia,
Oklahoma, Clemson, Ohio State, Texas
and Michigan all had seven or more Jan-
uary enrollees in their classes that same
year. Their success in persuading
prospects to graduate early from high
school and enroll in college in time for
the start of the spring semester turned
out to be the :nal straw that convinced
NCAA o=cials that an early signing pe-
riod was needed. There were other rea-
sons, of course, notably the increasing
tendency of prospects to verbally com-
mit months or even years in advance of
the traditional February signing date.
But whatever the rationale, in the spring
of 2017, college football's governing
body decided to give prospects the
oportunity to sign in December. And
ever since that change was approved,
increasing numbers of January enrollees
have ;ocked to schools throughout the
FBS.
Penn State was a little late to the party.
Only four members of its 2017 recruiting
class enrolled in January of that year.
Those four players were :ve-star defen-
sive back Lamont Wade, four-star out-
side linebacker Brelin Faison-Walden,
four-star wide receiver K.J. Hamer and
three-star o