Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1514597
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 4 5 7 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M This spring will be a crucial period for change, with the new calendar expected to come sometime in April. If the NCAA is going to get rid of the December early signing period, it has to be announced in the next few months. But again, that's not the real problem. Getting coaches off the road in Decem- ber is one thing that can be changed for next year. How Important Are In-Home Visits Anyway? Is it really all that important for a head coach to eat dinner with a recruit and his family if that player has already been committed for months? Are those in-home visits really needed anymore? Twenty years ago, when a recruit's official visit was often the only trip he would take to a school, in-home vis- its were indisputably a key part of the decision-making process. But now? With recruits taking so many unofficial visits, many of which start when they're freshmen or sophomores in high school, what are families really getting out of those in-home meetings two weeks be- fore they sign? The 25 signees in Penn State's 2024 class took a combined total of 200 visits to campus. That's an average of eight visits per player. Recruits like offensive lineman Cooper Cousins, who lives in Erie, Pa., and took 22 visits total, skew those numbers a bit. But even Florida cornerbacks Jon Mitchell and Antoine Belgrave-Shorter made it to campus three times each. Offensive tackle Ea- gan Boyer of Cornelius, N.C., drove 16 hours round trip to State College on four occasions. That total doesn't include his official visit, for which his airfare was provided by PSU. If you asked my colleagues in the me- dia, many would argue it's important for coaches to be able to do in-home visits. But the coaches themselves often say it's an outdated, unnecessary practice. Even if the NCAA were to decide that in-home visits are needed, a re- cent change in the recruiting calendar provides an ideal time for them to take place much earlier in the year. Rethinking The Contact Period For as long as I have been covering recruiting, the spring evaluation pe- riod has begun on April 15 and extended through the second-to-last week in May. Head coaches have not been al- lowed on the road during this period, but assistant coaches have been permitted to travel to watch players work out or prac- tice. Not all states allow spring practice, but all prospects are doing some sort of workout during this stretch. Last April, when the 2023-24 calen- dar was released, the NCAA changed this period of time from an evaluation period to a contact period. This was a notable change that got some public- ity, but probably not the amount it de- served. I see it as a prelude to what's coming down the road. This spring, assistant coaches will be allowed to meet with juniors (class of 2025) for the first time at their school. Again, assistant coaches could always go to the school and watch them work out or practice, but now they can actually have extended conversations with those play- ers and their parents. That's a big change. Under the new rules, head coaches like Franklin still won't be allowed to meet with players. But if the NCAA be- lieves that in-home visits are impor- tant, that prohibition could easily be lifted in the years to come. So, why not move in-home visits to this part of the year? It's a great time for them to take place, potentially help- ing both players and coaches decide on where they want to take official visits in June. I think it's questionable whether they're needed at all, but this is a much better time in which to do them than December. Cooper Cousins, a four-star offensive lineman from Erie, Pa., took 22 visits to Penn State during the two years in which he was verbally committed to the Nittany Lions. PHOTO B THOMAS FRANK CARR