Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE their scholarship and put the courting circus behind. For the college coaching staffs, the ad- dition of an early signing period would allow teams to lock in the bulk of their recruits early, then use the next few weeks before the traditional National Signing Day working to add players rather than spending much energy and time protecting against losing any. "Having an early signing day al- lows me to really focus on those guys that are not committed," Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly explained. "I can spend a lot more time with those guys." Kelly has supported the idea of a sec- ond and early signing period for years. "We have a school [in Notre Dame] that really gives a young man a clear indication of what they are looking for with a Catholic university, a small campus, high-caliber academics," Kelly said. "[Allowing] kids to make an early decision on going to Notre Dame? We're in favor of that." Many details remain to be debated and dissected with this proposal — mainly an exact date(s) for this early signing period and whether the players should be given an opt-out clause if the coach they committed to leaves before they arrive — but momentum suggests this initiative will be passed. Exactly how an early signing period would affect Notre Dame and other top football programs remains to be seen. In many ways, the impact will depend on the level of player poaching that might take place during a particular recruiting cycle. And for Kelly, he's become an accom- plished poacher during his six recruit- ing cycles at Notre Dame — especially this one. Of the 24 new players recently signed as part of the "Shamrock Soldier" class of 2015, six of them "flipped" their commitments after verbally pledging to play elsewhere, and five of those were among the highest rated players in this class. Quarterback Brandon Wimbush (Penn State), tight end Aliz'e Jones (UCLA), running back Dexter Williams (Miami), cornerback Shawn Crawford (Michigan), cornerback Ashton White (Virginia Tech) and linebacker Josh Barajas (Penn State), were all verbally committed to other schools before switching to Notre Dame. The Irish lost two — California quar- terback Blake Barnett switched to Ala- bama and Texas safety Prentice McKin- ney signed with Oklahoma after a brief verbal to North Carolina. Whether an early signing period would have nixed the opportunity to attract any or all of these fine players, we'll never know for sure. But one thing we can be certain of; if this early signing proposal is approved in June and implemented in Decem- ber, football coaches around the coun- try will have a clearer direction and a cleaner focus during the later stages of the recruiting process, and far fewer sleepless nights worrying about pro- gram piracy. ✦ Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com