Blue White Illustrated

LAST WORD T I M O W E N | O W E N . T I M . B W I @ G M A I L . C O M t was unseasonably cold earlier this month as 200 of the region's best football recruits gathered for a day camp at Piscataway High School in New Jersey. The clouds hung low and occa- sionally spit rain on the prospects while they faced off against each other. Collectively, they were part of the next wave, a crowd of players who will help fill stadiums and television airwaves for many Saturdays to come, keeping the tradition of college football alive. But on this day, they were just teenagers with robust dreams and an even stronger certainty that they'll obtain them. On hand were a bevy of four-star prospects, a few of whom are consider- ing Penn State in the next couple classes. There was a freshman quarter- back from Connecticut who, in addition to PSU, already has an offer from Ala- bama. There was an eighth-grade of- fensive lineman who won't enroll at his university until 2021 – and he held his own. They marked the start of a new gener- ation. After the camp finished – the very next day, in fact – they would learn that their recruitment and possibly their careers will be unlike those of their predecessors. Part of the Rivals.com series, the camp began with former players and coaches offering advice to both players and parents about the obstacles that await them in the recruiting process and ways to navigate through them. But as well-intentioned as those words were, the future is harder to predict than ever. Now that an early signing period has been put in place, nobody is quite sure what to expect. The process might not change much at all, but there is also a possibility that this move will backfire. The long-term forecast for the sport is constantly changing, and for the cur- rent recruits it's changing rapidly – and not always aligning with their best in- terests. With this latest amendment, before they've even stepped on campus, college football is already welcoming them like the dreary weather in New Jersey that Sunday, leaning the leverage balance even further out of the players' favor. On May 8, a committee of league commissioners, after years of recom- mendations and fine-tuning, approved an early signing period for football. That means prospects in the Class of 2018 will be able to sign their letters of intent during a 72-hour window from Dec. 20- 22, 2017. If they don't sign early, they can opt to wait until the traditional let- ter of intent day in February. The change was intended to relieve the stress that accompanies the final few months of a prospect's recruitment, but it could end up creating some anxiety along the way. For example, the early signing period will inevitably speed up the recruiting process. It's already being predicted that coaches will begin to hand out scholarship offers to players even earlier in their careers. Drew Pyne, that ninth- grade QB from Connecticut, already has almost a dozen offers. Right now, he's an outlier. In a few years, his situation might be commonplace. If players are committing long before they're done growing and evolving, the impact could be negative. Another reasonable and shared worry is that the players themselves will feel more pressure to sign early. They could end up entering into a binding agree- ment before they're ready, and also be- fore the annual wave of hirings and fir- ings is complete. A player's recruiting coach could leave for another job long before the freshman class ever sets foot on campus, never to be seen in those colors again. Proponents of the early signing period say that it will ease the process for those who know for sure where they want to go. Get it done with. No more questions asked. Makes sense. But there's a scenario that no one has men- tioned, and it could hurt a less-cele- brated recruit late in the process. What happens if the coaches aren't as ready for him to sign as he his? They, too, have the additional month at their dis- posal in which to maximize their re- cruiting class. Why rush it? Offers were already being pulled late in the process. Why would this change anything? This example isn't farfetched: A mid- level lineman, who had been committed for months, suffers an injury or simply doesn't develop as expected. At the same time, a new four-star prospect ig- nites interest. Imagine that the team in question is at its scholarship limit. When push comes to shove, do the coaches allow the committed player to sign early, or do they ask him to hold off and try landing the bigger fish who has yet to pick a school? If it's the latter, they would be leaving their verbally committed player in limbo. And if they were to receive a commitment from the four-star prospect, the other player would have to scramble to find a landing spot at the very end of the recruiting cycle, by which time many other classes will have already filled up. Now that would be a cold move. ■ Life in the fast lane I

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