Big Ten Media Days: Survey on the next big recruiting rule change
CHICAGO – The most signifincant changes to affect college football recruiting in several decades were implemented in the last year, specifically the early signing period and spring official visits. We asked Big Ten coaches as well as several current players what areas of the recruiting process the NCAA should focus on next, but the conversation kept coming back to the early signing period and spring official visits.
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“There has been quite a bit of change lately, so I think they are probably going to let this settle in, see how it works. I think the early visits and the early signing date are all going to be beneficial. It has to this point, in my opinion. We like it and I think it will probably stay like this for a little bit, but it wouldn’t surprise me if in the next couple years that early signing date gets moved up even farther.” - Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm
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“I am not a huge fan of the early signing period. From most of the coaches that I talk to, if we knew we had to offer early visits – which I understand why we did it – to get early signing day, I think most coaches would probably pass on it now. We just don’t get enough time with our current players. We don’t get enough time with our families.” - Penn State head coach James Franklin
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“I think the changes we’ve made so far have been good. I think the early signing day, I really like it and thought it worked out well. I think the timing of where it is in December is really good. The early spring visits, I am a little in between on that. I see why we went that way; I don’t know that it’s totally necessary. When you do the signing day in December, a young man can still take an official visit during the season and after the season.” - Maryland head coach D.J. Durkin
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“I like the idea of the early signing period and the early officials. Me, I had my official and then I was in school two weeks later.” - Minnesota LB Thomas Barber
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“The early spring official visits, I’m not sure how I feel about those yet. I know we, philosophically, intentionally, did not have any in April and May. We did not feel that was in the best interest of our program. We did have a big weekend in June and it proved to be very, very profitable. I didn’t like the idea that our coaches were going to have three months of those opportunities because they’re out recruiting and have spring football, it (would) become really, really crazy. But we were able to go through and say ‘we’re going to set it for this block of time,’ and focus all our resources on that segment, we got a lot of bang for our buck.” – Indiana head coach Tom Allen
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“My proposal would be to move signing day up to August or end of July, somewhere in there, before they start their senior years.” - Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz
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“I would say two officials to one school. If you really love that school, you can take multiple visits to that school or all five visits to one school if you want to.” - Nebraska WR Stanley Morgan Jr.
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“I know the push is going to be to go to an August (time frame) signing. That’s before a kid plays his senior season. I struggle with that. I always think about it in terms of, I was a high school football coach for 15 years. How would I feel about that change? How is that going to affect high school coaches, high school players and their development? I have a hard time really believing that’s what’s best for kids. I like the early signing in December. I think that has a lot of merit and does a lot of positive things, for a lot of reasons.” - Indiana head coach Tom Allen
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“The first thing they need to do is start the official visit clock, make it coincide with the official visits. We are allowed to (start hosting) mid-April, and that’s when your 56-count should start. It shouldn’t be August 1st. They need to adjust that because that’s going to factor into what we’re going to do this winter.” - Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz
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“I don’t think I would change anything from my recruiting process, but I’m not sure how it would be with all these new rules. Of course, I think it’s good that there are new and better (ideas) to improve the recruiting process, because it is a tough decision.” - Maryland defensive back Darnell Savage