Page 32 - bon-dia-aruba-20211213

A32 sports
Dialuna 13 December 2021

Coaching changes cause uncertainty as signing period arrives

like three minutes left in to Oregon since Miami hired
the fourth quarter,” Napier Wiltfong notes that the desire away Mario Cristobal. The
said during his introductory to have new staffs in place most notable one was of-
news conference. “I think before the December signing fensive tackle Kelvin Banks,
the last thing we need to do period caused many schools the nation’s No. 15 over-
here is make some mistakes. to act early in firing coaches. all recruit according to the
I wouldn’t be surprised if we The Big Ten was the only 247Sports Composite. Banks
don’t sign many at all, to be Power Five conference that has since committed to Texas.
honest with you.” hadn’t announced a coaching
change by mid-November. USC hired Lincoln Riley
Recruiting analysts are skep- away from Oklahoma on
tical that more signings end “The early signing period Nov. 28. Oklahoma hired
up taking place in February. has definitely had an impact Brent Venables a week later.
on that,” Wiltfong said. “You In that brief time, the Soon-
Adam Gorney, national re- probably (otherwise) would ers’ 2022 recruiting class has
cruiting director at Rivals, have seen coaches still would lost four top-150 prospects
said 80-85% of FBS recruits have gotten to finish the sea- in defensive linemen Gabri-
generally sign in December son before they were let go el Brownlow-Dindy (16th)
and it shouldn’t be far off that Thanksgiving weekend.” and Derrick Moore (79th),
mark this time. running back Raleek Brown
Coaching changes hit pro- (33rd) and linebacker Kobie
(AP) - There is no doubt “With all the coaching chang- grams that produced seven McKinzie (144th). Brown-
the arrival of an early sign- Over 20% of Football Bowl es, it might be a tick less, of the top 12 classes in the low-Dindy is now commit-
ing period in college foot- Subdivision programs have but it should be around that last signing period, accord- ted to Texas A&M, Brown to
ball recruiting has affect- changed coaches since the number somewhere,” Gor- ing to composite rankings USC and McKinzie to Texas.
ed the timing of coaching start of the season, which ney said. of recruiting sites compiled
changes. We are about to means the early signing pe- by 247Sports: LSU, Oregon, No wonder Venables spent
find out if the reverse is riod will begin Wednesday as Steve Wiltfong, direc- Southern California, Notre part of his introductory news
also true. plenty of verbally commit- tor of football recruiting Dame, Oklahoma, Miami conference emphasizing the
ted prospects and their new for 247Sports, said he also and Florida. need to secure the rest of that
Ever since the recruiting cal- coaches are still getting to doesn’t expect much of a dif- class.
endar changed in 2017, near- know one another. ference — aside from more Those seven schools all filled
ly all high school prospects decommitments than usual. their vacancies within the last “My No. 1 goal is to get on
have opted to finalize their One of those new coaches – two weeks, leaving prospects the road recruiting, make
college plans in December Florida’s Billy Napier – says Twenty-eight of the nation’s little time to decide whether sure that this ’22 class that’s
rather than waiting for the he’s going to take a cautious 130 FBS schools made coach- to stick with commitments. due to enroll here in the next
traditional February signing approach this week while ing changes this year. Accord- Some have changed their few weeks is where it needs
date. looking toward February. ing to NCAA data, there have minds. to be, and then all the while
been only two years since in between visits, visiting
That trend is being put to the “The reality is you’re get- 1947 that featured more than Several prospects have with- with our current players,”
test this year. ting in the game and there’s 28 coaching changes. drawn verbal commitments Venables said.

Players aren’t the only ones
facing major decisions.
Coaches also must learn
more about the prospects
they inherited, which ex-
plains Napier’s approach to-
ward the early signing period.

“For me, I think it’s impor-
tant in recruiting that both
sides understand each other
and have had time to build
relationships, to have con-
versations, to know who’s
going to coach them, to fully
understand what the plan is,”
Napier said. “I think it goes
both ways in that regard. I
think it’s an injustice to them
and an injustice to us to all of
a sudden just hurry up and
elope here right at the last
second.”
Napier is replacing the fired
Dan Mullen, who was criti-
cized for the lack of star pow-
er in Florida’s 2022 recruit-
ing class.

Gorney said Napier and new
LSU coach Brian Kelly both
seem intent on reshaping the
recruiting classes they inher-
ited, which could keep them
busy up until February.