Paul Johnson with a great suggestion

[caneallday21]

The media and the kids drive this circus tour.

Wrong. It´s us, the consumers, who drive this circus tour.

Look at just the Rudolph thread and that happens in every state and those reporters see that and strike it for every school i guarantee if it was a baseball or basketball commit no way in **** would it get this much attention

 

[hcanes100]

I am not a big fan of having dead scholarships not used. I think if the limit is 85, there should be 85 scholarships given. If they are truly student athletes, lets at least of an education to 85 people at a time.

 

[canadianhurricane]

Ita hard, as a UM fan, to not like the idea of an early signing period. Seeing how there is so much local talent, it would be alot easier to get commits and keep them commits. I really like the idea of schools not being able to contact players before their senior season. At the current rate, its not hard to believe scholarships will eventually be thrown out to high school freshmen. Thats wayyy too early to judge if a players is worthy of a scholarship or not.

And there is currently nothing in place that holds schools accuntable of the scholarships they offer. I mean, BAMA has offered something like 150 non-commitable scholarships to HS players... This makes no sense! Schools should not be able to do this. Either a player has a scholarship they can commit to or not. You cant string guys along with the hopes of getting one. UM did the same to the WR Cunningham last year.

 

[Canething]

An early signing period would sure go a long way to alleviate some of the drama

 

[NorthFlaCane]

Schools would certainly be more careful who they offer if they weren't able to reneg later on. Would help local schools as they get more time to evaluate the kids.

 

[AZHurricane]

BTW if this happened schools like Florida Alabama and LSU would have even better years on the recruiting trail. They would have all the great athletes with good grades that are local committed and signed then they could go national.

it would hurt them the most, bama would no longer be able to sign 38 players

They dont sign 38 anyway you can only sign 25 per class in the SEC now. You are allowed to back count so say you sign 17 1 year the next year you can sign 33 as long as 8 were EE'S.

they do over sign in fact they over signed again this year

Yes they did oversign but your 38 players commit was wrong. Teams with big budgets & fertile recruiting grounds would love an early signing period

hahy-pur-buh-lee/

 

[madstork]

An early signing period would be good. Let students sign over the summer before the senior year, that way they aren't bothered by other schools during the year. Give the kids an option to get out of the scholarship if the head coach leaves before NSD.

 

[tsimonitis]

I agree and disagree. It will reward the coaches/schools that evaluate best but limit the opportunities for kids that are naive in the overall scheme of the process. Most players, parents, and coaches are novice in terms of the process and I could see them being taken advantage of.

Also, Paul Johnson coached at Navy, he had unlimited scholarships. I think it is a bit of sour grapes here, as well.

 

[Ethnicsands]

BTW if this happened schools like Florida Alabama and LSU would have even better years on the recruiting trail. They would have all the great athletes with good grades that are local committed and signed then they could go national.

Wrong. They'd lose their advantages. They couldnt troll money as effectively. It take longer to scout non-local kids. They'd have to try to hold slots open to see who emerges or clug up early and risk missing out on top kids.

 

[IHATETHISPLACE]

BTW if this happened schools like Florida Alabama and LSU would have even better years on the recruiting trail. They would have all the great athletes with good grades that are local committed and signed then they could go national.

Wrong. They'd lose their advantages. They couldnt troll money as effectively. It take longer to scout non-local kids. They'd have to try to hold slots open to see who emerges or clug up early and risk missing out on top kids.

LSU and Florida will both have double digit commits before the season starts. They have already had most of the local kids in camp last summer. Look at who is leading the charge with commits for 2014 right now Texas A & M , Texas, LSU, Florida, FSU & Ole Miss.

 

[Canes239]

stop running a ghey offense and you might get better players

 

[JackOAT]

funny. You people ***** the entire year about the same flaws CPJ is addressing in this statement and then accuse him of sour grapes?

 

[Andrew]

What PJ is upset about is losing 3 star players to better schools once those schools lose out on their 4 and 5 star prospect. He wants to be able to tell a kid that if they don't commit now they may not have a spot. Once the kid commits he would have to sign and thus if a better school whether that be athletics or academic comes along the kid is screwed.

 

[JackOAT]

Thanks for making my point for me. So when butthurt posters ***** because the word commitment doesn't mean **** to recruits that leave us with our **** in our hand for better FB schools, it's legit, but a coach proposes a plan that would actually put the meaning back into the word and it's sour grapes?

Got it.

And what's with the condescension? As if our 4 and 5 stars have amounted to anything in recent years. How many D1 schools can even offer better academics than GT?

 

[NVA CANE]

Maybe if paul johnson would get rid of the ****** triple option that has now proven to be a failure he could recruit better. Absolutely no reason why GT cannot recruit better than it does. Dude is a terrible coach but I do agree with his suggestion.

 

[2Focusd804]

who cares why Johnson likes the idea, its still a great idea. u want to go to a school, then let the kids sign early, if the kids aren't ready? then wait until u are...if a coach u sign with gets fired (or if said schools gets sanctions) the LOI is nullified and u are free to sign somewhere else. allows the kids who want to get the process over with to not get hounded with calls they don't want and allows them to focus on enjoying their last year of high school. kids could still take their visits, play hat games, announce at all star games etc, schools will still hold scholarships for certain kids and if your grades aren't good enough to get in then u don't deserve to play. i see no downside at all, the only thing not covered is a kid who is signed and gets injured (i think school should honor signed LOI unless its a career ending injury)

 

[LexCane55]

Or we could just let him pick his top 25 guys and then everyone starts recruiting after that.

Its not a great idea because it hurts late bloomers. And how would being able to switch schools if a coach gets fired. Could you switch if a coordinator or Position coach siwtches??

This would be a system to help coaches and teams and not players

 

[FreePawn]

(i think school should honor signed LOI unless its a career ending injury)

Even then they should honor it. But it shouldn´t count against their total. IIRC it was Kansas years ago who had a BBall recruit lose a foot in an accident and still gave him a full scholarship. More recently, just this year in fact, FSU did the same after Richy Klepal had to give up football due to concusions. And he was merely a commit. It´s really the decent thing to do.

 

[Bennubird]

Interesting point about the no early contact. How many programs do you think would actually adhere to that and how would the NCAA police it?

Johnson´s suggestion includes NO personal contact before the senior year. It would definitely make offers legit (if you have a LOI you can sign, you have an offer, if not, you don´t) which would help a lot of the kids. It would also let the schools know where the recruits stand. That would mean a lot less of the "Miami hasn´t offered me yet, and I´m nearly a senior" crap we have to put up with(see Wilson, Quincy), because even the OOS schools would only offer the can´t miss, 5* kids. Less "offers" just to get a foot in the door.

My original problem with the idea was that I thought it may just move the whole circus forward a year. But if schools are only allowed to write to a kid before day one of the senior season that would be prevented. I think it would force everyone to do a lot more evaluating before actually sending out the LOIs. Which would be an advantage for a school in, say, a huge recruiting hot bed, able to get a much better picture.

 

[Andrew]

Kids should be able to decide where they go to school and not get tricked into an contract that change. Making kids wait until February is a good thing and having an earlier date would just mean the same thing happens a few months earlier.