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When the Word Isn't Quite Final
Dunbar standout Arrelious Benn continued to get phone calls and text messages from Notre Dame recruiters even after making a commitment to Illinois on national television.
(Jonathan Newton - The Washington Post)
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Ballou senior offensive lineman Lamar Milstead committed to North Carolina last June, but he knew it was far from firm. He soured on his top choice, Virginia, when the Cavaliers' recruiter, Ron Prince, left to take over at Kansas State. Milstead said he wanted to orally commit somewhere to be safe, and see how the situations at the other schools that offered him shook out during his senior season.
"I figured I'd get this over with, catch up on my [school] work and then get back to the recruiting later," Milstead said. "I wasn't entirely sure about [my commitment] but I wasn't going to tell [North Carolina] that. Just like they told me what I wanted to hear, I told them what they wanted to hear. It's just to get them off your back. You want the whole pursuing thing to stop. You just want to be the one to make the decision."
After North Carolina fired coach John Bunting during last season, Milstead said he realized he wasn't in the Tar Heels' plans when new coach Butch Davis didn't call him for two months after being hired. Milstead said he called Virginia two weeks ago, and asked if its scholarship offer still stood. When told it did, Milstead accepted it.
Milstead knows he got lucky. The majority of BCS conference programs hope to complete the large majority of their recruiting several months before signing day. Hite said Virginia Tech has 95 percent of its slots filled eight months before signing day. Edsall said Connecticut had 21 players orally committed before Christmas.
"We would have loved to have had those kids signed and off the market," Edsall said, "but now we've got kids who we've got commitments from who are still getting calls."
Said Hite, "Obviously, it's a big problem in college football, and I'm not so sure that they shouldn't have an early-signing period because of it."
Unlike most other sports, football does not have an early-signing period. Basketball recruits, for example, can sign during a week in November, just before the start of their senior season.
"I'm in favor of an early-signing period," DeMatha Coach Bill McGregor said. "That would stop all the nonsense."
Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, said his membership is considering drafting a proposal to the NCAA for an early-signing period. One stumbling block, though, is when that period should be. Offering it before the start of a recruit's senior season would be tough because NCAA rules prohibit recruits from taking official visits -- all-expense trips paid for by the university -- until the first day of classes of their senior year.
Junior college transfers can sign football letters-of-intent beginning Dec. 20. Edsall said he thinks high schoolers should be allowed to sign at that time, as well. Even six weeks ahead of regular signing day, he said, would make a big difference.
"You're giving a chance to students to end the process in December," he said, "and as a coach, if you have a kid and he doesn't want to sign in December, that should tell you something. Everybody calls each other's bluff a little bit."
