HS Football recruiting: Early Signing Period, Transfer Portal, extra year of eligibility ramps up pressure for players to commit, sign

Remember a long time ago — OK, four-and-a-half years — when hundreds of high school football players announced their college choice on the first Wednesday in February?

It seemed as if at least one recruit at every school went through the process of selecting one of the hats on the table in front of him to reveal his choice.

Those ceremonies still exist, but they’re becoming more and more rare.

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Between the Early Signing Period, which made December the new National Signing Day since it began in 2017, the NCAA transfer portal and the fallout from the NCAA’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s increasingly important for high school student-athletes to make a decision earlier in the process.   

Wait too long and risk being left out.

“It’s musical chairs right now,” Cocoa High School football coach Ryan Schneider said. “The music is playing and there’s a certain number of chairs. I tell my guys all the time, ‘You have to have a seat when the music stops.’ That’s the truth.

“I’ve talked to multiple schools and I had a D-I school in Florida tell me they have three open spots. Another school has eight. It all comes down to numbers.”

It’s not a new phenomenon that colleges only have a certain number of scholarships available. What’s new(er) is that high school players now must compete with hundreds of college players in the transfer portal.

It used to be that a college might bring in a handful of junior college players to round out their signing class.

Now, in some cases, it’s flipped.

Texas State didn’t sign a single high school player last year, opting instead to take transfers from Power 5 programs such as Arkansas, Cal, Kansas State, NC State and Pitt as well as Group of 5 schools. Florida didn’t sign any high school players in February but opted for four transfers.

College coaches — who aren’t exactly blessed with a lot of job security — are left to determine whether it’s a better decision to bring in a high school prospect or a player who’s already been in a college program and may be able to help sooner.

“I think we all, if we had our choice, we would want to recruit high school guys,” said an ACC assistant coach, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “You want them to come in and be able to contribute in some form or fashion early and to develop into really good players on the field. I think that's what everyone would prefer, but you get into certain situations where there's a really good player out there that wants to leave and is an upgrade at a position you have available. Then, you certainly have to weigh the pros and cons."

What it means is that the average high school recruit is forced to either make his mind up quickly or potentially miss out.

"I think its better for guys to lock in their spot before their senior season," said an SEC assistant. "There aren't too many guys schools are going to wait on. You should definitely lock in your spot because it might not be there later. If we take 23 players, we’re not taking 23 wide receivers. We might take one. So once we get one, that spot is gone."

A Big Ten assistant coach told the USA Today Network he expected his school's signing class to be completely full by July or August — at least four months before any high school player can sign a National Letter of Intent.

The top-ranked high school players won’t have a problem finding a home and they can wait as long as they want to.

Vero Beach's Keanu Koht flipped from LSU to Alabama during the early signing period last December. But Koht was an elite edge rusher and a consensus four-star recruit.

The reality is there just aren’t that many players who fit into that category. Evans High rising senior four-star safety Markeith Williams is one of the fortunate ones this year.

“I would say kids like Markeith, his pressure won’t be as bad because everyone wants him,” said Evans coach Kenard Lang, who was an assistant at Florida International the past two seasons. “The pressure is on the two- and three-star kids. The four stars, everyone is going to want them. Two or three, they might have eight schools recruiting them. Then those schools go to the portal and now it’s down to two or one. It would be good to know where you’re going (sooner in the process), but how we do it here is where you commit, that’s the school you’re going to. When you commit, you’re married.”

That's why so many players started hitting the road last Tuesday — the first day after the NCAA's dead period ended.

It is just as critical for high school student-athletes to get on campus and be around the coaches as it is for college coaches to finally see those players in person. 

Recruits were allowed to take unofficial visits to college campuses during the dead period but were unable to have any contact with the coaching staff while on site. 

"I've told (my players) to kill two birds with one stone — go to a camp where they're interested in you and where you're interested in them, and then use it as an unofficial visit and a camp," said Matanzas coach Matt Forrest, who previously spent time on the staffs of four FCS programs. "You can see the campus, see the town. Decisions have got to be made quickly. If you don't like the town, or it's not the right fit, or you don't really like the school setting, at least you'll know while you're up there visiting and going to camp, too."

Further complicating the issue for high school seniors this year is the NCAA granting fall student-athletes an extra year of eligibility — whether their teams played or not — in response to the pandemic. 

"It was a difficult time and a difficult situation as a country," Schneider said. "It's one we've never been through before. They did what they thought was best. When they made the decision (last August) the Big Ten wasn’t playing. They didn’t realize the trickle-down effect would happen for high school players,"

It will have a long-term impact, one that goes far beyond the reality that programs are limited to having 85 scholarship players. Those ramifications include finances, as schools now have an unexpected expense of keeping "super seniors" on campus for a fifth or sixth year. It certainly wasn't even a consideration when those players arrived in 2016 or 2017. 

"For us, I think it's around $100,000 per player to have them on campus for a year," said an SEC assistant coach. "That's one of the things that came up in meetings. That's one of the issues saying a year didn't count."

At some point, the finances will catch up to these programs. Several FBS programs plan to sign fewer players this year — and possibly in the future as well — to help mitigate those costs and stay comfortably under the 85 scholarship limit. 

"It's school to school," the Big Ten assistant said. "We plan to sign a full class, but some schools budget-wise can't do it. Others have always operated in the black, so they don't feel the constraints of it the same way."

Bottom line, there are fewer scholarships for high school seniors this year. 

And the clock is ticking. 

"Add in the transfer portal and guys getting an extra year of eligibility and it’s getting harder," Vero Beach coach Lenny Jankowski said. "It's harder for a high school kid to get recruited."