National Signing Day. Put yourself in their shoes. There are so many factors a college football recruit has to consider before signing his future away.
“Do I like the coaches? Do I like the school? How much scholarship money am I getting? Am I going to play right away? Do I like the uniforms? (And if you’re going to the University of Oregon, then the answer is yes.) Is this really what’s best for me?”
There’s no way this can be an easy decision to make for a 17 or 18-year-old high school senior. It becomes difficult to say no, and difficult to tell other coaches you don’t want to be a part of their future plans the further along you go through the recruiting process. This year, more than ever the indecisiveness of young athletes has affected the state of college football in a way never before seen. The saga that is Jordan Payton could not exemplify further. Payton, the 15th best wide receiver according to Scouts.com in the class of 2012, changed his commitment not once, not twice, not three but FOUR times, breaking the hearts of USC, Cal and Washington fans before ultimately deciding to play for UCLA.
What’s even worse, the obviously misguided young man switched his commitment from Cal to Washington the day before signing day and ended up not signing with either one of those schools. Verbal commitments carry little weight anymore. Notre Dame lost four-star wide receiver and verbal commit since last spring Deontay Greenberry, who was Mr. Football in California, on a last minute decision to play for the University of Houston.
In perhaps the most shocking turn of events of the day, Dante Fowler Jr., a five-star defensive end that was supposed to lead Florida State’s already impressive class, dropped the Noles last second for the rival Gators, after leading Jimbo Fisher on for over a year and a half. It just goes to show that until you get a signature on that letter of intent, it doesn’t matter what comes out of a recruit’s mouth.
Despite the roller-coaster ride that some recruits took to their final decision, there were a few teams that had tremendous success this recruiting season. The defending national champion Crimson Tide were looking to add more talent on the defensive side after losing Courtney Upshaw and Dre Kirkpatrick.
Coach Nick Saban did just that, finishing with seven players ranked in the top 10 at their respective positions on the defensive side and signing twelve ESPN top 150 recruits. Alabama finished as the top recruiting class of 2012. This was to be expected, however, as Saban traditionally has great success along the recruiting trail.
What was unexpected was Stanford’s recruiting class coming in at number seven in 2012. Despite losing likely number one overall pick in this year’s NFL draft, Andrew Luck, and a year ago losing coach Jim Harbaugh, the Cardinal and now second year head coach David Shaw had great success luring in top high school talent, receiving commits from three of the top offensive lineman in the country, top linebacker recruit Noor Davis, top defensive lineman talent Aziz Shittu and even snagging highly-touted running back Barry Sanders Jr. away from other enticing powerhouses.
The University of California Golden Bears had the toughest day, losing at least five four-star or better players to other schools after the departure of head coach Tosh Lupoi. The Golden Bears aimed to land more than 25 commitments, and somehow managed to receive only 17.
Shawn Ferris can be reached at sferris@spartans.ut.edu.