Ole Miss Football: The Unfortunate Messiness of Recruiting

Recruiting: Lack of Player Commitment

Recruiting will be one of the last times the player will have nearly equal power with the school. Until a recruit signs his name on the line and fax in his official National Letter of Intent, he is free to court schools who may be in need of his service.

Many players enjoy this process to the fullest. They enjoy the attention given to them on social media as well as the visits to the different schools. However, while they are having fun in the recruiting cycle, the football team is trying to make sure they fill all of their needs.

I am an advocate of young guys enjoying the process. It doesn’t even bother me if they have these elaborate announcing videos or hat ceremonies. This will be the last time they have this much power until they graduate or go pro.

However, the danger in prolonging your commitment is that a team may get antsy and decide to move away from you to someone else. Schools are use to being burnt on signing day by a recruit who promised they were going to commit to them, just to have them choose a different hat. So these coaches like to find someone who they believe will be a definite yes.

Now, they will hold a place for the top recruits. But those who are middle tier players may be playing a proverbial game of recruitment “chicken” when they leave a school wondering where their loyalties lie.