Recruiting

style workouts showing the height, weights, wingspans and speed of players.

He also mailed out tapes matching his cornerbacks up with Clemson-bound wide receiver and St. John Bosco senior Beaux Collins to show college staffs how those defensive backs would fare against Power Five talent. Of course, most schools without fall seasons don’t have top-100 recruits on campus to give their prospects similar showcases.

“For the West Coast states, I think there’s going to be a lot more kids who may sign in February or post-February because there’s just not going to be a lot of evidence for them to show they’re collegelevel athletes,” Negro said. “California. Oregon. Washington. Nevada. Those are some pretty good football areas in terms of having kids who can play at the next level who aren’t having any kind of experience.”

St. John Bosco defensive end Iele Moore fits that profile.

he former rugby player from New Zealand moved to the United States last year. Moore is listed at 6-foot-3 and 265 pounds on the 247Sports database and has Power Five physical skills.

But he lacks varsity game experience. Moore, who says he has an offer from Duke, is waiting until February to sign and hoping California’s high school football season starts by then.

“Right now, a lot of the coaches are just waiting for me to get the pads on,” Moore said.

High school juniors may get hampered even more, even if the NCAA ends the recruiting dead period April 15 rather than extending it once again.

Many Power Five programs already had assembled much of their classes or had narrowed down their targets by the time the pandemic arrived. Those schools don’t know as much about the juniors without having evaluated them in person.

“The ‘ 22 class, you’re going to have to really be careful in your vetting and what you’re getting and not just go off statistics or old film,” Wisconsin director of player personnel Saeed Khalif said.

Schools also could face a long-term roster crunch.

When the NCAA granted college athletes the opportunity for an extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic, it permitted seniors to come back without counting against their team’s 85-man scholarship limit. That 85-man limit will likely return in 2022.

That could force tough decisions on how many of this year’s high school juniors to eventually sign, extending COVID-19’s impact on recruiting long after the pandemic itself has faded.

“It’s definitely been super challenging to say the least,” Montinar said. “But the flip side to it is everyone’s playing by the same rules. It is what it is.”