Coronavirus has changed recruiting calendar

University of Pittsburgh tight ends coach Tim Salem is still giving campus tours to prospects.

Well, sort of.

Even during this NCAA-mandated coronavirus dead period, Salem has found a way to do campus visits despite the campusvisit shutdown.

“I had a couple of kids on FaceTime the other day, so I just walked them around the building showing them things on FaceTime … the hallways and the graphics and things we have in the building,” he said.

“But personally, to me, it’s going to be like recruiting back in the 1980s, when you let them play their senior year and then you start recruiting them.”

Salem, who was a UCF assistant coach during George O’Leary’s tenure, is a familiar face around Central Florida, where he does a great deal of his recruiting for the Panthers. He’s not deterred by this coronavirus pandemic, but he does say it has sent him — and coaches nationwide — back to old-school ways.

“Obviously we’re still able to text and send information and kids can call us, so that hasn’t stopped,” Salem said. “That hasn’t slowed down. As a matter of fact, that phase has probably sped up. That’s all they can do because every kid in America is at home. You can send a text, ‘Call me,’ … and 30 seconds later they’re on the phone.

“It’s just too bad that these unofficial visits and kids coming to campus and watching practice and taking little trips to school A, B, C, D … that all got knocked out. But it’s the same for us as it is for Michigan State or Texas or UCF or USF. We’re all in the same boat.”

Prior to the stranglehold the pandemic put on the world, schools were able to get recruits to campus for unofficial visits, which new FSU coach Mike Norvell said was a big benefit as he implements his system in Tallahassee.

“I was really pleased with the guys we had been able to get to Tallahassee … but with that being eliminated, we’re trying to do as much as we can through electronic correspondence,” Norvell said. “We’re continuing to try to build on the content that we can show kids online to showcase all aspects of our program.

“But the thing these kids want to see is our staff. They want to get a chance to be around us and get a sense of who we are and what we’re all about. … I think we’re doing a really nice job of how we’re building those relationships and trying to be unique with how we’re doing that.”

The recruiting calendar has already begun to change — at least for athletes who enroll in college in 2021 — and will be further altered by how long the coronavirus holds the nation hostage

These athletes would typically be visiting schools now and committing before or during their fall football seasons. The majority would then sign letters of intent in December during the early signing period that was established a few years ago and had shifted the recruiting calendar much earlier.

Without those visits, recruits

are more