RECRUIT
of May, also are stuck in limbo.
Summer showcase events are in jeopardy, too, if the spread of coronavirus is not soon contained. But the spring football shutdown has impacted recruiting most immediately, creating a ripple effect that impacts each player and college football program differently.
Mount Dora Christian coach Kolby Tackett, whose sister has recovered from COVID-19 after contracting it in March, said safety Kevon “K.J.” Ellis had drawn ample interest prior to the shutdown. Yet, others aimed to parlay spring ball into their own scholarship offers.
“With some of our guys who already had offers going into this break, it really hasn’t slowed down with the offers coming in — I think KJ has picked up four in this down time,” Tackett said. “But where it hurt was with the accessibility to see them at practices. That’s such a big thing when you get those college coaches on campus. It’s big for your players who don’t necessarily have an offer.
“A lot of times you have them in to watch one kid and they discover another kid.”
Recruiters flocked to Mount Dora Christian’s campus in 2017 to check out linebacker Jesiah Pierre, now a redshirt freshman at UF, and along the way also discovered Ellis.
Similar scenarios were sure to unfold this month around Florida. Many rising seniors have addressed their weaknesses since the 2019 season ended and made gains during offseason strength program.
Spring football also is a chance for college coaches to doublecheck evaluations or keep tabs on a player months after he played his last game.
“What does hurt them is they’d like to be able to see if their top offensive line target still moves the way he did the last time they saw him or if he’s gained 60 pounds of bad weight,” Farrell said of college recruiters. “Or how this wide receiver has recovered from an ACL or an ankle injury. It’s been so long since they’ve been able to see the kids [perform].”
Keeping connected
Unable to employ the eyeball test, recruiters have relied on their gift of gab.
Quarantined in their homes, coaches and prospects have stretched data plans to their limits.
“The phones have been 10 times crazier now than they ever were during the spring,” Mount Dora Christian’s Tackett said. “Because all of these coaches are sitting at home and calling players all day. The same can be said for the players, who can call the coaches at any time.”
As with much of the American workforce, videoconferencing also has helped offset the loss of in-person contact.
At USF, first-year head coach Jeff Scott has embraced the technology to become acquainted with local high school coaches and stage virtual visits with 2021 recruits whose homes are off limits until the winter.
“I think the meetings online have been excellent,” Scott said. “Using some of the video conferencing software, it’s very similar to doing an in-home meeting with the prospect you typically could not do it until December or January of their senior year.
“Through this technology, we’re allowed to do it in the spring of their junior year.”
More coaches on a team’s staff can join a videoconference sessions than are allowed to do inhome visits under NCAA rules, giving schools another way to show their interest.
“Multiple coaches can meet with one kid through Zoom meetings,” said Steve Wiltfong, director of recruiting at 247Sports “Getting nine coaches on a Zoom call with a kid is something that shows these prospects how much they’re coveted.”
Lost opportunities
Ultimately, the more celebrated members of the 2021 recruiting class and college football’s top programs will be least impacted by the coronavirus shutdown.
Four- and five-star recruits had been identified prior to the pandemic. Following a rankings meeting earlier this week for Rivals.com, Farrell noted very few changes.
Now in his 23rd year as a recruiting analyst, Farrell expects the lack of new information could foreshadow some major recruiting misses, perhaps even on the scale of Khalil Mack. Mack was a two-star recruit out of Fort Pierce Westwood who signed with Buffalo in 2009 right under the noses of super recruiters Urban Meyer — then at UF — and Jimbo Fisher, in Tallahassee at the time.
“You scratch your head and say, ‘How did everybody miss this kid?’” Farrell said. “That’s going to be this year.”
A two- or three-star prospect set to blossom could be holding out for an offer from the Big Three — UF, FSU, Miami — but end up under the radar and become a game changer at USF, FAU or even UCF.
At the same time, Power 5 schools with a sizable portion of their 2021 class already committed could miss out on a diamond in the rough potentially unearthed this time of year.
“The best thing we get during the spring and summer is opportunities to see high-profile kids compete against other high-profile kids in a similar setting,” Wiltfong said. “But we also get a chance to see maybe a kid that played small school ball, and then compete against the kid from the largest classification. Those opportunities could be lost.”
What’s next?
While some players lost a chance to turn heads, Orlando Boone defensive lineman Shambre Jackson’s recruitment has actually ramped up.
Two seasons of game tape, strong performances last spring and summer and offers from LSU and favorites Alabama and FSU have increased interest in Jackson.
“I’m getting called more and FaceTimed more, but I’m not able to take visits anymore,” he said. “But it hasn’t really affected me because I only have a few schools in mind now.”
Jackson, the No. 29 prospect in the state according to 247Sports.com, was able to make unofficial visits to campuses prior to the shutdown. But not everyone in the 2021 class is on a similar schedule.
While just two of the top-10 prospects in the state — defensive tackle Leonard Taylor and safety Corey Collier of Miami Palmetto — are undecided, 10 of the nation’s top-20 prospects have yet to declare their intentions.
The real drama, though, surrounds members of the 2022 class. The high school sophomores’ recruiting process was about to kick into overdrive before coronavirus slammed on the brakes.
“A lot of these college coaches have a good sense of the 2021s on their recruiting board and who stands where,” Wiltfong said. “The 2022s and 2023s, I don’t know how thorough their board is. They were going to go out and see a lot of kids this spring and be able to compare and contrast.”
Coaches then would begin their sales pitches this summer.
UF’s popular Friday Night Lights, started by former coach Urban Meyer and staged in late July in the Swamp, is a staple of the Gators’ recruiting effort. If it is canceled, coach Dan Mullen and his staff will not be able to sell the program and forge relationships face-to-face in a way video calls cannot mimic.
“I think the hard part is, you’re looking at guys that are making decisions on where they’re going to school, and where they are going to live,” Mullen said. “This limits the ability to get them here and in-person and on campus. That makes it tough.”
What’s changed?
Early National Signing Day in December radically altered the recruiting calendar the past two years, with at least 80% of signings occurring before Christmas.
Based on the steady stream of commitments happening despite a pandemic, few expect the traditional signing day on the first Wednesday of February to be much busier in 2021.
“The process gets tiring, even if you’re in your house doing Zoom calls with coaches,” Farrell said.
Yet, the coronavirus shutdown has made things trickier both on and off the field.
Less accurate information and in-person interaction can lead to more mistakes evaluating recruits. Meanwhile, spring practices provided coaches a chance catch up with a recruit’s academic advisors on campus. The shutdown also canceled standardized testing opportunities.
“The bigger question isn’t on the athletic evaluations, even though that’s significant,” said Todd Berry, executive director of the American Football Coaches Foundation. “It’s the academic part. Getting transcripts, test scores, all those kinds of things are going to make it difficult.”
The NCAA stepped in to waive standardized test score requirements and relaxed a few other academic requirements for seniors going through a unique spring semester, eliminating a few significant barriers.
The stage is being set for the wildest fall recruiting seasons on record. In the end, the best recruiters still are likely to rise to the top, regardless of the circumstances.
“I mean, whether you’re in a quarantine or not, how much time and emphasis you put into recruiting is not going to change,” Wiltfong said.
Once the pandemic has passed, the nature of recruiting is unlikely to change either, even if pretty much everything else will never be quite the same.
“It will change the world. … College football recruiting, not so much,” Farrell said. “The second an assistant from Alabama hits St. Thomas Aquinas [High School] in person, everyone else is going to do it. It’s that in-person connection with the kid and everyone around the kid that’s so important to recruiting.
“They’re adjusting to get through it now. But it’s going to be business as usual next spring.”
Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com, Matt Murschel can be reached at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com and Chris Hays can be reached at chays@orlandosentinel.com.