Early signing trend helps Big East

By Darrell Laurant  |   Friday, July 11, 2008  |  Comments( 0 )

College Football
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Promises, promises. By the time national signing day rolls around in 2009, there may be no high school football players left who haven't committed to somebody.

That's an overstatement, of course. The cream of the crop, the Terrelle Pryors of the world, will hold out as long as possible and play the field. Increasingly, however, high school juniors are removing the pressure from themselves by taking the early commitment plunge, and the Big East has used that trend to its advantage.

Signing early is a gamble, but much more for the teams than the players. After all, a verbal commitment can always be backed out of. ("Yeah, I know I said I'd take you to the prom, but that was before I met Angela.")

The time was when high school athletes would choose their college on the basis of school colors or tradition or the personality of the head coach or which school seemed to have the best looking cheerleaders. Such factors can still be potent, but today's Internet-savvy juniors and seniors tend to weigh their choices much more carefully.

Take Jordan Stepp, a defensive tackle from Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis. A couple of months ago, an Indiana University sports blog noted: "Top notch defensive tackles are hard to find, but IU may have a good one coming in in Ben Davis' Jordan Stepp."

Wrong. Stepp, a 6-foot, 285-pounder who is credited with running a 4.62 40, gave a verbal commitment to the University of Cincinnati.

"A lot of people are giving me a hard time for not picking a Big Ten school," Stepp was quoted as saying, "but you look at the Big East and there's a lot of teams with a chance to win. In the Big Ten it's usually Michigan and Ohio State and maybe one other school. It's tough to break through."

Most Division I prospects have also studied the depth charts at the schools they're considering. Nobody minds taking a redshirt year or playing sparingly as a freshman, but sitting for two or three seasons behind an underclassman star is something else.

For some prospects, a junior year commitment can be a roll of the dice. Take another Cincinnati signee out of Indiana, linebacker Mitch Meador.

Although his junior year numbers were eye-popping (116 tackles, five sacks), Meador was somewhat undersized at 6-4, 215. He's working on gaining weight over the summer, however, and hopes to play defensive end at 230 this fall. If he maintains his quickness at that weight, Big Ten schools will be all over him. But what if he doesn't?

Ezedrick Evans, a wide receiver from the Dallas area, decided to strike while the stopwatch was hot. Evans burned through a 4.41 40 at a Nike Camp in Dallas, and suddenly schools like Oklahoma, TCU and Texas Tech were interested. But Evans signed with Louisville, which is in dire need of receivers.

Similarly, New Jersey wide receiver Leavander Jones has a 4.4 or two to his credit, but had few opportunities to shine in a run-oriented offense. By accepting his commitment, Syracuse gambled that Jones will continue to improve. Jones gambled that a breakout season might bring him better offers.

Florida running back Bradley Battles had no problem with numbers -- 2,200 rushing yards, 26 touchdowns -- and nearly a dozen schools were after him. But not Miami, Florida State or Florida.

Tucked away in Marianna, a small town in the Panhandle, Battles didn't get the publicity of backs in Tampa, Miami or Jacksonville. Chances are the Big Three might have shown interest eventually, but only after prospects ahead of Battles in line went elsewhere.

"I'm a Florida athlete," Battles said, "and I want to stay in Florida."

And he so committed to the University of South Florida.

Three-star prospects often turn into four- and five-star players by the time they're finished. Just as often, though, they suffer injuries that set them back. That's the major risk for the school. Another, by reeling in so many early signees, is that better players still on the fence might be put off by the sudden crowd at a certain position (USF, for instance, signed another back with equally impressive credentials as Battles).

And believe it or not, not all high school players like being recruited.

"I think Mitch just wanted to get it over with," said Meador's high school coach.

Sure, a fair number of these signees might renege on their commitments -- it's not against the law. Yet that's also somewhat contrary to human nature. Just as most of us hate to return defective products, a player who changes his mind often comes off looking disloyal and opportunistic.
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