STARKVILLE — Across the country, hundreds of athletes will sign National Letters of Intent today in front of crowds that can’t await to watch them play big-time college football.
These 17- or 18-year-old student-athletes will be celebrated simply because they will sign a piece of paper.
Many of them will think they have arrived. All of the recruits on a top-100 list — and each of the Mississippi State University football team’s signees — soon will find out they’ve simply come to a fork in the road.
“They think they have arrived, and they have,” MSU football coach Dan Mullen said Tuesday afternoon on “Head to Head,” a Mississippi sports talk radio show. “They’ve arrived at the base of the mountain they need to climb.”
National Signing Day has evolved from an instant look into the future of a football program to a made-for-television drama that features teenagers exciting thousands of fans by putting on a hat to announce their college of choice.
“It really gives an unfair picture to some of these kids and their futures,” MSU offensive coordinator Les Koenning said. “It’s an individual highlight for a high school kid in what is the ultimate team game.”
Three decades ago, one of the most high-profile recruits to play football at MSU had to ask his father why all the coaches, scouts and people in the community put so much emphasis on him. Every day at Valdosta High School in Georgia, John Bond would go by the principal’s office to get his mail, which included hundreds of telegrams and correspondences from colleges across the country. Before being named a Parade High School All-American in 1979, Bond was one of the highest-rated quarterbacks in the nation.
“I remember looking up at my dad and asking, ‘Why do these grown men care so much where I go to college?’ and he had to explain to me, ‘Well son, they think you’re going to fill the stadium and put their program on the map,'” Bond said. “I immediately thought, ‘They expect me to do all that?'”
Thirty-three years ago, some recruiting rankings put Bond just above Blair Kiel, the uncle of Gunner Kiel, the country’s No. 1 quarterback in 2012 and an early enrollee at the University of Notre Dame.
In a telephone interview with The Dispatch, Bond said he felt like he had “more pressure” than current recruits because without the NCAA recruiting rules that exist today, coaches and scouts called and bothered recruits constantly.
“It was impossible to avoid it because they would call me at my friends’ houses,” Bond said. “I’d get telegrams from (former University of Alabama coach) Bear Bryant and (former University of Georgia coach) Vince Dooley, and they would want to meet with me while I’m in class. (All the signees) think they’re going to the NFL, but all I could think of was ‘I better make this college decision so all this can quiet down.'”
Former MSU quarterback Matt Wyatt laughed when asked what he remembered about his signing day celebration at Prattville (Ala.) High School in 1994. His answer was simple.
“When it was all over, I went back to class like nothing had happened,” Wyatt said via telephone. “My parents were in the principal’s office with my high school coach, because at that time you needed their signature, too. The local newspaper took a picture and that was it. Less than 20 minutes and we were done.”
Why do prospects sign NLIs?
The reasons student-athletes pick colleges haven’t changed. Whether it is because of playing time, love of the campus, academics or a significant other, there’s always a common theme.
“I think the common denominator of this stuff in any era is you’re talking about 17- to 18-year-old males,” Bond said. “I know I wasn’t prepared to make this life decision on my own at all.”
Koenning, who has been recruiting for colleges since he was hired as an assistant at the University of Texas in 1981, agrees with Bond. He said the “living room speech” coaches give also hasn’t changed.
“I always laugh when other coaches promise playing time and even starting positions to high school prospects,” Koenning said. “What does that say about the players you’ve got? I’m honest with every kid and parent I talk to. I tell them, ‘Hey, I’m going to recruit great players next year after you sign.'”
The Bulldogs’ offensive coordinator said he can tell a lot about a prospect by the show that’s put on in his honor on signing day.
“When you see a kid pulling a hat out of nowhere and making a show of it all, it shows their character,” Koenning said. “You shake your head, because the old saying is you go from stud to mud from high school to (your) freshman year of college.”
Wyatt, who cohosted an Internet showcase show about the MSU football team’s 2012 signing class today, said he understands the importance of signing day and what it can do for schools.
“Beyond the opening day of a season, home conference games and … the Egg Bowl game, I can’t think of anything more important at Mississippi State,” Wyatt said. “The fact that there’s a lot of coverage and people will be watching the show is not surprising. The only negative I think is it creates superstars before that person steps on campus.”
Mullen said Tuesday on “Head to Head” that his recruiting pitch is about answering as many questions as possible.
“I’m not big on recruiting rankings, but I’m big on making sure that family knows that young man is going to be taken care of,” Mullen said. “I like to be involved in every single aspect of every recruit we bring in and their families.”
The ‘fake’ commitment
Bond, who was born in Starkville, said he chose MSU because of the relationship he forged with Kermit Davis Sr., the men’s basketball coach at the time, but he never gave a verbal commitment — something he says bothers him the most now about the recruiting — to a program.
“I told everybody I wanted to play in the Southeastern Conference, so anybody that wasn’t in that league I (told) to stop calling because I wasn’t considering them,” Bond said. “What bothers me the most is the fake commitment, because I made sure I never lied to anybody that came to my door.”
Mullen has always said a verbal commitment by a recruit is no more than a “reservation,” and even less than that if the recruit wants to still take official visits after making that declaration.
“I don’t view them as committed,” Mullen said in December. “I don’t like it. On the Internet, I guess they’re viewed as committed. … I view as a commitment on National Signing Day. That’s when they’re committed.”
When Bond made his college decision, he was forced to make the pledge twice. In the late 70s and early 80s, college recruits were forced to sign financial aid papers with an SEC school to limit the recruiting competition among league programs. A month later, they were asked to sign a National Letter of Intent after being re-recruited by non-SEC universities.
“I can tell you, Notre Dame and USC tried to come in with visits and calls thinking I’m sure that well, this kid can’t be recruited by all these SEC schools so maybe we can steal him,'” Bond said. “I know the coaches at MSU, and Wesley Reed was calling me every day, worried sick I would go back on my word.”
Bond said he didn’t remember any details of his signing day in 1980 other than former MSU coach Emory Ballard flying to his house to be part of the celebration. For Bond, the previous day was much more memorable.
“I had to have my dad call Bear Bryant to tell him I wouldn’t be going to Alabama,” Bond said. “I wasn’t going to tell him that. I was too scared.”
Wyatt agrees that reconsidering your college decision wasn’t popular when he decided on MSU around Christmas 1994.
“The difference between now and back then is the definition of the word commitment,” Wyatt said. “I had options and made visits but never made anything close to a commitment. When I was done and called Coach Sherrill to tell him I’ve decided I was coming to State, the idea of calling them back and changing was not even an option. That has really changed with kids today.”
Early signing period for football?
The American Football Coaches Association forwarded a proposal for an early signing period to conference commissioners in 2009. It is similar, if not exactly the same, as college basketball has in November and April. In that sport, many of the top prospects sign as early as possible.
However, the proposal in college football has never had traction with conference and school leaders in the decision-making process.
Coaches who support the early signing period contend their staffs waste time and money trying to protect players who already committed to their schools.
“I tend to believe a December early signing period that may not be early graduates would be a good thing and would be wonderful for the college programs,” Wyatt said. “It would save them a lot of phone calls.”
The coaches who oppose early signing believe they have too little opportunity to build a relationship with players before offering a scholarship. An early signing period, they argue, would only accelerate the process.
Of the 28 players MSU was expected to sign today, 18 had committed to MSU before September 2011, but they had to wait until today to sign a NLI.
“It’s a great idea, and I’ll tell you why. I promise you it would clean up the negative aspects of recruiting by not allowing schools extra time to get in late on a recruit,” Koenning said. “A lot of kids and families don’t want to wait and would rather get the process over with.”
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