Coaches split on early signing period

Fulmer, Saban agree on mid-December

By by Ron Higgins The Commercial
Appeal

Originally published 07:59 p.m., May 27, 2008
Updated 07:59 p.m., May 27, 2008

DESTIN, Fla. - Although there seems to be a definite move among college football coaches nationwide to push for an early signing period like basketball has, SEC coaches seem split on the matter.

The period likely would be in mid-December when schools are allowed to sign junior college players.

"I'm concerned it would make recruiting even nuttier than it already is," Georgia coach Mark Richt said Tuesday at the SEC meetings. "I'm afraid that we'll have to deal with recruits taking a lot of official visits during the season. We need to spend the time on our own team.

Alabama coach Nick Saban said he's fine with a December early signing period.

"A lot of high school coaches are opposed to having it (an early signing period) before a senior year, and I can understand why," Saban said. "But I also feel we spend six weeks after Christmas chasing down guys we've had committed for six months or year, worrying about whether they are going to flip on you.

"With an early signing period, we could spent a lot of time on the guys who haven't committed yet and learning about the younger guys in an evaluation process."

Tennessee's Phillip Fulmer said he sees both sides of the argument, but now is swayed for an early period.

"There's no reason you can't get some of the guys off the board, and spend that time and money babysitting kids the entire month of January," Fulmer said.

Tebow Drives: And now, Tim Tebow, the golfer.

Florida coach Urban Meyer confirmed he saw his Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback recently at a charity golf event drive a golf ball 370 yards. It was the first time Tebow has picked up a golf club.

"It had a nice little draw to it," Meyer said. "Usually, a maniac hits a ball that hard as a slice. He (Tebow) could be a tremendous golfer if he worked at it.

"He swung - agggggg - as hard as he can. And the ball was going agggggg! It was something."

If It's Good For Saban: Saban offered no apologies for using video teleconferencing to circumvent NCAA rule banning head football coaches from visiting high schools in May.

He's angry, because he felt the rule was installed and pointed at him. Saban said he got the teleconferencing idea when he coached the NFL's Miami Dolphins and the team had to converse with physicians.

"We (the coaches) get paid a lot of money, you all write about that all the time," Saban said. "Evaluating players is part of it. I'm an NFL guy. We watch a guy play in college, we watch him at the combine, we work the guy out.

"I like going to the practice and watching the guy. It promotes our game. It's good for the high school coaches and it's good for the players.

"The rule was made because everybody gets paranoid about what everybody else was doing. I got turned in (for supposed rules violations) because of what I was supposedly doing. I wasn't doing that."

Fulmer said his program added video teleconferencing and that he'll make his recruiting debut on it next week.

"Nick's out there ahead of the curve," Fulmer said, "and it's legal. So if they're going to do it, we're going to do it.

"Like text messaging, this is another way to communicate. The NCAA will probably eventually rule that you can't do it. That's why the rulebook was made, because of the abuses. That's why the rulebook is so thick."