Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen has a recruiting idea that seems to be popular with many other SEC football coaches.

Mullen is thinking about proposing a rule for a four-week “dead period” during the summer when the colleges and recruits can’t have any contact with each other. There would be no unofficial visits, no phone calls and no emails.

Mullen’s idea would give the college coaches a much-needed break from the year-round sport of football recruiting.

We talked to other SEC coaches about Mullen’s plan, and they seemed to be in unanimous support of it – but with some tweaks. Rather than four weeks, a “dead period” of two weeks would be more favorable, probably with one week in June and another in July. And all colleges would have the same two weeks off.

Here’s Mullen’s idea HERE and here’s reaction from his peers: 

• LSU’s Les Miles: “You might give them two weeks. You might give them a week off in June, and another one on July that might be a quality ‘dead period’ where you could absolutely not do anything. But I think what happens is that in the summer time, moms and dads get around and they want to go see places. So you’d have to plan it right to give them time to do that.”
• Kentucky’s Mark Stoops: “That’s something I haven’t heard about. But we’ve all got jobs to do. If we let ourselves, we could work every minute of every day. There’s got to be some balance where you spend time with your own team and developing your team. And spending time with your own family, and things of that nature. I have not heard of that before, but it does sound like a pretty good idea to me.”
• Tennessee’s Butch Jones: “I entirely agree with Dan. I think what happened, with the acceleration of recruiting, there really are no off times. I think at the end of the day, we’re still just like these student-athletes. I remember growing up, July was a big time for family vacation, and that’s where our family kind of grew together. I think (recruiting) has been accelerated so hectic that I would be a proponent (of Mullen’s idea), even if it’s only a two-week dead period in July, where it really allows these individuals to sit back, relax and have some time off. I think the other things with these rules that we lose sight of is that we still have to coach our current teams. We’re responsible to them. We’re mentors to our current players. I think, with the all the deregulation going on, is that we have to remember we have to take care of our current teams as well.”
•  Vanderbilt’s James Franklin: “I’d be in favor of some time in the summer so that the coaches can truly have some time off. That to me was one of the advantages of coaching in the NFL. You truly had time off, where in college you really don’t. You’re never truly off. If I’m on vacation with my family for a week in the summer, and the No. 1 recruit in the country calls me and he wants to come by your campus, what am I going to say? No? No, you’re coming back to campus."