One of this year's biggest recruiting stories was college football assistants taking other jobs only a day or two after national signing day. It happened at high-profile places such as UCLA, Texas, Florida and Ohio State, among other schools.
This was immediately after those assistants had convinced kids to sign letters of intent with colleges that they were leaving. Obviously, some of those kids were disappointed by the sudden and unexpected turn of events.
It was truly a dark and ugly side of recruiting.
How would Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson handle that type of situation?
“I don’t think I would want to do business that way as a head coach,” Johnson told the AJC.
Georgia Tech’s Paul Johnson (AJC)
“You can’t tell me they didn’t know. I’m sure in that situation, they (head coaches told the assistants who were about to leave) ‘OK, you need to stay with me until signing day. Let’s finish this thing up.’ Then that’s the on the individuals, too.
“I would have a hard time personally misleading guys like that. I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t let somebody working for me do it – if we knew that they weren’t going to be here (after signing day).”
Johnson also touched on the hot topic a little more when asked about whether or not kids who sign in this year’s proposed early signing period for December (which will be voted on in June) should get an automatic release if the head coach or position coach changes before the regular February signing period
“When the head coach changes, you can look at it a little differently (than assistant coaches changing), maybe. And I don’t think that happens as much as people want to say it does. If that happens, it usually happens early right after the season or whatever. You know, assistant coaches are like everybody else: Very few people have a job if (somebody doesn’t get offered a big pay raise), they wouldn’t take it.
“Now it’s disingenuous if you know you’re going to take another job, and tell a kid that you’re not. That’s disingenuous. But I don’t know if it’s any more disingenuous than telling kids that a school is going to have their major or they’re going to have that department or lying to them that way.”
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