Roquan Smith, who is headed to play football for the Georgia Bulldogs, clearly has gotten into the heads of many of college’s top coaches.
Smith is the senior linebacker from Macon County High who committed to UGA but famously decided against signing a letter of intent. Smith declined after nearly getting burned by UCLA on signing day Feb. 4 by an unforeseen coaching change.
Over the past few months, Smith has been in the recruiting spotlight because he is believed to be the first elite football prospect to bypass the NLI on or after signing day. While it’s happened in basketball, it has football coaches across the nation perplexed.
UGA coach Mark Richt paused for a few seconds when asked if Smith could be a trendsetter among elite prospects.
“Um, I don’t know … it remains to be seen,” said Richt, choosing his words carefully.
Part of the reason that Richt was reluctant to speak could be because Smith is a free agent and available to be recruited by other colleges until he attends his first day of classes at UGA this summer.
Meanwhile, Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson had plenty to say.
“I don’t see that going anywhere,” he said. “I don’t think anybody is going to allow that. They (colleges) are going to tell kids that if they don’t want to sign their NLI then I’m going to the next kid. It would be chaos. It would be crazy. There would be no signing thing. It would just be nonstop year-round.”
Johnson noted some similarities to Smith’s situation and how recruiting works at the military academies. Johnson was Navy’s coach from 2002-05.
“What it does is make the recruiting process go longer, just like the academies. They have that at the academies, and it’s ridiculous. You recruit all summer. The academies are different because they don’t have a set number of scholarships. You’re not trying to hit a target number.
“If you’re trying to hit 85 (total scholarships on your team), it would be chaos. Because nobody would have an idea of who is going where until school started. Guys would sign two or three different financial-aid agreements. You wouldn’t know if they were going to enroll here or there … that would be chaos.”
Even though Smith was ranked high as a 2015 recruit (state’s No. 5 overall prospect for this year), he had the opportunity to build close relationships with only around a half-dozen colleges. But it seemed like nearly every coach across the county was fully aware of Smith because he skipped the NLI.
“I think this thing could start to get some legs,” USC coach Steve Sarkisian said. “I think to some degree for the players, this (not signing an NLI) is a way to protect themselves … but it is a slippery slope. A university could say, ‘Hey, I’m sorry. We went in a different direction.’ And now the kid could say, ‘Hey, what am I doing now?’ So it’s a unique deal.”
LSU coach Les Miles got downright philosophical when talking about Smith and where it could go in the future.
“(If) I told my wife, ‘I want to marry you. You are my girl. But I’m not going to get married. We’re just going to have kids, live together, and this thing is going to work out.’ If I said that, my wife may have well sent me down the road.
Miles continued, “I don’t think (a situation like Roquan Smith) should be a game-changer. I think it’s a position of insecurity. At some point in time, a school may say no matter how big-time an athlete is, they may tell him that they used that scholarship. … (If I’m a recruit) I don’t think I would want to take a chance of losing my spot. I wouldn’t want to do business that way.”
Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy took the topic even deeper, reflecting on the big picture of college athletics in relation to Smith’s situation.
“I think it could be a trend,” he said. “Our game is changing. I’ve used the term in the last few months that essentially college football at your big schools in the Power Five conferences — it has turned into the NFL. There’s just an unbelievable amount of the money with the television contracts with the conferences. The coaches — all of us are way overpaid. But it’s all set up on market value and supply and demand.
“And the time that we live in now with the cost of living and the potential gaming rights, it is all changing considerably. And I’m not sure that really anybody really has a grasp with what direction it’s going to go. It’s going to be interesting over the next few years when they try to weed through all these different ways with people signing and not signing, and the different variables that have evolved with the amount of money involved in the game.
“So I’m not sure I have those answers. But I know there are going to be some changes coming (in how recruiting works).”
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