What would coaches do with their star recruit?

What would some of college football’s top coaches have done if their top recruit had followed in the footsteps of Roquan Smith and declined to sign a national letter of intent? Would they still have continued to recruit them?

Clemson's Dabo Swinney on what if Sammy Watkins or C.J. Spiller had promised he was coming, but felt uncomfortable signing an NLI: "I think that's something we have to discuss when it happens. We'd have to find out what the reasoning is. We certainly don't want to continue the recruiting process all year long. Decisions have to be made. You've got to be able to plan. I'd say that would be a case-by-case basis. If a guy doesn't want to sign an NLI, there has to be some kind of reason. If he's just saying he's coming … you've got to sign something. There has to some type of commitment, one way or the other."

Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy on Dez Bryant or Justin Blackmon: "You just go keep recruiting them. Good players make us better coaches. When you have players out there that you're trying to get … it's just like right now when a kid commits and then tells you, 'OK, I want to take some other visits.' You can get as upset as you want, and say, 'You're not part of our program.' But if you do that, you're not going to get him at all. If you play the game and keep working hard with recruiting him, then there's still a chance you can get him. Right? Most coaches are going to continue to pursue them because you've got to have quality people that are good players."

Georgia's Mark Richt on Matthew Stafford: "(Long pause) … I don't have an answer. I don't know what the answer to that would be."

Georgia Tech's Paul Johnson on Justin Thomas or the Austin twins: "I would've went on to the next guy."

Oklahoma's Bob Stoops on Adrian Peterson or Sam Bradford: "I wouldn't have done anything different. I would've kept recruiting them."

South Carolina's Steve Spurrier on Jadeveon Clowney: "Um, yes. We would've kept recruiting him."