Earlier this year, Barrett Carter had the plan for his recruitment all mapped out. The Class of 2021 4-star linebacker for North Gwinnett High was going to use the summer to take his five official visits, then commit in August ahead of his senior season.
That was before the pandemic took over the world, affecting everything in its path, including college football recruiting. Carter moved his decision to May, committing to Clemson over his other top choices — Auburn, Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama and LSU.
“It was pretty scary, honestly,” Carter said. “I felt like I had to commit blindfolded because I couldn’t take my officials.”
Other top-flight ’21 prospects, including 4-star linebacker Smael Mondon of Paulding County, have put their decisions on hold as they try to navigate this unprecedented recruiting season.
The NCAA enforced its dead period in March and has extended it until at least January, meaning coaches cannot have in-person contact with recruits or families. Official and unofficial visits have been limited to the virtual variety. Coaches aren’t traveling to games on Friday nights to evaluate talent.
To describe this year’s recruiting cycle as chaotic would be an understatement.
“The class of ’21 is a wild card,” Rivals.com recruiting analyst Chad Simmons said. “It’s going to be based all on tape and not in-person evals.”
There’s no script for colleges and recruits for how to proceed, so how they’re able to adjust to what essentially has become the Wild West could prove to be the difference in a successful partnership between the parties.
“Players and colleges are having to be creative,” 247Sports recruiting analyst Rusty Mansell said. “For the players, it’s about how you can be seen, and for the colleges, it’s going to be about how they make their decisions.”
Mansell and Simmons agree it will come down to player film. Mansell’s advice to recruits is, after three or four games, put together a clip of seven to nine plays and pin it to the top of their Twitter pages.
“That’s all you need,” Mansell said. “Even if you’re not playing, post a minute of good practice clips, film your workout — anything that a coach can evaluate.”
The chunks of important information each side will be missing from the other will make the decisions more difficult. For the colleges, Mansell believes not being able to independently verify height/weight data creates a huge void in the information-gathering process. For the players, Carter said not being able to officially visit the campuses prevented recruits from fully knowing what they were committing to. That, and the once-in-a-lifetime experience of an all-expenses-paid official visit, has been taken from them.
Carter went on virtual visits to Georgia and Ohio State. He described the process as awkward.
“I’d get on Zoom and the whole staff was there,” Carter said. “Not just the coaches, but the academic advisers, recruiting directors, everyone. In an in-person visit, they’re usually split up and you meet with each group individually.”
Instead of strolling the campus, Carter settled for slideshows and pre-recorded video of someone walking through the campus and facilities.
Simmons said recruits initially took the changes hard, but have adjusted to the new reality.
“I think there was frustration at first,” Simmons said. “(In the spring), most of them thought they’d be out of school for a week or two. That turned into months. Then, spring sports were canceled. Then visits were banned. Now there’s a realization and the tone has changed, and they’ve accepted it. It’s just going to be FaceTime, virtual visits and a lot of dialogue with coaches, and they’ll have to decide (on colleges) that way.”
Simmons observed an unusual spike in top-flight recruits committing during the summer, not just in his coverage area of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, but around the country. The majority of those commitments have stuck, he said.
“They felt the pressure to lock up their spot now before it’s gone,” Simmons said.
Carter felt the pressure, too, but not because he was concerned about a roster spot.
“When the dead period hit, coaches had a lot of time on their hands,” Carter said. “So they’d just be hitting me up — 50 text messages, 10-15 missed calls a day. It was getting super hectic. I was still in school taking finals. It was getting stressful, and I knew Clemson was where I wanted to be, so that’s why I committed early.”
Mondon initially told 247Sports he planned to commit in June, but after visits were prohibited, he instead announced his five finalists during the summer — Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and LSU.
He has taken a few virtual visits and said he’ll make his decision based on how conversations with coaches go.
“I’ve already visited every school in my top five before,” Mondon said. “Those would have been my official visits, too. It’s tough that I can’t go because I was excited to, but there’s nothing I can do about it now. I have to keep moving on. I’ll have to look at factors like my relationship with the coaches, how I fit in with the team and look back on my visits from before.”
Mondon plans to commit ahead of the December signing period, when he will sign and enroll early. Carter also plans to sign in December, instead of the traditional signing day in February, but won’t enroll early.
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