More Drama in Who's Leaving Than Who's Coming Now on Signing Day
Welcome to the chaos in the world of college football these days.
An ill-advised early signing period has screwed up so many different things coaches are still trying to figure it out as they go along.
"It’s wild right now," Sam Pittman said Wednesday on what is National Signing Day.
At least it is for this year, but the consensus is this is something that should change and probably will sometime soon. It's just one of several factors that have caused a trainwreck in college football.
"It’s free agency out there," Pittman said.
All of this has happened in just a few short years. It's the reason a lot of coaches don't have a job by Halloween every year.
Exactly why the firings are done early is a mystery. Ed Orgeron and LSU agreed to a divorce a few weeks before the end of October this year and they couldn't get a replacement hired until December.
Because of the early signing period, though, it basically means any new coach hired gets a bonus year unless he proves to be completely incompetent.
Add in that whole transfer portal madness and, well, it is exactly what Pittman said — wild.
"National signing day has really changed over the last few years," he said Wednesday. "By about 7:30 or 7:15 it was over. We didn’t have any surprises so far. We are still waiting on one or two, but we sign 19 high school kids, two transfers and a ProKick Australia guy."
He's probably not finished. There is that transfer portal thing and while it provides some players coming to the Hogs, there will be some that go out.
Whether they are encouraged to leave or not is left to the imagination.
"It's difficult, but for me to sit here and think that we’re not going to have several guys go in the portal between now and the bowl and then after the bowl, I mean, I’m not really concerned about it,” Pittman said. “No I lied to you a little bit there, I’m concerned about it."
The Hogs' scholarship numbers are counting on some folks leaving and Pittman has accepted that as the way things are these days. He probably doesn't like it, but he's figuring out the best way to handle it.
"It’s a 'if I'm not starting I’m transferring," world," he said. "I get it. I get it. It’s the ones who are starting for you that hurt you, that really hurt you.
"You don’t want to lose depth at all. I worry all the time. I do. We have the board, do we have the numbers we need and all those things. But I’m about positive it’ll work itself out. I really think that."
Some backup players for the Hogs entered the portal Wednesday. There will likely be more.
"They transfer (because) they’re not starting, they transfer because they will never play, they will transfer because I’m not getting the ball enough" Pittman said. "Whatever their reasons being. I don’t really think it’s a picture of the way the program is run.
"The system has allowed to 'I’m going to go somewhere else.' Whether somewhere else is better or not, they’re already gone, so it really doesn’t matter at that point. They’ve already left your program."
All of that is Pittmanese that is simply to say players leave and that opens the door for him to go get other players.
The revolving door of college football.
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