As NCAA extends dead period again, an entire recruiting cycle falls to film evaluation only

Of all the elements of college football that have been affected by the pandemic, recruiting is at the very top.

Players are making their college choices even though they’ve never set foot on campus. And coaches are committing hundreds of thousands of dollars in future resources to players they’ve never actually met face to face.

Instead of hosting recruits on home game weekends, coaches are trying to find things to do to fill the time.

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“Yeah, it’s strange, honestly,” said Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley. “From not planning it, not having those guys here, not having official visits, guys over at the house, dinners or whatever after the games.

“Even before the games. I usually see a lot of guys before the games and (now) I sit up here and twiddle my thumbs until the game gets here. So it’s definitely a different vibe around the game. Every game feels like a road game, kind of in that sense, in that all you’ve got’s the game.”

There are no signs the situation will relenting any time soon.

According to CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd, the NCAA Football Oversight Committee recommended this week that the current dead period in recruiting be extended again — this time from Dec. 31 to April 15.

Dodd reported Wednesday that the NCAA Council is expected to approve the recommendation on Nov. 18.

That would make 13 months — one full recruiting cycle, and then some — that coaches have been unable to evaluate prospects in person.

“We’ve got to get back out there,” Riley said, “and see these guys.”

Over the previous two weeks, Riley has discussed the merits of in-person evaluations and said last week it would be “probably a stretch to think we’re going to be out there” recruiting after Dec. 31.

“Evaluation, for me, from the schools’ and coaches’ point of view — that’s been the biggest thing that you’re missing. But everybody knows you’re not gonna have it, so you might as well get past it.”

With a few exceptions, the 2022 class has gone completely unseen by college recruiters — at least, in person.

At least most of the 2021 class — which is planning to sign their letters of intent on Dec. 16 — were evaluated in person before the pandemic hit. They attended camps, or they got on coaches’ radar with a strong junior year, or showed out in spring practice of 2019, or maybe the coaches met them in a basketball or track setting.

Even then, those late bloomers that often polish up their game as seniors are going largely unseen, except for film. And now consider that many states or even individual school districts have canceled their 2020 seasons entirely, and those players have no senior film to show.

Film evaluation, Riley said, is now the coin of the realm.

“It is tough. I think every coach across the country would (say) that,” Riley said. “There’s just a comfort level in seeing and meeting and spending time with a person watching them actually do things on the field versus on tape. There’s just something different about that. Especially when you’re ready to make the kind of commitment that we are making as a staff, as a university, to these guys and now all a sudden you have to do that via virtual meetings and film and that’s it. It’s tough.

“It’s the hand we’re dealt. We’ve had to adjust, kind of, our process a little bit, if you will, on how we would offer or accept a player into our program. Has it been difficult? Yeah, but it’s necessary. So we’ve had to try to control the things we can control and get as much information as we can and make up for it virtually and by just doing a great job studying these guys with every means that we can use right now.”

Now one month away from signing day, OU still has just 15 players committed in the 2021 recruiting class. That’s by far the lowest number of verbal commitments of any team ranked in the top 20 of the Rivals team rankings, and is second to Auburn (14) in the top 20 of the 247 Sports composite rankings.

Riley and his staff would like more, yes — and all signs point to OU landing some impact 2021 prospects over the next month and beyond — but the Sooners have been fairly selective with their 2021 offers.

Rather than troll the shallows, Riley wants his recruiting staff to be patient and fish deeper waters, because that’s where the big ones live, and he believes they will bite on OU’s line.

“You continue to connect with these guys in new ways,” Riley said. “It has, it’s kind of stretched the creativity of this group because … you’ve only got so many other ways to connect.

“We continue to do some new things throughout the year and I think our guys have appreciated it, so it’s been great connecting with them. I think the docuseries we’re producing here in house (“The Standard”) is giving a lot of people — whether it’s recruits, fans, whoever — a chance to see what it’s like behind the scenes, and then for these recruits and families, maybe a chance to catch up on what they maybe would have seen in their trips up here. So I commend our group, Zack Helfley, Annie (Hanson), all of them have done a great job with it.”

In reality, the verbal commitments are still coming. Prospects are still pledging to the Sooners. Of the incoming class, 12 of the 15 have committed since the pandemic began.

And if 15 still sounds too light for this time of year, consider: OU had just 14 verbal commitments when November started in 2019. In 2018, the Sooners had 16 pledges when the calendar flipped to November. Historically speaking, OU’s current numbers are right on track.

“I don’t think it has slowed a whole lot,” Riley said. “I mean, people are still wanting to commit and get their spots.”

And one element of pandemic recruiting that has flown under the radar: while in-person recruiting is dead, the NCAA has allowed almost unlimited virtual contact. Coaching staffs who think outside the box have used that to their advantage.

“You have been able to communicate with them a whole lot more, especially through all the pandemic, which is great,” Riley said. “So I think there’s even more time for recruiting, which we’ve talked about. So I do think in some ways, we’ve built more relationships and had more (contact) — it just hasn’t been in person.”

So what will Oklahoma’s 2021 recruiting class look like when National Signing Day arrives? Maybe a better question is, will there actually be a National Signing Day? The most important nine months of these recruits’ lives will have come and gone without their so much as shaking hands with their new coach — either at their high school, their future college or at the prospect’s home — and they’re supposed to sign a binding letter of intent?

Simply put, yes.

“I would be — I don’t think shocked is too strong a word,” Riley said. “I would be shocked if (National Signing Day) gets cancelled. Everything that we have been told is that is not even a consideration right now. And the flip-side of that is the NCAA said high school guys could be immediately eligible, too, with the COVID waiver (they’re not required to take standardized tests), and we had no clue with that. So you never know.

“But I do not think it will be postponed or cancelled or anything like that. I think we will have the early signing period as scheduled.”

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