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SEC Sports
Jimbo Fisher calls for big changes to recruiting calendar
Jimbo Fisher knows he makes a lot of money - a LOT. But he wants people to know the current recruiting calendar is "killing assistant coaches."
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HOUSTON – A video circulated Sunday evening from the Texas High School Coaches Association Convention of Tom Herman and Jimbo Fisher sitting on stage chatting prior to a panel. Fans on Twitter tried to guess what the pair could possibly discuss: The return of a rivalry? Recruiting?
As it turns out, Herman and Fisher were like most of us. They talked about vacations. Sort of. Fisher and Herman discussed just how difficult it is for anyone to get away with the current recruiting calendar.
“It’s hard now,” Fisher said. “When do you have enough family time? When are you taking vacation? Do you get a vacation? Do you cut it back? … We’re dealing with official visits in April, May and June. Every weekend there’s official visits so coaches are there. You’ve got them in December and January. You’re playing in the fall. You’ve got spring ball. Every weekend you’ve got unofficial visitors coming.
“You only get three or four weekends, when you get both days off, all year with you family. Think about that. They say, ‘Well, you make a lot of money.’ That’s all great. But you’ve got family and everything else in the world to think about. That’s the schedule we’re dealing with.”
Fisher makes a LOT of money – $7.5 million a year to be exact. But he brings up a point a lot of coaches have made over the last two years: The new recruiting calendar is strenuous on coaches.
When the NCAA adopted an Early Signing Period, the first which occurred in December of 2017, it completely altered the recruiting landscape. Things have shifted to the point where Herman called the Early Signing Period “the signing day” earlier this month at Big 12 Media Days. That mid-December period has largely been met with positive reviews from coaches. The other main calendar change at that time was the addition of a spring official visit window, which went into effect in 2018. That window, which runs from mid-April through late June, has been met with criticism.
The evaluation period, a time in which assistants hit on the road en masse to schools in their recruiting footprint, crosses the same time path as the official visits (mid-April to the end of May). Coaches are on the road five days a week and then on campus for officials every weekend.
“People have no idea,” Fisher said. “You’re killing these assistant coaches.”
By moving the first signing period to late-July, you’d allow many prospects to just sign and get their recruitment out of the way. For instance, 77 percent of the Top 100 of 247Sports’ rankings are already committed.
“The Early Signing Period I do think is a good thing, I really do,” Fisher said. “But my suggestion was to have it at the end of July. When you’re coming into the season, it takes a heck of a weight off your (coaches). You’re taking a big weight of actual phone calls off your assistant coaches and you can really hone down on the guys who aren’t signed in your class.
“That gives you a bit of time to recover during the season if you’re behind.”
The obvious pushback to such an early signing period is what happens when coaches change jobs following the season and a player gets stuck in his Letter of Intent. Fisher said if that happens a player should be given a week to decide if he’d like out of his LOI or would stick with his current school. If a player opted to be released, he’d have until the February signing period to be recruited.
Fisher also said the time period for spring official visits should be cut down a bit in order to ease the strain on coaches.
The 2019-20 recruiting calendar features only a few dead periods: mid-December, early-January, August, February and late-June and early-July. The August period for coaches is fall camp. December and January are bowl season and an offseason reset prior to a National Signing Day push. Thus, coaches are left with a short window without recruiting responsibilities; July is generally when coaches vacation.
Coaches are paid a lot – again, A LOT – but Fisher spent much of his time at the convention advocating for an altered recruiting calendar.
“The thing that scares me is recruiting is so year-round,” We’re out there recruiting so much and spending time on the guys that are coming here, when do we get to spend time with the guys that we have?"
