While UW fans can sit back and enjoy the last stretch of the first signing period in college football, other schools will be in upheaval, and here’s why…
UCLA, while basking in the hiring of Chip Kelly, still doesn’t have (what will be) Kelly’s final staff in place. The Bruins’ current staff will coach the team through their bowl game, but that’s not until December 26th. Kelly will be wise to at least start making announcements of who will be on his staff — for sure. We do know that Kelly is expected to retain DeShaun Foster, Hank Fraley, and Jimmie Dougherty. He’s also hired Jerry Azzinaro (Cal) and former Duck assistant, Don Pellum. There are expectations that he’ll retain Angus McClure, but Jed Fisch, the interim coach, may not be retained.
What does this mean? It means that a lot of current commits and recruits probably won’t have any contact with the new head coach if they take their official visits and try to wrap things up before the December signing date. UCLA, however, because they’re UCLA, should be able to still finish with a solid class and won’t feel the pain as bad as some other Pac-12 schools will.
Arizona State is also in a strange place. They just hired Herm Edwards, who hasn’t coached in 10 years and hasn’t coached college football in 30 years. According to a report today, he didn’t even know the name of the Sun Devil mascot, Sparky. Todd Graham, the lame duck coach, is still set to coach the team in the Sun Bowl. And that game isn’t until December 29th.
Similar to UCLA, this could be a real detriment to ASU signing guys in December. Unlike UCLA, ASU doesn’t have a solid ground of high touted recruiting classes.
Washington State is an interesting watch right now. Mike Leach all but packed his bags to take the job at Tennessee until a Coup d’état ousted their athletic director and took the job offer off the table. Can you say damage control?
You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube here. Since all this went down, Leach has been back in recruit’s homes smiling more than he has ever smiled in his life, trying to explain himself. Add to that, Washington State doesn’t even have a permanent athletic director right now. With December 20th right around the corner, this is something to keep an eye on.
Jonathan Smith knew going into Oregon State what he would be confronted with. But this is also quite intriguing. His staff being rounded out could depend on what happens with Willie Taggart at Oregon. Duck DB coach, Keith Heyward is a former teammate of Smith from their days at Oregon State. There’s some thought that Smith could hire him as a defensive coordinator at Oregon State. Fortunately for Smith, recruiting expectations usually aren’t super high in Corvallis. He will be more apt to just accept the fact that his class won’t be done until February.
Cal could also find itself in a pernicuous situation should Taggart leave Oregon. There’s a lot of speculation that the Ducks would make a run at one of their own: Justin Wilcox. He’s already lost his defensive coordinator to Chip Kelly. If he were to take the Oregon job, this would be a huge cluster you-know-what for the Bears. And at this late date, it could severely effect their class.
The worst of the worst here, however, is Oregon. Reason being that they have enjoyed a top ranked class and were excited about the direction their program was heading under Taggart and Co. They’ve already lost on of those commits because of the uncertainty of the coaching staff, and it gets even worse.
The Ducks were tasked with an unpleasant, early bowl assignment. On, what was slated to be, a huge recruiting weekend for them, they now have to be in Vegas playing in a bowl game. Taggart, amidst all the rumors and news reports pointing him to Florida State, has been also trying to shuffle visit dates and assure those committed that all is well. This is a complete car crash for Oregon’s recruiting efforts.
Even if Taggart doesn’t take the FSU job, the fact that they lose a visit weekend just a week before signing day could be costly. That is, of course, if they had wanted to get the majority of their class signed by December 20th.
The bottom line here is that the bowl committees didn’t get the memo about early signing period — but aside from that, the decision to start making wholesale coaching changes before signing day was a bad one for many of these schools.
Sure, you can’t control everything — but the firings could have waited to be announced after December 20th. Many times it’s the pressure from boosters and fanbases that cause athletic directors to give in and fire a coach earlier. And no one really wants to say, “Merry Christmas coach — you’re fired!”
But the moral of the story is that the new early signing period brings with it some complications. It will be something that the NCAA might consider addressing during the off-season.
But more importantly, coaches and athletic directors, themselves, need to start contingency planning. Oregon is a perfect example of this. Take the date of the first bowl game, and if you start losing game, consider the fact that you might not be able to have visitors the week before a bowl game.
As for Husky fans, you can sit back — put your feet up — and just enjoy the fact that the only changes made to your coaching staff were happy ones.
For once, Washington is in a good place — and headed to the Fiesta Bowl.
