Athletes prepare to sign on
The first Wednesday of February is a typical day for most people.
Don’t tell that to Utah State University Head Coach Mick Dennehy, though. It’s a day college football coaches across the country anticipate with nervous excitement – a day the Collegiate Commissioners Association (CCA) has deemed National Letter of Intent Day for football.
For hundreds of school’s across the nation, National Letter of Intent Day marks the day prospective student-athletes can officially verify their intent, on paper, to play at a particular college or university.
It is the day when the countless hours coaches put into recruiting pays off with the official signing of an athlete, something Dennehy knows is essential to any football program.
“It’s a highly, highly competitive process,” Dennehy said. “It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there. The importance of recruiting- I don’t know that you can put a value on it.
“You’re only as good as you recruit,” he said.
When the day has arrived, each school is allowed to sign up to 25 players to scholarships, Dennehy said, as long as the school doesn’t exceed the 85 scholarships it is allocated.
While National Letter of Intent Day is an important day for coaches, it only represents a small part of the recruiting process.
Events leading up to National Letter of Intent Day used to be much different 10 to 15 years ago, Dennehy said. With more and more coaches getting verbal commitments from players to attend their school, having an athlete back out come Intent Day is less of a worry than it was then, Dennehy said.
“It used to be 10 to 15 years ago that you went out and recruited guys and you had a whole list of guys that you waited until the day before National Letter of Intent Day before you knew what they were going to do,” he said. “I mean, you were sitting on pins and needles.”
The fact is, recruiting players is a year-round process, Dennehy said. The NCAA divides each year into four recruiting periods to help facilitate the process, he said.
More than half the year falls into the “quiet period” category. During the quiet period, coaches are only allowed to contact potential athletes by sending them letters, and are permitted to call them once a week, Dennehy said.
The second period, called the “evaluation period,” is divided into two sub-periods. The first evaluation period, which begins in mid-April and ends in May, is set aside for coaches to evaluate the academic performance and onfield conduct of their recruits, Dennehy said.
After a few more months under the constraints of the quiet period, the second evaluation period begins in the fall. During this period, Dennehy said coaches are allowed to attend one high school football game of each recruit.
Following the second evaluation period is the “contact period.” Off-campus visits to players by coaches are permitted, starting the last week of November, Dennehy said. In addition to coaches being allowed to visit recruits at their homes, high school seniors are allowed to visit a school up to five times after the first of September, he said.
“[The contact period] is when you can actually go off campus and begin selling your program,” Dennehy said.
Although the contact period is in effect until Letter of Intent Day, the fourth period, known as the “dead period,” is also in effect at certain times. From the middle of December through the second week of January, the first dead period begins, Dennehy said.
No on- or off-campus visits are allowed during this time period – the second of which encompasses the 48 hours leading up to Letter of Intent Day, Dennehy said.
While the recruiting process is complex and hard to grasp, Dennehy said the year-long goal is always the same – maintain contact with those who verbally commit as well as search for new recruits.
“You want to try to make sure you get to know these guys as well as possible,” he said. “You need to stay in as close of contact with those verbals [verbal commitments] as you do with those other guys you are still recruiting.”
Not only is Dennehy and his coaching staff in constant communication with recruits who have verbally committed, they are also on the lookout for players dropped off the list of big-name programs such as USC and the University of Washington, Dennehy said.
“Recruiting is a process that changes so much daily,” he said. “Your wish list may change depending on the bigger fish’s wish list. That’s why it’s really important you stay on top of things.”