When the clock struck midnight and the calendar to September, college coaches from around the country were permitted to contact prospects in the class of 2017.
Clemson, as one might imagine, hit the ground running at 12:01 a.m. A number of junior prospects immediately heard from Tiger coaches.
Plenty received contact from the Clemson staff on Tuesday. Forsyth-Mary Persons (Ga.) defensive end Malik Herring, IMG Academy (Olney, Md.) linebacker Jordan Anthony and Tampa-Plant athlete Juwan Burgess all posted artwork messaged by the Clemson coaches.
https://twitter.com/HerringMalik/status/638799337309499393
Dabo Swinney admitted to reporters on Tuesday morning that he didn’t send out any direct messages on Twitter.
“We’ve got some tired coaches walking around here today…I wasn’t calling anybody at 12:01. I think I was asleep that was 12:01,” he said.
That wouldn’t be the case if the NCAA didn’t allow college coaches to inundate prospects with messages right after midnight on the east coast. Swinney thinks they could stand wait a few hours and initiate the contact at a later time.
“That’s kind of something where they would say, not (until) 7 a.m. or something,” Swinney said.
It’s probably safe to assume there are other college coaches, along with a few parents and high school teachers that feel the same way. Feel free to lump reporters into that category, especially those binge watching season three of “Mad Men” on Netflix.
“That’s kind of common sense thing,” Swinney said.
By now, he should know better. Common sense and the NCAA don’t always go hand-in-hand.
Swinney is on to something. Wouldn’t it be a little more appropriate to respect the student half in this whole student-athlete equation?
Of course the prospects are going to stay up until 12:01 to see which schools immediately hit them up. They want to know who’s interested and ready to show love.
You can’t really blame the coaches since they’re operating within the confines of the rules. In this game, he who hesitates falls behind. He who falls behind usually finds a spot in the unemployment line.
And even though 12:01 isn’t that late, interaction probably doesn’t end at 12:02.
Perhaps a more reasonable start time would make life a little bit more manageable for plenty of people. Let’s allow the contact to start 19 hours later at 7:01 p.m.
High schools on both coasts are already done for the day and nobody is getting ready to go to bed on a school night. College coaches already have to wait two years. What difference is another half-a-day-plus going to make?