ASU Football: Sun Devils players, coaches still trying to get grasp on early signing period

(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)

A little more than a year ago, Eno Benjamin sat down to pen out a letter.

In over 1400 words, the Wylie, Texas running back (now finishing his freshman year at Arizona State) explained his decision to back out of his commitment to Iowa last October.

“I was committed my junior year (of high school) to Iowa. I wanted to go into [my senior] season being committed and not having to worry about the recruiting process,” Benjamin said. “It kind of got overwhelming,”

After announcing his verbal pledge to the Hawkeyes, the 4-star talent still wanted to take his visits to other campuses around the country – one of them being ASU. According to his letter last November, those trips didn’t sit well with Iowa coaches, deteriorating his relationships with them to the point of decommitment. Benjamin backed out, faced heavy criticisms from Hawkeyes fans, and eventually wound up in Tempe.

Like many graduating high school athletes, Benjamin got blindsided by the complexities of the college football recruiting cycle, a process so warped and nuanced that the NCAA introduced a new rule this year that aims to fix some of its shortcoming.

Beginning this winter, incoming student-athletes can sign letters of intent “early” between Dec. 20-22, months before the traditional national signing day in early February (Feb. 7 this year). It follows a model similar to that of college basketball’s, where players can officially sign with a school during multiple periods of the year.

But while its intentions might be well-placed, the twist to the age-old recruiting schedule has thrown almost everyone in college football for a loop.

Outgoing ASU coach Todd Graham isn’t on the recruiting trail this winter after getting fired by the school last month (he will coach in the Sun Devils Dec. 29 Sun Bowl before making a permanent exit), but has been around college football enough to know a change this drastic will take time to get used to.

“We’ll see,” he said on Monday afternoon. “You never really know till you go through it one time.”

A little more than a week from the opening of the first-ever early signing period, there is one overarching question waiting to be answered.

Will it help?

Benjamin doesn’t think so. He questioned if the need for constant communication between coach and recruit would translate during a time of the year many coaches are moving schools.

“With a lot of coaching changes going on all around the country, I wonder how that is going to work out for them. You wonder if they are going to put their full trust into that knowing their coach could be gone the next day,” he said. “I don’t think I’m a huge fan of that.”

Neither is Sun Devils quarterback Manny Wilkins. When asked on Monday, he said he wouldn’t have signed early if given the opportunity again. He still cherishes the experiences of his final semester of high school as a normal student, not a blue-chip recruit enrolling at his college campus early.

“I love the way I did it,” he said. “I had a chance to walk with all my closest friends, all my teammates in high school. I got to experience having senior ditch day.”

The redshirt junior did add a qualifier though. Kids who want to play immediately at the FBS level might need to make the early signing sacrifice.

“I encourage it to the guys that can do it,” Wilkins said. “Especially guys that are trying to come in now and play. It’s something that you need to do to get a head start and get things rolling.”

ASU’s coaching staff found a much bigger bright side to the early singing window. To them, the December period is a chance to close on recruits as soon as possible.

“For the last four or five years, you had to be a year-and-a-half ahead,” ASU defensive coordinator Phil Bennett said. “All this does, is it cleans it up for the early signees.”

Instead of trying to hold off other schools from poaching prospects around the February date, teams like ASU can lock up its verbally committed recruits sooner and focus on the still-deciding targets later.

“You’ve got to gauge your numbers at each position,” offensive coordinator Billy Napier said. “You’ve got to prioritize the guys that are going to sign on December 20 relative to the young men and families who are going to wait until February.”

In the past week alone, new Sun Devils’ coach Herm Edwards has been on the recruiting trail, visiting with verbal commits like Brock Sturges (a 3-star running back from Allen, Texas), Hunter Mayginnes (a 3-star offensive lineman from Hamilton High School in Chandler) and Michael Matus (a 3-star defensive end from Katy, Texas).

But while the addition to the recruiting calendar gives schools an earlier chance to start securing signatures, it’s another item added to the to-do list during an already hectic month in the college football world.

“It’s another variable to throw into the equation as you prepare and try to finish your class,” Napier said. “It’s almost as if you’ve got two math problems going at one time.”

Graham called the period a “positive deal” and thought it was a step in the right director towards helping student-athletes find their best fit in a school.

“I think it is real important that players have time to make the right decision,” he said. “That decision is so important for them. There is so much more resources on one side. We (programs) have an army of people that are evaluating and assessing and reassessing. I think the most important thing in this in this thing is the youngster makes the right decision and gets to the right place. I think there is some positive to it, I don’t think there is a lot of negative to it.”

Amid all the talk of dates and signings though, it was Bennett – a long-time coach with experience at both low-leveled and premier programs in the country – who offered a thoughtful contrast.

“Don’t get me wrong, there are still going to be players out there [after the early signing period],” he said. “You can look at a lot of the kids we’ve taken late. That’s one of things I told Herm; you have to be careful when you say, ‘I want 5-stars, I want 4-stars.’”

It doesn’t matter when a school gets a player if it isn’t the right player.

Whether a commitment comes in February, December or a prospect’s junior year, there is one rule of recruiting that Bennett hopes isn’t forgotten amid the introduction of the early signing period.

It is simple yet accurate advice: “Evaluation is the key.”

Not even a new signing period, one that generates a myriad of reactions, opinions and questions, is likely to change that.