Recruiting 2021: 5 Things That Matter After National Signing Day

5 observations and things that matter after the 2021 recruiting season and National Signing Day are over.

5 observations and things that matter after the 2021 recruiting season and National Signing Day are over.


Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

[jwplayer zT5rEzuj]

Now that it’s all over, what mattered about National Signing Day 2021 and the entire recruiting period coming off the weirdest possible season?

Here are five observations and things that matter – especially if you don’t care about recruiting.

5. Yes, National Signing Day was last Wednesday

You can be forgiven if you didn’t notice that the first Wednesday in February passed without you noticing any sizable changes in your world.

There used to be a time when that date meant something to college football fans looking for something to care about in the middle of a random weeks, and was a national holiday for the fetish crowd that gets WAYYYYYYY to into the college whims of teenage guys.

But that’s all changed, and it’s good thing.

As a friend of mine put it, now it goes Early Signing Period > Transfer Portal > National Signing Day.

And that was what made the 2021 recruiting season so strange. The Early Signing Period in late December has destroyed the February National Signing Day, mainly because everyone signs on as soon as they’re able to.


2021 Recruiting
Coaching Changes & 2021 Recruiting
New Schools In The Mix | The Top Position
Alabama Dunked On Your Recruiting Class
Big Ten | Big 12 | SEC


(Why the superstar recruits don’t hold out until the last possible second as the value goes up and the “offers” become more tasty is beyond me – but that’s for another day.)

This year, though, late December meant something beyond the random bowl games, which meant that college football fans had to care about how the extended season ended, which meant that random interest in recruiting was next to nothing.

Coaches and recruiters couldn’t work like normal in the COVID year, there wasn’t a Terrelle Pryor or Justin Fields or Rashan Gary or Jadeveon Clowney who captured the recruiting world’s imagination, and there’s the one big aspect that has totally killed interest in recruiting …

Who cares about a bunch of questionable prospects who may or may not be worth the trouble when you can go get the guys you need in the transfer portal?

But recruiting still matters, especially at the highest level. Now, it’s a strength in numbers game considering so many players will be off to the transfer portal the second they see where they are on the depth chart. Obviously, the more great recruits you get, the more chances that a few will work out.

At the end of the day, whether recruiting has lost its mojo or not, you still need the guys.

Coaching Changes & 2021 Recruiting
New Schools In The Mix | The Top Position
Alabama Dunked On Your Recruiting Class

NEXT: The coaching changes in this weird year

Recruiting 2020: 5 Things That Matter After National Signing Day

5 observations and things that matter after the 2020 recruiting season and National Signing Day are over.

[jwplayer Ec1cG9E6]

5 observations and things that matter after the 2020 recruiting season and National Signing Day are over.


Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

2020 Recruiting Analysis, Team Rankings, Top Players 
AAC | ACC | Big Ten | Big 12 | Pac-12 | SEC

There are still a few storylines in the 2020 recruiting season – like RB Zachary Evans not deciding on a school yet – even though National Signing Day came and went, but for the most part, it’s on to 2021.

Here are five observations and things that matter now that it’s over.

5. National Signing Day is Blockbuster …

And the Early Signing Period is Netflix.

I used to hate National Signing Day.

The lead-up required weeks and weeks of research and discussion and speculation all for one silly day when older men made a really big deal about where a bunch of kids were going to college.

The worst part about it all was the lack of a true payoff. It was all speculation about how good the undeveloped talents could be three or more years – for the most part – after they signed.

NSD took on a life of its own outside of the normal college football world. It became an occasionally creepy time with message board threats, genuine anger, and a whole lot of pressure. It was also a celebration.

And I sort of miss it.

The first Wednesday in February used to be the one big day of the college football offseason.

The NBA has its free agency period and trade deadline, the NFL has its draft, and baseball has its hot stove league. National Signing Day was a chance for college football fans to look ahead to what might be happening with their respective programs, and it was a time to talk college football before settling in for a big snooze over the following six months.

[lawrence-related id=507396]

Now, most top players are all but locked in several months, if not years, in advance. The Early Signing Period in late December is when everyone of note signs on – which totally gets blown off nationally because the bowl season is in full gear – and the transfer portal has become more important than either of the two signing days.

Not all that long ago, National Signing Day was wall-to-wall all-day TV coverage on at least two of the all-sports station. Every major web site treated it like Christmas because of all the page views and traffic, and it was a  major, major thing.

This year? It was an hour-long wrap-up show – if that – on one of the ESPN networks or conference-only channels, because nothing really happened.

Anecdotally, I used to be hit up for at least 15 radio appearances across the country on NSD. This year, I was had the same 15+ requests, but the talk was 95% about Mark Dantonio.

National Signing Day just isn’t a thing anymore. The hype and craziness around recruiting has peaked, and now it’s more business-like and subdued.

It’s just another day in the college football offseason.

However, there are parts of this that really do matter, starting with …

NEXT: New coaches get a whole lot of talent to work with