Suspense, Drama, Excitement? They've Become Scarce on Signing Day: All Things CW

National Signing Day used to be like a college football holiday, but all of the recent changes including the Early Signing Period have sucked a lot of the joy from it.

Christopher Walsh | Dec 21, 2022

Suspense, Drama, Excitement? They've Become Scarce on Signing Day: All Things CW /

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Alabama Crimson Tide

The All Things CW notes column by Christopher Walsh will appear in five parts this week, one each day. This is ...

Take 3

There are four things that come to mind with the early-signing period getting under way, and none of them are much of a surprise:

1) Nick Saban has managed to top himself again with another incredible recruiting class for the Alabama Crimson Tide that on paper may be his best yet. He inked 12 players in the SI99, including three of the top nine, and the group includes major additions at all key spots.

However ...

2) National Signing Day used to be like a holiday for college football fans. Many would take the day off, and spend hours watching announcements and ceremonies.

No longer. This year's early-signing day was a mere formality for most prospects, to the point that perhaps the most impressive thing may have been high school teammates Qua Russaw and James Smith keeping a lid on where they were going until the very end.

3) The importance of signing a big recruiting class has been diminished by the new transfer rules and NIL.

Simply put, it's tough for fans to maintain their excitement when they know half of the players in the signing class may be gone within a couple of years.

4) It's ridiculous that we're doing this just four days before Christmas.

Hopefully the powers that be will make some changes soon for the better, but we'll probably never go back to the age of Fax Cam Girl again (Ok, yes, it was sexist, but no more than NFL teams using cheerleaders as part of their schedule announcements).

Yes, there's still some excitement in the signing day anticipation. Yet, wouldn't it be great if we could get back to something like when fans couldn't sleep the night before, and would wear out the refresh button on their keyboards looking for updates?

Make no mistake, recruiting is still the lifeblood of any college football program, and for years it's been the key to the Crimson Tide's incredible success. It's not Saban's problem that his signing classes have been so consistently outstanding that signing day has almost become boring to even his own fan base.

It just knows that the class will be good, year in, and year out, and that the Crimson Tide has an unparalleled record of developing players.

You may remember that last August we did a statistical breakdown on consensus five-star players from 2008-17, and found that not only did Alabama land the most prospects with 42, but no other school had signed more than 30.

Of those 42, 30 had already been drafted, or 71.4 percent, including 10 in the first round. That worked out to 45.2 percent, which was way ahead every other program in college football.

See: Alabama Unmatched at Developing the Best of the Best Recruits

But there are still no guarantees.

Every year on signing day I'm always reminded of the 2008 recruiting class, the one that Saban always calls special and was really the ignition for the dynasty. The group was loaded with the likes of Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram Jr. , safety Mark Barron and his cousin Dont'a Hightower, defensive linemen Marcel Dareus and Terrence Cody, and one of the most decorated players in program history, Barrett Jones.

Alabama signed three players who were considered consensus 5-star, can't miss talents: Julio Jones, Tyler Love and B.J. Scott. Jones could be heading to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but Love never started a game on the offensive line and Scott ended up transferring — after really being the first big addition in the class and then helping recruit others.

There were a lot of players in that signing class who didn't pan out. That's just part of it.

Consider the top prospect in every Alabama recruiting class under Nick Saban, including 2007, when the coach was hired essentially a month before National Signing Day:

2007: Michael Ricks, safety
2008: Julio Jones, wide receiver
2009: Trent Richardson, running back
2010: Dee Milliner, cornerback
2011: Cyrus Kouandjio, tackle
2012: Landon Collins, safety
2013: Reuben Foster, linebacker
2014: Cam Robinson, tackle
2015: Calvin Ridley, wide receiver
2016: Ben Davis, linebacker
2017: Najee Harris, running back
2018: Eyabi Anoma, linebacker
2019: Antonio Alfano, defensive end
2020: Bryce Young, quarterback
2021: J.C. Latham, tackle
2022: Jeremiah Alexander, edge

Overall, it's an impressive group even with some players who didn't fully take advantage of their opportunity.

But if recruiting as a whole wasn't difficult enough, nowadays coaches have to make earlier assessments, deal with financial issues, and do so while still having some coronavirus pandemic restrictions that for a while severely hampered the assessment process.

The hiring-and-firing season for coaches has also accelerated to beyond reason, complicating things even more.

Yeah, signing day just isn't what it used to be. Here's hoping the NCAA will try and go back to some of what made it fun before, beginning with moving the early-signing period (or do away with it), and try to make it a little more fan-friendly.

Take 3

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