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NSD delays: From Terrelle Pryor to Roquan Smith and Demetris Robertson
By Keith Farner
Published:
As five-star WR Demetris Robertson, the nation’s No. 1 wide receiver recruit, sits on a decision about whether to sign with Notre Dame, Georgia, Alabama or Stanford, he is only the latest version of a prep star who waited days or weeks after National Signing Day to ink his pledge.
Robertson reportedly is weighing his SAT score result and possible admission to Stanford, which would green light an official visit there. But he’s also taken official visits to Cal and Georgia Tech, and will likely weigh those offers with the schools above. Yet even a recruiting writer at DawgNation.com less than two weeks ago couldn’t nail down a date for an announcement.
“It is so fluid a situation that it seems haphazard to even warrant a guess as to when Robertson will make his final decision,” Jeff Sentell wrote. “The best possible target, weighing all the current conditions, seems to be somewhere around Feb. 20.”
Much like athletes before him, there’s no technical rush for Robertson until the April 1 deadline to sign, according to nationalletter.org. As ballyhooed as National Signing Day has become, it is technically the start of a two-month signing window. If the NLI isn’t signed, a recruit has until he attends classes to change his mind.
After weighing finalists Penn State and Michigan in 2008, Jeannette, Pa., high school star Terrelle Pryor announced he would sign with “The University of Ohio State.” That only came after those closest to him showed a range of preferences, from his father preferring Penn State, to his high school position coach favoring Ohio State and his high school head coach leaning toward Michigan, USATODAY reported.
The Associated Press reported that Pryor said his state championship high school football season flowed straight into basketball season and therefore he needed more time. A decision that came the morning of National Signing Day.
“Me and my dad had a battle of differences, he wants me to go over it,” The AP quoted Pryor as saying. “I had my mind set last night that I was going to go … but Penn State is hitting me hard and I don’t think I gave them a fair chance and I want to take a visit there. Just check out their campus. Just give him (coach Joe Paterno) a chance, he’s a great guy. I just think I should go there.”
While Pryor drew plenty of headlines, it was linebacker Roquan Smith — who pledged to UCLA on ESPNU before eventually signed a financial aid agreement with Georgia last year — whom The Washington Post called a pioneer.
Smith’s decision came down to UCLA and Georgia, and was complicated when UCLA defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich left for a job with the Atlanta Falcons.
High school coach Larry Harold persuaded Smith to hold off on faxing the NLI. And that’s when the leverage swung to Smith, and his situation put the spotlight on what rights recruits have. Eventually, it shifted power from the school, and exposed an underbelly of recruiting that is based more on relationships than brick and mortar schools.
“How can you commit to a school,” Smith’s high school coach told the The Washington Post. “The school is building and material. If you’re married to your wife, you don’t commit to a house. You commit to your wife in that house.”
Smith’s example offered a glimpse to what recruits could gain from holding the pen: a four-year commitment, medical care or an out if a coach leaves.
That leverage puts a school in a bind, Susan Pearl, director of the NLI program for the NCAA, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last year.
“This really places that athletics team in a bad position for planning for the upcoming year if there is no binding agreement,” she said. “This results in no accountability on the student’s behalf, but the institution is accountable for providing the athletics aid.”
Of course, Smith isn’t the first star recruit to hold off past NSD. Even when signing day in those days was in early December, Herschel Walker didn’t sign until early April.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
