Recruiting never stops and it’s easy to miss the top stories day-to-day. Recruiting analyst Greg Smith recaps all things Nebraska recruiting news, analysis and more so you never miss a thing.
Back on March 13, 2020 when the NCAA first put the dead period in place, no one knew how long it would ultimately last. I don’t think you’d find many people who believed it would last over a year but it has. Schools have not been allowed to host recruits on campuses. Coaches haven’t been out on the road. Prospects haven’t been able to have camps to get instruction and raise their recruiting stocks.
It would have been in place for 14 months by the time the latest extension of the dead period is potentially up. The NCAA Football Oversight Committee will recommend this week that the dead period move to what is called a quiet period.
Basically, teams could host recruits on campus and have camps. Under that rule, the Huskers could revive their Friday Night Lights camps and Big Man Camp in June. That would be huge for prospects of all ages in high school. Recruiting would be back in full effect. Camp season would be here which would be very helpful for schools and players.
However, there is subgroup exploring a different idea according to Yahoo’s Pete Thamel.
This idea is only in discussion stages and won’t be considered formally for vote for several weeks. The idea behind it is to allow prospects – likely juniors entering their senior year — who couldn’t go to camps or be evaluated in person an opportunity to be evaluated. 2/2
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) March 16, 2021
Clarifying here that this would be individual evaluation. Not camps. 3/3
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) March 16, 2021
I suppose if the NCAA did not feel comfortable opening things up 100% that this piecemeal approach would be a road to take. It would be helpful that players heading into their senior years could be evaluated in-person by college coaches. Nebraska’s coaches love getting to work with prospects to see how they work with their own eyes. It also good to be able to see in real-time how a player responds to coaching.
The bigger hurdle here would be what Thamel included in his clarification. How would that work to have individual evaluation instead of full-blown camps? Would colleges bring in players one by one to evaluate them? Would there be a limit on how many of these single evaluations they could do in a day? Not having that done in a camp setting which is the most efficient way to do it creates new headaches potentially.
No one knows for sure what exactly the NCAA will do when they vote on this. It is the NCAA so nothing would surprise me. You’d think this version of lifting the dead period would be a plan B at best though. With the way things seem to be heading we will know for sure before May 31. Teams will need as much time as possible to plan for whatever is next. So will prospects if they are suddenly going to be able to go on the road. Families will need time to prepare.
It appears something will happen to lift the dead period soon. Now it’s just a matter of what the details will look like.
Recruit Watch
>> In the latest sign that teams expect the dead period to end May 31, we are seeing teams line up official visits with prospects.
June 11-13 #H2P💛 pic.twitter.com/ClfOBZLgIQ
— Keon Wylie (@KeonWylie) March 15, 2021
🐊🐊🐊 pic.twitter.com/SZTEZATe8v
— Chris McClellan 7️⃣🦍 (@ChrisDMac10) March 16, 2021
>> Lincoln Southeast linebacker Jake Appleget showed off a graphic the team did for him.
GBR ⚪️☠️🔴 pic.twitter.com/CmMvnRTcAo
— Jake Appleget (@ApplegetJake) March 16, 2021
ICYMI
>> In the latest episode of the Straight Up Breakdown podcast Jay Foreman and I discuss self-inflicted issues and how to overcome them.
>> I took a look at some names to watch (Premium) to be the next commitment for Nebraska’s 2022 class.
>> We have our first upset in the QBracket as Tommy Armstrong Jr. lands in the Final Four.
>> Nebraska women’s basketball was selected for the 32-team WNIT field and will open in Memphis.