Swinney wants Clemson offer to mean something, proposes change to recruiting calendar

Swinney would love to see an August signing period.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Feb 20 08:00:05 GMT-04:00 2022

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney wants the scholarship offers that college coaches make to recruits to mean something, and because of that he is in favor of a change to the recruiting calendar that would provide an August signing period.

Before 2017, the only signing date for college football happened on the first Wednesday in February. In 2017, the NCAA added a second signing day to go along with the normal February signing day. This year, the earlier signing period was between Dec. 15–17, and the later signing period came on Feb. 2.

Swinney, during an interview with Carl Reed of 247Sports last week, suggested that he would keep the February date but move up the early signing day date.

“I have always been for an early signing period. We were the only sport in college athletics that didn't have an early signing period,” Swinney said. “I think having the one signing period created a lot of issues for kids and coaches that I didn't think were healthy for the game. I felt like an early signing period would help with that. For me personally, I wish it was earlier. I wish it was Aug. 1 or Aug. 15 and then they have one in February.

“I actually proposed that to our ACC coaches and tried and could just never get some traction. That was several years before the December signing period ultimately came about. I felt like it was a win-win for everybody. I felt like it would slow recruiting down. And if you follow Clemson at all and how we do things, it's rare that we offer a freshman or sophomore. It's rare. I offered Deshaun Watson, but he had been here and been in camp and I knew him. I offered Trevor (Lawrence) his sophomore year after we had gotten to know each other.”

Clemson typically won’t offer a recruit until after their sophomore season, and he wants to make sure that an offer from the Tigers continues to mean something.

“I’ve always valued our offer and want it to mean something. I want to take a commitment when we make an offer. That’s how we’ve always gone about it here,” he said. “I think a lot of schools make a lot of offers, but if a kid tries to commit, they say it’s not a committable offer. I’ve never understood that. So, I always felt it we moved to August, it would protect the kids. I felt like it would slow it down. Now with these coaches making these offers, these kids will want to sign in August.

“Even with the December, and we've all heard the stories where these kids have been committed and they want to sign in December, well, a new coach comes in or the current coach decides they want somebody better and they tell that kid they have to go somewhere else at the 11th hour or you have to grayshirt or whatever. I think this would cut that out. If you put it in August, schools would be a little more serious about making an offer. There are a lot of kids that know what they want to do, and for them to have to wait it creates more pressure on them and I think it would protect the kids because they would be signed. I think it would slow the offer process down.”

He also sees a benefit for coaches who might have a slightly longer leash when it comes to job security.

“I think it is also good for the coaches,” Swinney said. “Maybe that AD instead of firing that coach in the middle of the season, maybe he says, ‘You know what, he’s got a good class signed in August. If we fire that guy, these guys are free to go wherever. Maybe we give him another year.’”

However, he also wants to make sure that the recruits are protected in a situation in which a coach leaves a school.

“Those guys that sign in August, if they fire the coach, then those kids are free to sign with somebody else. I think it's a win because those kids are signed and maybe it puts pressure on an AD to not fire a coach,” Swinney said. “We've never seen so many coaches fired during the season, and the reason they are doing that is because we have the December signing period. If you had it in August it would slow down the process from an administrative level. Or if the coach leaves -- not fired -- but just packs up and leaves after the season, it's the same thing. Those kids that signed, they should have the opportunity to sign somewhere else.”