FAYETTEVILLE -- Because college football coaches generally can't control their urge to control, it mostly seems struggling programs like Arkansas are doomed to struggle longer than they should.
Coaches just couldn't wait until the traditional first week in February to sign recruits. So in 2017, for the 2018 recruiting class, they nationally voted in the December early signing period.
They claimed it was for the benefit of prospects wanting to end the recruiting ordeal early because their minds were made up.
But let's get real. Coaches wanted it compelling prospects to decide early. Now about 70 percent do. That pressures those that would prefer deciding in February to fret they might not have a spot available.
So with current College Football Playoff teams Clemson, LSU, Ohio State and Oklahoma and most other elites signing 20 or more this week, some likely signed earlier than they wished.
Meanwhile, since 2017 you have Arkansas twice changing head coaches and twice left out in the recruiting cold while December signing heats to full boil.
The Razorbacks fired Bret Bielema off a 4-8 overall, 1-7 SEC campaign and replaced him with Chad Morris two weeks before the first December, 2017 signing period for 2018.
It made for a makeshift recruiting class.
Morris got canned on Nov. 10. The Hogs wallowed 2-8 overall, 0-6 in the SEC, and embarrassed in nonconference play 45-19 by Western Kentucky when the axe fell. They concluded 2-10, 0-8 matching Morris' 2-10, 0-8 for 2018.
Sam Pittman became Arkansas' head coach just 11 days before last Wednesday's start to the early signing. With so little time he's signed only nine.
Pittman can only hope that some prospects available in February truly have the talent that made them confident they could wait or prove better than the recruiting services currently think.
Frankly, all prospects and all programs would seem better off using that extra time to fully explore their options. Particularly so for the programs trying to extricate themselves from a bare cupboard.
Another drawback accompanying December signing is pressure exerted on those who could graduate early from high school to do so. The college coaches can't wait to get them on the weights and into spring ball.
Can't the college indoctrination wait until all report for classes in the summer? Allow the "student-athlete," that college administrations profess to care so much about, to have a last non-football spring running track or playing baseball or golf and most importantly, one last high school semester to be a kid.
Besides, for every McTelvin "Sosa" Agim that blossomed from a spring semester early enrollee on to letter four years, it seems that many more enrolled early at the UA finished their collegiate careers elsewhere.
Arkansas' most honored football freshmen for 2019, starting receiver/punt returner Treylon Burks and starting offensive guard Ricky Stromberg, both graduated high school last May.
Obviously they caught up fast to those freshman teammates graduating high school early and practicing with the Hogs last spring.
Sports on 12/21/2019