It's coming. Neither rain, snow (#snOMAhog), sleet or hail can stop it. (Let alone my complaints...) National Signing Day is Wednesday. Which makes this week THE WORST WEEK OF THE YEAR.
It's not that recruiting isn't important. It is ... though it's not as important as the recruitniks will tell you. For every Alabama, there's a Texas. Some teams recruit well, and win big. Other teams recruit well, and don't win. Other teams don't recruit as well, and still win anyway.
But the bigger issue is the attention this process gets. It warps kids opinions and perspectives as they go to school; it creates the equivalent of divas. It almost sets some players up to fail when they don't live up to the star expectations that the so-called experts throw on them.
One of the most disturbing trends I've seen is that the worse your coaching staff coaches, the more publicity the school throws towards recruiting. It's how Bill Callahan survived initially, and now we're seeing it with Mike Riley. Is this a sign that Riley is going be another "all hat, no cattle" coach? Perhaps. At least with Bill Callahan, he had a top-five class in his first full signing. Mike Riley is going to have a top-25 or top-30 class (about the same as his predecessor, it would appear) this season, but suddenly, the coach's defenders are going to talk about how great it was this year.
Sigh. It's just too much to bear...so I tune out. I have every year, and have no plans to change this year. I'll make my own opinions about these players when I see them take the field in a year or two.
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