Nothing yet. But this was interesting from the Independent:
Callahan favors early signing day
Perhaps one of the most interesting things about this past Wednesday's national college football signing day was the reaction Bill Callahan had to a pair of four-star players who had given the Nebraska coach their verbal commitments, but then shied away from their pledges and go elsewhere.
Unlike Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis and others who were stung by signing day surprises, Callahan didn't lash out at the youngsters for changing their mind. In fact, Callahan appeared -- at least outwardly -- remarkably composed about the late developments, saying that it's essentially become part of the recruiting game.
"I'm more pleased with the guys that are committed, that do make that commitment to come here and want to be a part of this than I am for the very few that elect to make a late, 11th-hour decision and go elsewhere, and I respect that," Callahan said. "I understand that's a part of the game in this day and age."
After defensive back David Ross signed with Oregon State and Travis Lewis inked with Oklahoma, Callahan admitted that Nebraska then attempted to go after some last-minute replacements. Presumably, most of those targets were already verbally committed to other schools.
"It's hard to turn guys late and come back in on guys when they are essentially committed or connected into a particular university," Callahan said. "It's crazy. Recruiting's crazy this day and age, I have to tell you that. It's getting crazier."
All told, Nebraska wound up losing eight players who had given the Huskers a verbal commitment at one time or another during the recruiting process. That figure appears to be on par with the national average as Rivals.com recruiting analyst Jeremy Crabtree said he saw more players de-commit and go elsewhere on signing day than at any point in the past 10 years.
With that in mind, Callahan is one of the many proponents of an early signing day for college football that would occur sometime in the fall, rather than the traditional letter-of-intent day in early February. The early signing date would figure to help the Huskers strike while the iron is still hot and lock up recruits while they are still riding the high of the game-day experience at Memorial Stadium.
"I'm hopeful that the NCAA looks at an early signing date, especially here for us at Nebraska. That would be a great advantage," Callahan said. "If they could ever get the early signing date for a high school player, boy, we'd be enthralled with that because a lot of our visits occur during the in-season and as we all know, it is tough -- and is getting tougher -- to hold a commitment from day one all the way to Feb. 7."
As it stands, Nebraska's coaches have to keep the fire of interest glowing for a little more than two months after the prospective recruits come to Lincoln. In that time, there are plenty of opportunities for a player's feelings to cool and his mind to change -- especially with the urging of other coaches recruiting against the Huskers' staff.
"(Recruiting) is becoming more difficult, more demanding and I just believe as a coach you want to be a little clearer in terms of commitment when they come to your school," Callahan said. "When they make that commitment to your school, you want an opportunity to sign them up if they're that excited about it instead of waiting for an extended period of time.
"I think it will happen because of the way the process has been accelerated. I think the day's coming where we're going to see that."
