High school football recruits react to new NCAA rules

When Yusef Shakir was getting recruited to play college football out of Tallahassee Lincoln, there wasn’t Hudl for highlight videos or social media or scouting services labeling prospects as five-star recruits.

“Recruiting was very different then,” said Shakir, Manatee High’s head football coach. “When I was coming out, you basically started picking up all these offers by about your fifth game (of your senior season). ... The landscape is so different and the process is so very different.”

And in 2017, it’s changing yet again.

Recruiting college football players is a fervent business, and the rules keep evolving as the years go on.

The latest alterations affect players and coaches at the high school level.

National Signing Day, which takes place on the first Wednesday in February and has developed into a spectacle with ESPN broadcasting ceremonies throughout the country, isn’t the lone option for players.

The NCAA added an early signing period allowing football players to sign national letters of intent in December.

“It helps from the college standpoint,” Braden River rising junior wide receiver/running back Knowledge McDaniel said. “Because you get 15 practices, you’re ahead of all the people in the class.”

Among Manatee County’s six public high schools, that early signing period affects Braden River High players the most.

Running back Deshaun Fenwick, defensive back Tyrone Collins and defensive end Taylor Upshaw all plan on early enrolling and signing in December.

Fenwick (South Carolina), Collins (Missouri) and Upshaw (Florida) made their verbal commitments in the past month.

“It takes a lot of pressure off you to be ready,” Fenwick said.

Fenwick, though, wasn’t swayed by the NCAA’s decision to include a December signing period. He said he planned on early enrolling during his junior season.

The early signing period isn’t the only change to the NCAA’s recruiting rules.

The NCAA’s Division I Council also allows college programs to add a 10th assistant coach, bans the hiring of people associated with recruits, limits satellite camps and allows earlier official visits.

For Manatee County high school players, the early signing period and earlier official visits are the biggest changes to affect their recruitment process.

The last Power Five conference signing happened this year when Manatee High wide receiver Tarique Milton signed with Iowa State University.

There could be other early signings with Division I programs aiming to get commitments from Manatee running back Josh Booker and the Saint Stephen’s trio of Fred Billy, Chase Brown and Sydney Brown.

“If you’re going to be an eight-semester kid that graduates in May or June, then the early signing period can go ahead and lock that scholarship up and kind of keep everybody honest,” Braden River head coach Curt Bradley said. “There’s a lot of stuff that happens the last two months of recruiting: decommitting, pulling scholarship offers and those things.”

At Palmetto, most of the recruited players are getting attention from Football Championship Subdivision programs (formerly Division I-AA) or Division II schools.

So defensive back Derrick Bradley, linebacker Andrew Duncan, defensive back Tray Thompskin and linebacker Alonzo Houston will most likely not sign in December, but it’s an option they each said benefits high school players.

“It gives you a head start on your college career,” Houston said.

This story was originally published June 14, 2017 at 5:12 PM with the headline "High school football recruits react to new NCAA rules."