Nick Saban has never shied away from voicing his opinion on issues in the game of college football.
Just this past spring he famously got into a public spat with Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher over the current model of name, image and likeness, which is a topic Saban thinks needs to be addressed in the future.
But if he had to choose one thing he’d change about college football it’s actually something different than the usual grips coaches have about the current game.
The one thing Saban would change is resetting the signing day to its original date.
During an appearance on The Herd with Colin Cowherd on Thursday, the national radio host posed the question to the Crimson Tide head coach as he further explained his stance.
“I think that when we had the early signing day a lot of people said, including myself, that this is going to become the signing day,” Saban said. “So when that started to occur everybody wanted to move the recruiting calendar up so guys could visit in the summertime and make earlier decisions, and you had to make earlier decisions and evaluations.
“So I think because football is a developmental game and especially when you’re looking at young people, especially young bigger guys, they develop a little later. And I think that sometimes when you have to make early decisions on guys now because we’ve moved the recruiting calendar up it makes it much more difficult. And people’s expectation is you’re going to offer them when they’re a sophomore — and now we’re offering guys when they’re freshmen. I think the nature of football being a developmental game that lends itself to maybe not giving opportunities to guys who develop later.
“So if there’s one thing I could change it probably would be to move the recruiting calendar back to what it used to be and have the signing day be in February because I just think we accelerated the whole process to the point where people are making decisions earlier. We’re making decisions earlier. And I’m not sure that’s always the best thing for everyone”
*Get the BEST Alabama football insider information, message board access, and recruiting coverage today! SIGN UP HERE to unlock our subscriber only content!*
