Mike Gundy Deems Early Signing Period Best Thing to Happen to College Football

STILLWATER — The newly-implemented early December signing period was received with mostly open arms when it was voted into legislation earlier this year. For schools like Alabama or Texas A&M which recruit at a consistently high level and have come to rely on success poaching from other programs late in the process, not so much. But for a program like Oklahoma State that gets its scouting done early and lands a majority of its commitments ahead of NSD, it was — and has been — a boon.

“The early signing period is the best thing that has ever happened to college football,” Mike Gundy declared Wednesday. “It’s going to create and improve the equality and parity in the game. We’re seeing more and more of it, and the early signing period is going to balance out college football and power five conference schools over a period of three or four years. So we’re really excited about it.”

Unlike years of old, OSU has (mostly) been able to hang on to its commitments this cycle, with the exception of an Antwine stunner on Tuesday. The staff has thrived in a new shortened recruiting timeline that allows them to ink most of their prospects before the bowl game, which Gundy says is a win-win for him and for the sport.

“What that does is it forces us to do our job — to go out, evaluate, get to know the young men, make a decision on ’em and move forward,” he said. “And I think that’s great for college football.”

The best part of the entirely new legislation, perhaps, is that with two periods — one early period in December, and another in February — it essentially gives OSU two chances at filling a position of need if you miss the first time. Take the Israel Antwine situation, for instance. Antwine’s flip to Colorado on Tuesday left OSU with zero commitments at DT for 2018 — which means defensive coaches now have time to pick up the pieces to finish strong before the February signing day.

But for the most part …. “It’s over with,” said Gundy of the 2018 class. And he’s basically right. With 22 signed, there’s only 3 more spots OSU could fill due to the 25-man cap— and from here on out, there’s zero risk of losing signed players to other schools.

“We may pick up one or two. But if we come up short in an area, we have 6 more weeks to go out and do our job and find another one. There’s young men out there who’ve been overlooked.

“For the most part, we don’t have to continue to pull along young men who’ve been recruited for months and months to our program. Let’s get ‘em signed up, let’s move down the road and get rid of the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. It’s going to help clean this game up.”

If the byproduct of allowing recruits to sign in December is that cheating in recruiting is diminished or completely weeded out, it’s a win for the entire sport. Because by the looks of it, a win for the entire sport also means a big win for Mike Gundy and Oklahoma State.