New Recruiting Rule Regarding Coaches in Waiting
by Year2 on Feb 10, 2010 3:55 PM EST
in Football
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The NCAA never sleeps, or at least it legislates with predictable regularity. Sure, it reacts about three years late to things, but at least it wraps everything in a shiny new layer of red tape each year, right?
So anyway, the Dallas Morning News is reporting that there's a new NCAA rule regarding head coaches in waiting. College Football Talk tracked it down, and has the full text if you want to read the legalese. Essentially it boils down to this: anyone designated a head coach in waiting must abide by the same recruiting restrictions that actual head coaches are under. They are restricted from participating in a variety of activities in the Spring Evaluation Period, between April 15 and May 31.
I guess it makes some sense, but there aren't any extra restrictions on guys with titles like "assistant head coach" or "associate head coach." It doesn't really affect the SEC since the only head coach in waiting got to drop the "in waiting" part with Joker Phillips taking over for the retired Rich Brooks. It does affect Texas though, as the DMN and CFT point out, as former SEC guy WIll Muschamp is both the Longhorns' head coach in waiting and perhaps its best recruiter. I guess in that sense, it might in theory help an SEC team recruiting against Texas for a particular player.
In any event, I'm torn right now as to whether this will affect the whole head coach in waiting phenomena. Only Texas and Maryland have one at this point, and Terps coach Ralph Friedgen is closer to being fired than retirement. It was also an increasingly awkward situation at Florida State where the combination of an energetic Jimbo Fisher and an increasingly hands-off Bobby Bowden lead to serious conflicts over authority.
With the trend already waning and given the logistical problems it creates, could this rule end head coaches in waiting once and for all?
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It was always a concept of limited utility. Unless the current head coach is within a couple of years of leaving at the time the appointment is made, it doesn’t make sense, except perhaps as a desperation short-term maneuvre to retain a valuable assistant who would certainly be hired away otherwise. But you’d better make hay while you can [cough, Texas, cough] because the situation will blow up if the “waiting” part becomes too prolonged.
And if you do wish to nail down a successor to a soon-to-depart coach without handcuffing him in recruiting, just don’t put it in writing. The agreement won’t be as iron-clad as a contract (however iron-clad those are these days), but it should suffice if everyone’s on the same page.
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