How the early signing window has created a stressful time for top recruits in Texas

On Monday afternoon, Duncanville’s communications department sent an email saying star defensive back Braylon Edwards would be among six players from the three-time state champion signing Wednesday.

Less than four hours later, Edwards said in a direct message on X (formerly Twitter) that there had been a change of plans, and he had decided not to sign on the first day of the three-day early national signing period for football. Instead, he’s waiting until February’s regular signing period to finalize his college plans.

What gave Edwards pause? A day earlier, Arkansas announced it had hired Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield to lead the program rather than stick with Bobby Petrino, who had been interim coach for the final seven games of the season.

“I was committing to Arkansas and the whole organization felt Petrino was going to be the guy,” Edwards said in a direct message. “Then the new coach decided he wanted to build in the portal. I have options but really want to see how things shake out.”

The early signing period was an attempt to alleviate the December chaos for colleges, but it created a stressful time for top recruits in Texas. The college football coaching carousel started spinning at breakneck speed when the regular season ended last weekend, complicating decisions for recruits while nearly 100 teams in Texas are still competing in the playoffs.

There are no easy solutions. Several Dallas-area high school coaches say they would prefer one signing period in February, when it used to be, but college coaches like December because athletes can arrive on campus in January to start training. One option would be to move the early signing period to the middle of the summer, before the season, but that is the only down time of the year for college coaches.

“All of this requires you to look through the collective lens of the coaches. They are the ones who ultimately determine the calendar, regardless of the public gripes many issue,” 247Sports national scouting analyst for football Gabe Brooks said in an email. “December signing day creates a clear pathway for more early enrollees than in the past, and that is exactly what the coaches want … players on campus developing physically and technically as soon as possible.”

Last year, the early signing period was moved up three weeks to the first week of December. Brooks said it helps with an overcrowded college December calendar that includes bowl games, playoff games and preparation for the transfer portal opening, but he thinks an early period would work better in the middle of summer.

“That timeline would be more beneficial to the prospects,” Brooks said. “But coaches rule college football, and putting the [early signing period] in December creates the mirage of an early period while also providing a rip cord for the colleges in regards to any players who got significantly injured or underperformed in their senior seasons.”

Melissa coach Matt Nally also would like to see it earlier and proposed moving it to the middle of the regular season. Either approach would be better than early December, D-FW coaches say.

“It makes it hard from a logistical standpoint to have [signing day] right now if you are still playing,” said Denton Ryan coach Dave Henigan, whose team will play 12-time state champion Aledo in the Class 5A Division I Region I final Friday. “Wednesday mornings we have meetings and we also need to have signing day, so it kind of impacts your schedule.”

Was one signing period better?

Dallas-area coaches with teams competing in this week’s UIL regional finals say if signing day were only in February, most college coaching changes would happen well before.

“I liked it being in February because they could finish the season and then they had a month to really focus in on, this is what is important, I feel better about my decision,” said Nally, whose team plays Argyle in the 5A Division II Region I final Friday.

“With NIL, there are a lot of college coaches out there that are great men, and there are a lot of college coaches out there who are, in my personal opinion, used car salesmen. They will say one thing just to get the kids [to sign] on the dotted line and then they change things up.”

LSU, Florida, Auburn, Arkansas, Michigan State and Kentucky announced new head coaches Sunday or Monday, and front-runners for open jobs at UCLA and Penn State emerged. The most notable was Lane Kiffin leaving Ole Miss to become LSU’s coach, which affected two Dallas-area players who are committed to Ole Miss — Duncanville four-star edge rusher Landon Barnes and Duncanville three-star defensive back Victor Lincoln.

It has been a whirlwind recruiting process for Lincoln, who decommitted from Arkansas and committed to Ole Miss on Nov. 24, only to see Kiffin announce that he was leaving less than a week later.

Barnes and Lincoln still seem committed to signing with Ole Miss and new head coach Pete Golding, who was promoted from his role as defensive coordinator, as both players tweeted out photos of themselves in Ole Miss uniforms Sunday and Barnes added the caption, “No matter what.”

Only 12 of the top 100 recruits in the Dallas area remain uncommitted for the Class of 2026. That was after eight top-100 players flipped their commitment, three others decommitted and another announced his commitment since Oct. 6.

Just in the last few weeks, two top 20 area recruits flipped — Melissa offensive lineman Max Wright from Texas to SMU and North Forney quarterback/athlete Legend Bey from Tennessee to Ohio State.

Pressure to sign early

In 2017, the December early signing period was created to give high school players the chance to enroll for the spring semester of college and take part in spring football at their new school. In the beginning, it was either the week of or the week after the UIL state championship games.

Last season, it moved to the first week in December to avoid overlapping with the transfer portal window (Jan. 2-16 in 2026) and to have signing day before the college conference championship games and the start of the College Football Playoff. That puts it a few days before UIL teams play their fourth-round playoff games and TAPPS schools play their state championship games.

“There are kids that deal with it where it’s not that big of a deal, it’s just another step in their journey,” Nally said. “And then there are kids that are getting a lot of pressure from their parents, they are getting a lot of pressure from the school, they are getting a lot of pressure from outside factions. They are young and they are very much easily persuaded and manipulated. There is a lot of pressure there.”

That pressure is heightened by the fact that most of the top recruits sign in December, as about 80% of available scholarships are accounted for during the early period, according to ESPN. Those who don’t sign could lose a spot to an early signee or to players coming in from the transfer portal.

“I’m not particularly fond of the early signing period,” Argyle coach Todd Rodgers said. “I did like the one signing period [in February]. I thought that gave plenty of time for kids to take their visits and get acclimated to the coaches, but the whole [recruiting] timetable has moved up to the summer between their junior and senior year. This is new, and we’re just having to acclimate to it.”

He might not be a fan, but he does understand the importance of the early signing period.

“There are so many kids going to college now in January,” Rodgers said. “They want to get them on campus, so they don’t go without spring football. As a coach, I would probably want it the same way.”

Brooks said other options have been discussed, but nothing concrete has been decided.

“We hear different things all the time, from a spring early signing period — meaning, the spring of prospects’ junior years — to a summer signing window,” he said. “Seems like there’s been a little bit of buzz about just doing away with the ESP (early signing period) in football and going back to how it used to be.”

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