College Football Recruits Dealing with Uncertainty

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted just about everything across the world when it comes to sports. In America, all professional sports have postponed seasons and the NCAA Tournament was canceled. 

On Friday, the NCAA suspended recruiting in all sports for both on and off-campus recruiting until April 15th. 

This impacted many schools and even more prospects as thousands of visits were now off. Notre Dame was set to host one of the most impressive recruiting weekends in the country next weekend and that’s off. 

2021 Notre Dame offensive line commit Blake Fisher‍ helped the Irish staff build the visitor list for next weekend as he built strong relationships with those coming to South Bend. 

It was a chance for a weekend of bonding and fun, but now, it’s unlikely those names will be in town during at the same time moving forward. 

“It’s disappointing and it sucks, but I understand it,” said Fisher. 

For Fisher, it was about building the class, but for it’s a little different for 2021 La Salle (Ohio) cornerback Devonta Smith‍ as he‍ had locked in several visits in the coming weeks and shares Fisher’s disappointment. 

"I'm really at a loss for words,” Smith said. “It's really crazy how this virus has affected everything. Every coach has said it's out of their hands. I had a lot of visits planned starting next week all the way into April. I didn't have any officials scheduled, but I was going to start planning some in May or June. 

"They have basically said all this madness stops hopefully soon and they can back to visits and living normally. They said we have to have the right attitude moving forward." 

The 6-foot, 185-pounder understands why the visits were canceled and appreciates the NCAA looking out for the safety of those involved, but it doesn’t change the plan he and his family made is in limbo. 

"It's kind of annoying,” expressed Smith. “I was supposed to be going to Notre Dame on March 17th. I was going to Alabama on March 23-24th. I was going to Oregon on April 18th for the spring game. I was going to get back down to Tennessee. I was supposed to get out to Oklahoma and Wisconsin, but no dates were set. 

"Setting all that back up, finding the convenience of the coaches and the time - it's just messy. It pushed everything back.”

Pushing visits back and potentially not taking some visits will impact Smith’s and every uncommitted prospect's timeline. Smith had hoped to make a decision in the coming months and now, the Ohio native doesn’t exactly know what his timeline will be. 

"I was wanted to commit soon, whether it was in May or the start of summer,” explained Smith. “I wanted to get it out of the way. I really want to focus on my team to get us back to state, leading the young guys and leaving my legacy. This kind of delayed everything.”

Smith and other recruits remain hopeful the coronavirus is slowed down and the world can get back to normal sooner than later. 

“Hopefully, everything ends on April 15th and we can get back on track,” said Smith. “I can probably get to some places quickly. My parents and people who were going to be taking me are eager to get to those schools. They were a little upset we couldn't start taking visits, but it's out of our hands."