Signing Day: Christmas in February?
Signing day is like Christmas.
Wait a minute. Before we go any further with this analogy, I have to give credit where it is due. Our lead high school sportswriter Ryan Aber came up with this one, and I swear, it might be the best description for signing day ever.
OK, back to the analogy.
On signing day, your team gets to open all its gifts and see what it got. A four-star defensive back. An unheralded offensive lineman. The list goes on and on. These are things you intend to play with, but on signing day, all you get to do is open the box and peek in. You can ooh and aah over what’s inside. You can dream about what’s to be.
But then, you have to shut the box and put it away for a year, maybe even two. Only then will you be able to take out what’s inside and see what’s it’s like. Does it work? Is it broke? Is it everything you thought it would be?
That’d be a crazy Christmas, of course, but that’s exactly what signing day is like. It’s full of hype and potential, but really, it’s potential that’s usually a long time in being fulfilled. Sometimes, it never is.
Listen, I understand the importance of signing day. It is how college football teams everywhere build for the future. Championships may not be won on signing day, but they can sure be tough to come by if a team doesn’t go out and get guys that can help them win someday.
But still, it’s a weird day. I went back and looked at the sport section that chronicled last year’s signing day. On the cover: Kye Staley, Jameel Owens and Stacy McGee. There were pictures of all three in-state stars, all of whom stayed in state, Staley signing with OSU, Owens and McGee with OU.
They were a big deal that day and in many of the days leading up to it.
They’ve hardly been heard from since.
That’s what makes that Christmas analogy so perfect. You’d never get that excited about something you weren’t even going to be able to use for a year or more, but that’s what happens on signing day.
It’s goofy, and yet, even though the ink hasn’t dried on Signing Day 2009, teams have already started shopping for next year’s haul.
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