OK guys. With the Regular Season over the focus for coaching staves around the country turns to recruiting. There’s going to be rumors, visits, secret visits, accusations, pump fakes, and outright lies all over the place from here until National Signing Day.

And, because I’m nice and I want you to be prepared for what’s to come, here’s your handy dandy primer for the next 2 months.

Welcome to Silly Season

Ok. With National Signing Day just about 2 months from now (Wednesday, February 1st), Recruiting switches from being a marathon to a sprint. Most top recruits have been building relationships with coaching staffs for 2 years or more to this point. Late bloomers have been doing it for less time. But now, there is a fast and furious close to try and get guys to sign on the dotted line of their National Letter of Intent on NSD 2017.

As I said in the lede, there will be all kinds of reports and rumors and straight up lies. I would say to pay attention to who you’re getting your recruiting information from and take EVERYTHING with a grain of salt.

And on that note, timely reminder that I’m not in the business of breaking news, especially about recruiting. I will, however, pass along information as I read it or (in a few cases) hear it. And, of course, give you my opinion. That’s what I do, and that’s what you should expect.

Recruiting Calendar

Now, let’s get into the nuts and bolts of the next 2 months. The NCAA has a recruiting calendar of various times when different levels of contact are allowed. Here’s the primer on the recruiting calendar from SBNation last year.

The dates on the chart at the bottom have changed, but the definitions of the different periods and the general timeline is the same.

What are coaches doing now?

The Contact Period — a time when coaches can have face-to-face contact with recruits — began on November 27th. It runs until December 10th. Coaches are all over the country having in-home visits with recruits and their families. This is the time when they either secure standing commitments, or work to flip commits from another school.

Mark Richt made no bones about the fact that he planned on he and his staff working very hard during this contact period to see all the commits currently in this class, and others as well. He can’t mention player names by NCAA rule, but CMR spoke in general terms about the recruiting plan. Coaches will be on the road for in-home visits with all their top targets for the 2017 class.

You can get more info on what he said, who the coaches are visiting, and more in the following links:

• Christy Cabrera-Chirinos’s recruiting article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
• Matt Porter’s recruiting piece in the Palm Beach Post
• InsideTheU has an article about the upcoming home visit schedule ($)
• CaneSport has an article on where the coaches will be going for home visits ($)

The short answer to the question “what are coaches doing now”? Recruiting. Their. Asses. Off.

What’s next?

Official Visits are back on deck starting this weekend. There were PLENTY of unofficial visitors to the game vs Duke, but now players (and their parents if they so choose) will start making their way to Coral Gables for official visits.

What’s the difference between an official visit and an unofficial visit? Unofficials are paid for by the player and their parents, and are usually a “day trip” kind of thing. Officials are paid for by the school, and are multi-day excursions. That’s when you’ll see pictures from Dinner (at the Rusty Pelican) or pictures of a hotel suite (at the Sonesta Hotel) or, my favorite, the U cookie cake.

Official visits in December will mostly be players who are 1. in this class already, 2. on track to enroll early, or 3. both. There’s a sizeable group of players scheduled to visit this weekend, and they fit the above criteria. We’ll talk about them later in the week tho.

I’ll be here a couple times a week with Recruiting Radar updates, and other recruiting-related stuff as needed.

So, that’s it.

Get ready for the craziness to begin.

Comment away, guys.

Go Canes.