Thursday, December 14, 2017
Max Olson writes:
Scott Frost has been flying back and forth between the two places he calls home this week. His effort to be both Nebraska’s head coach and UCF’s Peach Bowl coach racks up serious mileage. On Wednesday, Frost landed in Orlando at 5:30 a.m. ET and got back to Lincoln around 7:30 p.m. CT to host a walk-on recruiting event. Three hours later, he jetted back to Orlando.
But Frost did find time to add an important stop to the flight plan Tuesday night: He flew from Orlando to Lincoln to Fresno, Calif., to land a quarterback.
College football’s newly hired head coaches have a ton on their plates right now. For many of them, facing less than a week left before the Dec. 20 early signing period, chasing down a QB has to be a priority.
For Frost, that was Adrian Martinez, one of the nation’s top QB prospects and an Under Armour All-American. He was the first recruit to receive an offer from this new Huskers staff, and it won him over in just a week and a half and convinced him to flip from Tennessee.
Three-star QB Michael Penix also backed out on the Vols on Wednesday, which puts new coach Jeremy Pruitt and his staff in a tough spot. Penix made his move after receiving an offer from Willie Taggart and Florida State. It’s one big national QB scavenger hunt, really, and it does not stop there.
At Arkansas, Chad Morris is chasing top in-state QB Gerry Bohanon and also extended an offer to John Stephen Jones, the grandson of Jerry Jones. At Texas A&M, Jimbo Fisher is chasing several targets after longtime pledge Cade Fortin flipped to North Carolina. At Florida, Dan Mullen is trying to hold on to Matt Corral, who’s reportedly considering a flip to Ole Miss.
But Mullen is also busy pursuing Justin Fields, the nation’s No. 1 quarterback recruit. So is Florida State. And Texas A&M. And Georgia, the school he’s been committed to since October.
This frenzy is easy to explain: Limited supply plus limited time equals maximum urgency. The pressure is on for coaches who don’t have a signal caller on board. And those who do? They better hold on tight.
