College football never ends. One would think that after the conclusion of bowl game season, college football would give way for other sports. In order to get coverage in February, college football has to compete with the Super Bowl, NHL, college basketball and perhaps the most frightening of them all, Steph Curry.
In spite of everything going on in the world of sports, though, college football continues to find ways to grasp the attention of enthusiastic fans. This year, the nation received the pleasure of witnessing what may be all-time highs in recruiting announcement videos.
Four-star safety Deontay Anderson announced his commitment by jumping out of a plane. After a few clever editing tricks, Anderson revealed his commitment to the Ole Miss Rebels over LSU, Texas and others. Another four-star safety Brandon Burton proclaimed his commitment by playing capture the flag paintball with his friends. In this video, Burton managed to avoid getting shot, and retrieved what turned out to be a UCLA Bruins flag. The University of Michigan celebrated National Signing Day with an event known as “Signing of the Stars” where the Wolverine recruits were greeted by celebrities Tom Brady, Derek Jeter, and Jim Leyland.
Some of these recruits are merely boys, and many fans believe that massive hype and constant attention surrounding National Signing Day could be bad for these recruits’ mental health, but one man that would disagree with that theory is MSU head coach Mark Dantonio.
“I think that’s part of what you guys do. You sensationalize,” Dantonio said. “You have social media now. It has sensationalized everything. “It’s not like how it used to be. It used to be that you’d go out and recruit guys… and you would recruit those guys based on what they did as a senior. Now you find that guys are getting recruited as a junior and sophomore.”
“College football is extremely popular,” Dantonio continued. “There’s a lot of hype, and there should be… I think it’s natural to be sensationalized, you know, you’ve got a lot of sports networks picking up on it. I’m sure it used to be like that before too—they just didn’t talk and write about it as much.”
Mark Dantonio enjoys the excitement that surrounds college football recruiting, and although his 2016 class has taken a recent dip outside the top 20 (according to 247Sports), Dantonio was all smiles.
He could not care less about the rankings because he consistently proves them wrong. Does MSU ever receive a top 10 recruiting class?
No, but that never stops MSU from being a top 10 team. Dantonio has beaten the system.
“The bottom line is at the end of the day, do these guys play for you four or five years down the road? Do they win championships? Do they get drafted? Are they playing in the NFL? Do they have their degree? All those types of things [matter], and that’s what we’re recruiting for,” Dantonio said. “I’m very excited for this class,” he continued, “our class is very excited about who they’re coming in with, and who they’re playing for, and we’re very excited about who we’re coaching.”
