Texas Football: Recruiting dead period extended through end of July

It will be a bit longer throughout this offseason that the 2021 Texas football recruiting class will be allowed to host various prospects on visits.

The 2021 Texas football recruiting class picked up a lot of momentum on the trail through the end of the month of April and most of May. But losing the commitment of three-star Atascocita tight end Landen King earlier this month meant that the wave of momentum head coach Tom Herman found in the last 30 days really stopped.

What could continue to provide difficulties for the coaching staff of the Texas Longhorns football program, as it would for most other head coaches around the country, is the extension of the NCAA mandated in-person recruiting contact dead period. This dead period was originally in force through May 31. And it was then extended through June 30.

But in a press release on May 27, the NCAA announced that it would be extending the recruiting contact dead period through July 31. This will seem like a really long time for the Longhorns to go without having in person recruiting contact given the volatile results on the trail since the turn of the calendar year.

Here’s what that press release from the NCAA had to say on the matter.

"The Division I Council Coordination Committee extended the recruiting dead period in all sports through July 31.“The extension maintains consistent recruiting rules for all sports and allows coaches to focus on the student-athletes who may be returning to campus,” said Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, athletics director at Pennsylvania. “The committee is committed to reviewing the dead period again in late June or early July.”The committee will regularly evaluate the dead period, continuing to be guided by medical experts."

One major change to this ruling of the dead period is the allowance of “virtual physical activities”. This means that various college football coaching staffs will be allowed to observe their various recruiting targets working out during this dead period.

Herman and the Longhorns will continue to have to get creative on the recruiting trail to find more success. There’s plenty for the coaching staff to put their focus on elsewhere right now. Getting athletes potentially back to campus next month for the programs in the Big 12 means that Herman has to figure out how to bridge his team back into football related activities in the coming months instead of putting sole focus on the recruiting trail.

The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to be a main topic of discussion around the college football landscape in order to figure out the best way to adjust for the coming season, and how to proceed on the recruiting trail.