There may not be a busier month for a college football coach nowadays than December. The last month of the year has always been somewhat busy for those who had good seasons with extra practices to prepare for a bowl game.
However, things started to change a few years ago when the Early Signing Window was instituted in December and to the surprise of many, became the window when high school recruiting classes became mostly finalized instead of only about 50-75% done. Coaches also had more urgency to get recruits signed in December which moved up those January official visits leading up to Signing Day to December.
That also has led to things like in-home visits getting moved from January, when no practices were happening in parallel, to December, when coaches are hoping their teams are prepping for at least a bowl game.
Then came the transfer portal rocking the sport every December with plenty of players looking to either climb the ranks or a fresh start at a different school. That's put more on coaches' plates in regards to roster retention, especially with the NFL Draft no longer being the only common option but the transfer portal being a real option. Add in NIL into those conversations and December has become the craziest time of year for coaches, exposing a need to overhaul the college football calendar and spread some things out.
In the meantime, coaches across the country have to deal with trying to put together the best schedule possible to balance all these priorities. For Brent Pry, that's kept his head spinning this month, but also embracing the reality in the moment rather than complain about what needs to be done in the future with the calendar.
