With just 23 days until the December National Signing Day, Colorado needs to hire its head coach -- and fast.
The early signing period makes hiring a coach as soon as possible all the more important. Colorado AD Rick George said that the timing of firing Mike MacIntyre was done in part because of the importance of getting the next head coach in place as soon as possible.
"It certainly did come into play," George said in his press conference last week. "Obviously, if you [only] had a February signing date, then maybe some of your decisions are a little bit different, but knowing that [signing day] is on the horizon, that we have student athletes who are going to be visiting in a couple of weeks, I think the extra week will allow us to go out and have those conversations ... The early recruiting does have an impact on what we're doing for sure."
The next three weekends will be official visit weekends ahead of the December 19 signing day. If Colorado doesn't have a head coach in place by this weekend though, having official visitors doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Some schools will still do that though; Louisville had official visitors this past weekend.
If Colorado could have a coach hired by this Thursday and have a recruiting weekend to build momentum, that would be huge. Again, recruiting -- the building of Colorado's future -- is what is making the timing of this hire so important.
While George shouldn't rush a decision for this recruiting class, he understands that he needs to make sooner than later.
"I want to move quickly, but I also want to be very thorough to ensure that we get this football team back to national prominence," George said.
Colorado has lost three decommitments since news came down on MacIntyre's firing in DE Datona Jackson, CB KJ Trujillo, and S Don Chapman, who has since committed to Washington State. The Buffs still have 17 verbal commitments, although when there's a coaching change, the new coach has say of who he wants to keep and who he wants to let go.
As far as the coaching search goes, George has kept things pretty quiet. There haven't been any "leaks" thus far. However, CUSportsNation.com received a credible tip on who may be the leader in the coaching search. For more on that, check out the Colorado Coaching Rumor Mill.
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