ORLANDO, Fla. _ Santa Claus isn't the only one criss-crossing the country at this time of year, with college football coaches also on the road meeting with recruits leading up to next week's early signing period.
UCF coach Josh Heupel and his staff were forced to play a bit of catch-up on the recruiting trail after spending the last week in November preparing to face Memphis in the American Athletic Conference championship game.
As the Knights learned on Dec. 2 of their matchup with LSU in the Fiesta Bowl, many of the coaches were already on the road recruiting.
"There isn't any time off because you're hitting the ground running," Heupel explained. "The next morning right after the championship (game), coaches were leaving town at 7 a.m. and they were in houses that day. It's nonstop."
This is the second season during which players can sign their National Letter of Intent early during a three-day window Dec. 19-21. After that, recruits must wait until the traditional National Signing Day on Feb. 6.
Heupel said he and his staff have been pretty much on the road throughout the past week before returning home for a big recruiting weekend.
"That's the way you want it, you want to be in the middle of your recruiting cycle," he said.
It's been a much different experience for Heupel compared to last season when he was brought in to replace Scott Frost on Dec. 5. Frost took his whole staff with him to Nebraska, but the group returned to coach the team in the Peach Bowl.
"Instead of signing guys after being on the job for just 11 or 12 days, you've had an entire recruiting cycle with them," Heupel said when asked to compare last year to this year. "You have the opportunity to get to know the individuals and they know exactly what they're getting when they come here on campus.
"They've seen our players, they've seen our culture and they've had an opportunity to really get to know our coaching staff as well, so it's dramatically different in Year 2 than from Year 1."
UCF already has 18 commitments. The Knights' 2019 recruiting class is No. 57 in the latest national rankings compiled by 247Sports.com. The program landed the No. 70 recruiting class in 2018.
Back-to-back undefeated regular seasons and a No. 8 spot in the College Football Playoff rankings hasn't hurt.
"There's great excitement. There's a great recognition of our brand, our logo, across college football and they're hearing us being talked about every single day whether that's on TV or radio. I think they understand the type of championship football that we play here and because of those things, I think there is great interest and I feel like we'll end up with a great recruiting class," Heupel said of what he's hearing from recruits.
The additional practices that come with playing in a New Year's Day bowl should help balance the time spent on the recruiting trail.
"We're looking forward to getting into prep mode, getting everybody back here in the facility getting into a routine for us," Heupel said. "The guys will get a couple days off at Christmas and then we'll reconvene out in Phoenix and get back to work."
