Poaching players is a real problem in college athletics. Spring football games used to be an event for fans to preview next year's football team, which is why so many have been televised. But now, they've created a new avenue for opposing schools to scout potential players who haven't been seen on tape yet.
With the numerous agents and the flat-out tampering going on, players who have balled out during spring games are often contacted afterward by teams around the country. Last May, Arkansas offensive line coach Eric Mateos talked with the Coaches and the Mouth podcast about the struggles with illegal recruiting.
"You hear rumors and agents — you know, now they all got agents — agents talking,” said Mateos. “These agents don't even need to be NFL PA certified. Like the thing with NFL agents, they all got to be certified through the Players Association... How do you withstand the hurricane of all this illegal recruiting and wild lies that’s going on?"
His thought process was to keep money from being the only thing that matters by creating an environment that makes players want to play for Arkansas while compensating them at the same time. On the other hand, Travis Williams seems to go a step further based on his comments during Thursday's press conference.
Travis Williams trying to hide up-and-coming players
Mateos wanted to create incentives to stay, but Williams is trying to throw up roadblocks for everyone else. This was evident when a media member asked Williams about any up-and-coming players the defense might have this season.
"Is there somebody on the defensive side who's flying under the radar, caught your attention, maybe some guy that can, you know, sneak up?" asked the reporter.
"You know what? I would answer your question about five years ago and tell you, but with the portal, I don't know if I should even answer that," said Williams to echoes of laughter throughout the conference room.
"[To] be honest with you, I won't say a name, but you can see everybody to the man, everybody is getting better defensively, and I know that's not the answer you're looking for, but, you know some [teams] are not having spring games. I'mma [sic] do that here and not say a name and say everybody's doing well. How about that?"
With some depth issues at the defensive line and the secondary, there's no wonder why Williams is keeping the cards close to his chest. The Razorback's defensive coordinator alluded to the fact that teams across the nation are either opting out of televising the event or the spring game altogether. But, amazingly, Arkansas is still televising the spring game.
Spring games going away?
The trend started with Matt Rhule at Nebraska. Despite the program being nearly irrelevant for around a decade, their fans are passionate, filling up Memorial Stadium each spring, making it one of the more popular spring games in college football. Rhule noticed how many players were receiving offers after the scrimmage.
"I think it's really, fundamentally -- I hate to say it like this -- it's really because last year we were one of the more televised spring games, and I dealt with a lot of people offering our players a lot of opportunities after that," Rhule told the media in February. "To go out and bring in a bunch of new players and showcase them for all the other schools to watch, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me."
Some other schools making changes this season are Oklahoma, NC State, Ohio State, Texas, and USC. Florida State hasn't planned a spring game due to renovations to Doak Campbell Stadium, but head coach Mike Norvell doesn't see the benefits of a spring scrimmage either.
So with a spring game-less future seemingly headed toward college football, why is Arkansas still playing one? Razorbacks' head coach Sam Pittman sees the situation differently.
Why Arkansas is playing a spring game
"We owe the state of Arkansas the opportunity to come see their team play," Pittman said at the beginning of March. "It never crossed my mind [to not play]. The other thing is, I think you can get better. When people are in the seat, you find out a little more about your team. The spring game is a way to get people in the seats and see what we really have out there... I don't know how you can coach football if they don't play football."
When asked about poaching, he gave another pragmatic answer. "If someone is going to poach your player, they ain’t waiting on the spring game to look at it. They already got him," said Pittman. "They've already been talking with their agent by that time... that’s already been in the works, so I don’t know that the spring game is going to cost you a player or not."
For Pittman, it's not a matter of 'if', but 'when' players will be poached. In the case of up-and-coming talents, it does make sense to hold those names for now, making nefarious actors wait until the game, pushing back when they can start poaching. However, doing away with the spring game doesn't outweigh the benefit of having one for the sixth-year head coach.