Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Players like the new rule but it may cause coaches and secondary staff members headaches as they try to keep up with the social media presence of their prospective players.

Monday marked the start of a new era in college football recruiting. College coaches can now publicly endorse (like, retweet) prospective recruits’ tweets, and they can do it as much as they please.

Prior to Monday, coaches could only privately (DM) communicate with prospects on social media and could not publicly mention recruits who had not signed with their school.

SB Nation has a more in-depth piece on the new rule and what it means for college football.

One of our followers on Twitter sent us this photo with an explanation of what is and isn’t allowed under these new rules.

ASU head coach Todd Graham (or whoever runs his Twitter account) responded to this new rule by retweeting 18 tweets from recruits who had either committed to Arizona State or the school has offered. The first player Graham retweeted was 4-star quarterback commit Ryan Kelley.

 

 

 

Graham also retweeted blue chip Arizona recruits Austin Jackson (OL) and K.J. Jarrell (S), both of whom are considering the Sun Devils. Graham retweeted two Archie Perry tweets as well.

Perry is the father of current ASU safety Armand Perry and also the father of former ASU commit Alex Perry. Ten of the 18 tweets Graham retweeted were from local players or their family members.

ASU Recruiting Coordinator Donnie Yantis one-upped Graham by posting 19 retweets, although many were the same tweets that Graham had retweeted.

It is interesting to compare the social media plan — or lack thereof — that the Sun Devils instituted with that of programs from across the country. TCU’s Gary Patterson retweeted over 100 tweets from players within a few hours. Tennessee had multiple members of its staff with over 100 retweets and Miami was also very active.

As of Monday night, no Sun Devil position coach retweeted a single recruit, including OC Chip Lindsey, who has been a very active recruiter for the Sun Devils. New additions to the staff such as T.J. Rushing, Jay Norvell and John Simon were also very quiet on social media Monday.

Like Graham, most college coaches from around the country just retweeted players committing to their school or being offered by their school. Though Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin took the time to take a jab at SEC rival Tennessee.