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(Brian Kelly)

As National Signing Day fast approaches, college football coaches are faced with a moral quandary.

How do you recruit players committed elsewhere, including getting them on campus for a visit, while telling your own recruits they can't take visits?

College coaches have to dance along this fine line as football recruiting promotes an almost anything-goes approach to committed players.

While most college basketball programs abide by the unwritten rules of recruiting, including backing off once a player commits elsewhere, college football coaches usually intensify their efforts when a target is "off the market." With more and more top players committing to multiple schools during the recruiting process, it's easy to understand why coaches don't give up.

The majority of college football coaches will continue recruiting a player after he commits elsewhere, but each coach apparently draws a line of when to cut off contact.

"We will meet as a staff when someone commits and we'll say 'Give him a week or two after he commits to a school to let all the hype and craziness settle down,' and then call them," says Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen. "If they don't want us to recruit them anymore, then we won't.

"Do we recruit guys committed elsewhere? Yes. But not guys who don't want to be at our school. I don't want a guy who doesn't want to be here, or be here for the wrong reasons."

Mullen and his staff have successfully flipped committed recruits from other schools; they've also seen Mississippi State commits flip to other programs.

Mullen's approach is a popular one among coaches. Recruits can make emotional decisions during visits whether it's the high of a great visit or pressure from a coach to make a decision before leaving campus. It's not uncommon for these 16 and 17-year old young men to question their decision not long after making it. The contact itself from other schools can put doubt into a recruit's head.

"If we were recruiting him and he committed to another school, we make that one more phone call and say, 'Johnny, are you sure you want to go to University A?" says Maryland defensive coordinator Scott Shafer. "If you are, we wish you all the luck in the world. If you have questions or maybe your decision was emotional at the time, we'll just put the facts out there.

"But at the end of the day if he says 'Coach Shafer I'm definitely committed to University A,' I'll wish him all the luck in the world and move to the next kid.'"

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A recruit's willingness to take other visits while committed is all the reason coaches need to keep recruiting him. It's not difficult to understand why top prospects want to take multiple official visits -- it's an all-expenses paid trip to a school that will spoil you -- but that visit broadcasts to the college football world the player's verbal commitment might not be a rock-solid decision.

"If someone is really taking visits all around and committed to one place, they are probably not really, truly committed," says Alabama outside linebackers coach Tosh Lupoi.

Virginia Tech head coach Justin Fuente tells his recruits that once they commit, they shouldn't be taking visits to other schools. If they aren't ready to do that, Fuente says, he doesn't want to accept their commitment. That mentality served him well at Memphis though he faces a different set of challenges in the ACC competing against strong recruiting schools such as Clemson and Florida State.

Fuente has this policy because once he receives a commitment, he calls the other players his program was recruiting at that position and says he no longer has a spot available. If a recruit is taking a spot but not truly committed, it can put a coaching staff in a bind late in the recruiting process.

"To me, you can't be committed and continue to take visits," says Middle Tennessee State head coach Rick Stockstill. "A lot of people do that --probably more do it than don't -- but if you are honest as a coach you are committed to us, we've committed to you. If you are going to visit, we have to continue to recruit your position."

The risk for players, in that scenario, is that schools can ultimately move on to other recruits if they continue taking visits elsewhere. If a committed player is willing to forgo other visits, it indicates to the coaching staff he's serious about his commitment. The downside to this, as recently illustrated at Michigan, is you can be committed, not take visits anywhere else and still be told to find a new school if the coaching staff moves on to a different player.

"The media perception thinks a school that drops a kid is the worst thing in the world, but a kid who flips from one school to another is actually hurting other kids," Mullen said. "It's usually too late to get someone else the opportunity to come to your school, and maybe they had to sign with a school somewhere they didn't want to."

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When it comes to recruiting famous teenagers, it ultimately comes down to trust and feel.

There is more data available than ever before with Twitter, Facebook and all of the recruiting websites to gauge a player's interest. Still, coaches admit it is very difficult to truly determine how committed a recruit is until he signs a letter of intent.

In the hectic final days before national signing day, coaches are tasked with differentiating fact from fiction when interacting with recruits. Is the player interested or does he merely want a free trip? Is he committed to the program or is it only a matter of time before he flips to the in-state rival? At smaller schools such as Middle Tennessee State, there's also the fear of schools coming in late and poaching committed players. You have to be able to read the situation accurately to be successful.

"If he gives you a crack in the window 'I'm committed, but I still want to look around,'" Stockstill says, "you are still going to recruit him."

There is lying that happens on both sides of the equation during the recruiting process, but the onus is on the highly paid coach to determine whether to keep recruiting or cut bait. Coaches say they'll only recruit players committed elsewhere that say they are interested, but ultimately a player can only sign with one school, and that leaves lots of bridesmaids wondering whether they ever had a shot in the first place. The truth doesn't come out until the final day when it's too late to make adjustments.

In the end, coaches might have wasted valuable time recruiting a player that never had any intention of joining their program.

However, sometimes bad news on national signing day is good news in the long run.

"If a kid is lying to me during recruiting, I'm almost not that upset we don't get him in the end," Mullen says. "If he's going to lie to me during recruiting, what else has he been lying to me about? Has he been lying about his work ethic? Is he going to lie about school work?"