Early signing period primer: 2018 class

Who's ready? It could go smooth. There could be madness. Nobody really knows. The first ever early signing period gets underway Wednesday and will run for three days overall coming to a close Friday. Within that time frame recruits will be able to sign National Letters of Intent with whatever program they have an offer from and that will free them up to finish out the year without the headache of worrying about recruiting.

In theory it sounds like an improvement, but we have already seen how things have simply shifted from late January to now late December. There are still schools trying to flip prospects and all the drama is still there.

It should be an interesting day as the Wildcats head into the early signing period with 21 commitments on board, but at this point not all of them intend to sign.

Here is your guide to what could end up being a crazy day across the country as the early signing period gets underway.

Arizona goes into Wednesday hoping to hear good news about at least one prospect it is still in the hunt for. City College of San Francisco standout defensive tackle PJ Johnson plans on making his decision public Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. MST. The big defensive lineman is fresh off a visit to Arizona while Kansas, Rutgers and UNLV were also schools under consideration.

Johnson has already informed the school he will attend of his decision. The former Sacramento State defensive lineman is a midyear enrollee, so he will sign early and then make the move to his next campus for the spring semester allowing him to participate in spring practice and get ready for the 2018 season.

"I really like coach (Vince) Amey’s coaching style," Johnson said Tuesday about how Arizona factored into his decision. "He’s real calm in the meetings and stuff, but during practice he would get on the guys and make sure they did things right. He wants the d-line to be the best group on the team and I really like that mentality. As of where they stand, right now I know where I’m going but I will not be announcing it until [Wednesday]."

While Arizona waits to hear on a potential addition to the class Wednesday with Johnson, it will also wait and see if it gets National Letters of Intent back from a pair of longtime commits who recently picked up offers from another Pac-12 school. Arizona cornerback commit McKenzie Barnes and running back pledge Martell Irby received offers from UCLA in the last few days and that could alter the plans for Wednesday. Both planned on signing with the Wildcats in the early period, but the late offers from Chip Kelly's program could mean delaying the process some more until they can take visits now that the dead period has started.

The Wildcats went through something similar a year ago with Oregon making late offers to UA pledges and now that Willie Taggart has moved on to Florida State there is a new school making the late move for Arizona commits.

UA should remain in a good spot with both even if the NLIs don't come in Wednesday, but the road to keeping them on board will get tougher on the other side of the early signing period.

Rich Rodriguez has said a few times over the last couple months that if a recruit who is committed to Arizona doesn't sign he is no longer considered being committed to Arizona. However, two prospects who might fall into that category also happen to be the Wildcats' highest-rated prospects in the class. Quarterback Jamarye Joiner and four-star defensive end Adam Plant Jr. have both maintained that they will sign in February and will not take advantage of the opportunity to sign early.

That puts UA in a tough spot because the Wildcats would love to have both in the mix going into next season. The program had both recruits out for visits in the last few weeks and things continue to go well with them in regards to their commitment status, but not signing this week would certainly bring up some questions about their level of commitment to the school.

So settle in and enjoy the day as the Wildcats officially add the latest members to the program Wednesday. We will have plenty of content and updates throughout the day so make sure to keep checking back on our Signing Day Central page as well as our premium message boards.

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