Wendell McClain (10) and Tyre West (95) after Tift County’s upset of Bainbridge in 2019. Both players have been popular names in the college football recruiting world.

TIFTON — When Herschel Walker was a high school senior in Johnson County, college football recruiters wanted him badly. Some even went as far as to live in Wrightsville while trying to convince him to attend their places of higher education.

Recruiting has changed since then and in 2020, it changed even more. Spring wasn’t normal this time around. There were no spring practices and no scrimmages. Summer hasn’t been normal, but even in the absence of the usual routines, recruiting definitely is still here, according to Tift County football head coach Ashley Anders.

Collegiate sports are coming back in some fashion or another. While the season may be limited, there are others to follow. Teams need players and the recruiting beat marches on even though the NCAA has barred in-person visits through August.

Anders said college coaches normally are very active in April and May, coming to high school campuses. In previous years, it was not uncommon to see visitors in logo-adorned Polo shirts at practices or at spring games.

“During that time (this year), I heard from a lot of schools probably more than normal,” he said. Anders has a theory on that. “They couldn’t be out recruiting, so they spent a lot of time making contact on the phone. I talked to a lot of schools.”

The barring of in-person contact between college coaches and recruits has been a boon in perhaps an unexpected way. Anders said he’s hearing more from smaller schools. While the NAIA, Division II and Division III schools would have less people and less of a budget for the road in normal circumstances, they’re now in a similar boat to Division I.

Anders himself is well-versed in the life of small school recruiting, having been an assistant at Valdosta State, Georgia Southern and Murray State. “You have to wear so many hats,” he said, “you have your team and all the other duties that those coaches have to do.”

“With their players gone from campus and them working from home, they didn’t have to do a lot of those other duties,” said Anders. “They had a lot more time to reach out than normal.”

Tift County has had one football player make a verbal commitment during this span; Wendell McClain announced his intention to sign with Liberty University. McClain, a 

rising senior, can play both safety and cornerback. He was credited with 47 tackles and three interceptions in 2019. In addition, he ran back a handful of kicks.

McClain had several offers, said Anders, but connected with Liberty’s coaching staff. Some of the Flames’ assistants had previously been at West Georgia and Anders knows them well. “They’re very familiar with our program,” he said. “Wendell felt real good with the staff and was excited about the school, the facilities and the program and so he decided to go ahead and commit.”

If McClain ends up in Lynchburg, Va., he’ll have the chance to play for Hugh Freeze, who was formerly at Mississippi.

Tyre West continues to pull in scholarship offers. A defensive lineman, West was named a five-star prospect this year — the most heralded in the star-rating era for Tift — and is set to graduate in 2022. Since the spring sports season ended in mid-March, West has thanked 14 different universities for their offers on his Twitter account.

These offers are coming from far and wide and from major schools, such as Alabama, Louisiana State, Penn State, Michigan State, Florida State, Texas and Arizona State (Georgia made West an offer before the shutdown).

“At one time, it seemed like he was getting 2-3 (offers) a day,” said Anders.

Anders has been hearing less from college programs lately as they’ve been more in contact with his players, trying to build relationships.

The digital age and rise of social media has widened the opportunity for these connections, and not just between coaches and players. Many of the replies West gets to his tweets of offers are from fans of these programs.

“A lot of diehard fans want to help in any way they can,” Anders said.