Loyalty is one-way street in college recruiting

College football coaches from Nevada to California to Texas to Ohio and all podiums in between will stand and deliver a similar message today: that those incoming players who have pledged their allegiance now are part of the program's family, that recruiting is about relationships and that it's important bonds are developed and trust established.

The amazing part: They will do so with straight faces.

It's all nice and tidy, except for the part that, for all the official verbiage and fancy statements about financial aid and admissions and eligibility, those letters of intent won't mention anything about a coach's loyalty if a better gig comes his way.

Not that he should have any.

National signing day again has arrived, and if I had a dollar for every impending quote about some player picking a university because of special connections made with coaches throughout the recruiting process, I at least could afford to rent the guest quarters of Nick Saban's lakefront vacation home for a month.

Understand: There are 120 Football Bowl Subdivision schools, and, within the past two years, 49 had at least one change to the head-coaching position. Whether it's leaving for better jobs and bigger paychecks or being fired for failing to win enough, the idea a coach will remain at the same school for the entirety of an incoming prep player's college career is Keira Knightley-thin.

Bobby Hauck today will speak on his third recruiting class at UNLV, and while there seems to be daily reports of local players choosing others -- Hawaii, UNR ... New Mexico! -- over the Rebels, improving those already within the program should be his immediate priority. It appears the Mighty Lobos might be catching up.

UNLV is 4-21 under Hauck, meaning he hasn't come close to proving he's the answer to saving the reservoir of mediocrity the Rebels have been for years. Coaches are hired to win games. If they do it well enough, a better opportunity comes along. If they don't, they're shown the door.

Should he discover the answer to building a Mountain West Conference contender, or at least to not losing any more games to the Southern Utahs of the world, Hauck also one day might receive a call from an athletic director from a better program in a bigger league who can put more green stuff in his bank account.

If so, I hope he wouldn't pull a Todd Graham.

Graham again reminded us that with coaching talent, or even a dead-flat average 6-6 record, doesn't always come much class. He bolted Pittsburgh after one season for Arizona State in December and was so close to those Panthers players he recruited and sat in the living rooms of their homes and told their parents how he would watch over them and help them mature as men, he notified them of his departure via text message. This is the same guy who previously left Rice for Tulsa after one season. I'm pretty sure Todd Graham isn't the guy I want with me in a foxhole.

Greg Schiano built Rutgers from a laughingstock to a perennial Big East contender in 11 seasons but left last week to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, bailing on a recruiting class that could be -- at day's end -- considered the best in school history or, because of his sudden departure, blown up into a scarlet mess.

Five of his assistant coaches learned of Schiano's move by television while waiting for him to arrive at a high school where several recruits attend. Schiano never bothered to tell anyone he had verbally accepted the job.

I'm not saying he or Graham or anyone with an opportunity to further their careers and better the lives of themselves and their families shouldn't. There also are those like Florida International coach Mario Cristobal, who chose to remain in his comfort zone and turned down the chance to replace Schiano. Rutgers then turned to longtime assistant Kyle Flood on Tuesday. He agreed to a five-year contract. We'll wait and see if he lasts.

College football is big business, and coaches aren't the only ones who renege on commitments. Countless players who sign with a school today orally committed to another -- and sometimes more -- during the recruiting process. It's a weird little game -- coaches put pressure on kids to commit or risk losing a scholarship to the next prospect in line, and players allow their heads to swell while wavering to and from whatever program is showing them the most love at a particular moment.

Coaches should have the freedom to change jobs.

Players should have the freedom to change their mind.

But no one should hear the word loyalty today and think it anything but one of those signing day cliches that long ago became a punch line to whatever message a particular coach is spinning.

Tell it like it is, for once.

Or at least don't take us for fools.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday on "Monsters of the Midday," Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.