My thoughts:
Mature bucks realize the season is opening. They don't have calendars but they strongly associate the increased human traffic/scent in the woods with daytime danger. Mature bucksquickly learnthat night time is the safest and they revert to this routine as the season approaches. The only thing that might bring them out of this nocturnal routine is the rut. Even then, if the pressure is high enough, I believe some bucks revert to a schedule that keeps them in deep cover until late at night (~12AM-4AM).

I believe the old bucks understand that the leaves falling from the trees even makes daytime travel more exposed and dangerous for them.

The events of food location, rut, leaf falling andweather are different for all locations and everyone has to put these pieces together in a different order for all of the hunting literature/advice to make sense. For example, the leaves have only been off the trees here for two weeks but the primary rut was almost 2 months ago. The weather here is moderate thru mid November so I don't believe their light coats have the big impact that might occur in colder climates.

The only remedy I have found for this is to reserve the best stands for rut hunting and try to do all of the early season nannywhacking in peripheral spots.