The Recruiting Biz... Let me preface my view on the recruiting world by saying that after spending entirely too much fruitless time pouring over recruiting stuff every year about now, I hate high school kids. They have their whole lives ahead of them while mine, at the ripe old age of 40, is essentially over. They can still eat fast food without paying for it for three days after. They get to go off to college to spend the best four years of their lives in college, while I'm not even eligible to be on The Real World or American Idol anymore.... With that said, recruiting is still the lifeblood of a college football team. Screw up the evaluation of an incoming recruiting class or two and your program hits the skids. So how should teams go about recruiting for their team? For purposes of this exercise, I'm the recruiting coordinator of XYZ State. Unfortunately, my job is made more difficult because of the discouragement by my school of recruiting visits with $100 handshakes and hoochie mamas shaking their booties and belly rings (my goodness do I miss college.) I personally would like nothing more than to pull out the Blue Chips handbook on acquiring talent, but I'm not allowed to. Here's my game plan... Step One: Four words ... JUCO, JUCO, JUCO, JUCO When doing anything requiring speculation, whether it be recruiting, drafting, stock analysis or ordering Chinese food, the key is eliminating as many elements of chance as possible. When you recruit a high school prospect, you have to hope he can immediately get used to the collegiate life, you have to put him in a college weight room and get him to add 15 pounds of muscle, and then hope he can actually play as he matures. When going after a JUCO player, you get a kid that you know is used to collegiate life already, has two years of maturity on high school prospects, and is more likely to be able to play right away. Essentially, you know what you're getting with a JUCO player. Step Two: Don't get hung up on "blue-chip" high school recruits Of course some of the high school players on everyone's list are going to be superstars, but that's not always the case. Every year there are going to be players like T.A. McLendon, Mike Williams and Larry Fitzgerald that come out of the gates roaring, but getting a true freshman like that requires as much luck as anything else. For example, Florida State went yard in 2001 by getting superstar prep quarterbacks Joe Mauer and Adrian McPherson. How'd that work out? Chris Rix turned out to be the quarterback of the present and future. If you spend too much time courting the superstars, you might lose focus on one of the several bazillion unpolished gems that are out there. Most top recruits turn out to be merely average. Step Three: There's one position that we must go after, and go after hard What's the toughest college football position to fill? Quarterback? Nah, they're a dime a dozen. Running back? Puh-leez. Left tackle? Possibly. The hardest position to fill is defensive tackle. The first problem is finding guys with the necessary beef. The second is to find a guy with the necessary beef that has the quickness to handle position. Most really big guys end up playing on the offensive line, and many teams try to convert offensive linemen to the defensive side or pump up defensive ends. A top-notch 275+ pound defensive tackle prospect is worth his weight in gold. Which leads to step four... Step Four: Find high school linebackers that look like they can add a few pounds, and then put them on the end It's easy to forget that we're dealing with 17 to 18-year-old bodies here. There's always room to develop, grow and improve. My number one key to a winning football team is being able to get to the opposing quarterback. Ask Rich Gannon and the Oakland Raiders what happens when an offense, that relies on precision and timing, gets disrupted by a defense that forces quarterbacks to throw the ball before the play develops. In college, this works even more since college quarterbacks don't have anywhere near the poise, or the options to check out of, that pro signal callers have. When you can consistently get to the quarterback, you make life easier for the secondary. I'm not talking about necessarily finding great sack artists, but guys that can get into the backfield and make quarterbacks worry. You can take a fast 215 to 225-pound high school linebacker, bulk him up and move him to the end. Step Five: Do the homework and find out which star high school players are being asked to switch positions The star high school athletes will always play several positions. A top running back might also be the team's top defensive back. The top defensive lineman might also be a stud offensive lineman. The thing about these precocious talents is that there's always one position they really want to play. I'm not talking about the guys on the top 100 recruiting list, but maybe the next tier. Time and again, a recruiter will go into a player's home and tell him that he projects to play at a certain spot. I want to find the guy that tore it up as a high school running back, wants to be a running back, but is being courted as a defensive back. I want to find the quarterback that people want to move to safety. Why did Marshall Faulk go to San Diego State? Everyone but the Aztecs wanted him as a defensive back. If you're a mid-level recruit that desperately wants to play a certain position, come to my school and play that position. If it doesn't work out, then we'll deal with it. You can never be too deep at a position. Step Six: Don't beg If you don't want us, we don't want you. If you need to get your butt kissed and fall for continued flattery, the chances we're getting a potentially soft drama queen will go up ten-fold. Rule number one on a team has to be that every position is always open to the best player performing at his best. For everyone involved with the program, that's the only fair policy. If you're a hotshot recruit, you'll get a chance to play right away if you've earned the job. The starting position isn't guaranteed to you though. Essentially, its most important to be as upfront and honest as possible at all times with recruits. If you sell a kid something just to get him to sign, you're going to end up with a disgruntled player down the road. What to look for at the positions This doesn't necessarily apply to the top 150-type recruits that are the elite at their positions. Everyone wants big and speedy players, but there are a limited number of them out there. Heres a few basic guidelines I want my program to follow. Quarterback - Obviously there has to be the basics, but in today's day and age of college football, some mobility is an absolute must. Not everyone is going to be Michael Vick, but an ability to move if necessary adds a whole other element. Unless the recruit is an upper level talent like former college stars Ken Dorsey or a Byron Leftwich, the quarterback can't be a statue. Running back - Breakaway speed is overrated. If a back can get five yards past the line of scrimmage with some sort of consistency, that's all that matters. The back has to be able to make the first guy miss, and has to be able to follow blocks. That might sound basic, but too many backs are used to taking the ball and using their speed to make plays. In the faster college game, backs must show running back skills and instincts, and not just simply be great athletes. Receivers - Must block, must block, must block. This is one of the biggest hit-or-miss collegiate positions. Obviously speed is at a premium and good hands are nice (although this can be worked on), but the receiver, no matter how big he is, has to at least have to potential to be a solid blocker. Most college teams are going to run more than pass, and being able to make a big block on a defensive back will be the difference between nice gains by running backs and big game breakers. Offensive Linemen - Versatility. How many positions can the recruit potentially play? How much room is there to grow? Just because a high school prospect is 290 to 300 pounds, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good thing. A lot of that might be fat and he might not be athletic enough to grow into the position at the collegiate level. Unless the prospect is out-of-this world, the ideal recruit will be relatively athletic at about 255 to 270 pounds with a frame that looks like it can support an extra 15 to 20 pounds of muscle. Defensive Linemen - As stated above, finding defensive tackle prospects is a top priority. The most time needs to be spent finding and courting them. The ends can be bulked up linebackers to provide the necessary speed. Linebackers - Athletic over production. At no other position does the term, "football player" apply more, but slow linebackers spells death to a defense. Preferably, these aren't bulked up safeties, but sideline-to-sideline linebackers. If there's been a good job done in getting the right defensive tackles, size at linebacker can be sacrificed for speed. If the tackles are light, the linebackers have to be bigger. Safeties - Tackling ability is more important than his talents in pass coverage. A college football safety will have to make more run stops than pass breakups. If a high school safety looks like he has tackling problems, he most likely won't work out even if he's a sensational athlete. Theres also a chance that a good run stopping safety can be bulked up to become a great outside linebacker. Cornerbacks - Speed, speed, speed, speed and speed. Technique can be taught, but if the corner can't stay with a fast receiver, the safety will need to provide more help and the defense will have some serious problems. Obviously everyone wants speed at defensive back, but if you have to find a relatively obscure high school receiver, quarterback or running back to get that speed, do it and hope you can teach him how to cover. Punters and Kickers - Not enough attention is paid to this. This might be the flakiest position to recruit, but there should be as much time finding consistent kickers as is paid to the other major positions. Let's go back in time... Look at what an advantage Ohio State had in their 2002 National Championship season with Andy Groom and Mike Nugent. With a somewhat conservative, and occasionally stodgy offense, Groom was a major factor in helping the Buckeye defense with field position. Nugent was a weapon at converting when the offense kept stalling on the road. Simply put, Ohio State doesn't win the national title without these two.