The Football Brainiacs

Image via kansas.com

A short time ago I alluded to writing a post about the need for a team (OU or otherwise) to constantly be reassessing their recruiting board. There are always new players popping up, players committing, new information about players coming out, etc.  But I thought before a person can really address what a board could or should look like, it’s important to address what an evaluator should be looking for.

Evaluation is essentially taking evidence or clues and trying to project how an athlete would perform in a college football and academic setting. At least that’s the way I look at it. There are a lot of good high school players that won’t make good college football players and there are, at times, decent high school players who turn into great college players.

A good evaluator is a good detective. He knows what clues to look for.

Some of the critical clues are work ethic, being coachable, and generally being tough. Those things get talked about by coaches but in a world where hype is reality, it’s difficult for coaches trying to keep their job to stand on the table for a lower rated kid because of factors that aren’t easily measured.

I was on a conference call a few weeks back with JY and his best friend Cord, who was QB while he was in college. Cord tells me this story about how they had a loud mouth skill position player in their locker room so JY (who most of you know was an offensive lineman) wants to shut up him up so he says, “I’ll take your a** out in the parking lot right now and race you.” Cord tells me they all went out to the parking lot and “Chubs” — which is what he calls JY, who, for the record, is a well put together dude — a 6’5″ offensive linemen then goes ahead and beats this skill position guy in a foot race.

JY played 8-man football in high school and, at that time, was 6’3″ 255 lbs. By the time JY was a senior in college, he was playing at 6’5″ 300 lbs. Coming out of high school he could bench 225 lbs four times, in large part due to the fact the town/program he’s from had no real weight program. By the time he was a senior in college, however, he was benching 225 lbs around 35 times. He was running a sub 4.9 laser 40 (in the 90s and even now that’s very uncommon for OL). Through hard work (and a growth spurt), he had transformed himself. JY didn’t get the opportunity to try out for any pro teams, unfortunately, because during his senior year in college he began to suffer from seizures and was forced to quit football forever.

When I’ve talked to sources about the kids that stand out in this current class, a couple guys whose names we’ve continually mentioned are Kahlil Haughton and PJ Mbanasor. And one of the things I keep hearing is that those guys have impressed in large part because of their work ethic. (Which isn’t to say all the other kids in this most recent class have a poor work ethic, nothing could be farther from the truth. But obviously depending on who you’re talking to you tend to hear about others more than some. And in this particular case that has been the two guys I mentioned.)

I don’t think I’m breaking any news in proclaiming there is a degree of God given talent you simply must have to play college football at a high level. And there are archetypal sizes that you have to look for at various positions. But hunger, hard work, passion, discipline, the desire to be coached…these things are incredibly incredibly vital to the success of a student athlete and a program. Everyone I know who is close to the Alabama program talks about the overall seriousness and degree of discipline that exists within that program. And to be honest I know some kids who have said that in going in there, it’s just too intense for their liking. But fun is often inefficiency and in a game where split seconds matter, those inefficiencies will cost you.

While we choose not to divulge academic information, when I am evaluating a prospect I do try to check on their academics. I’ve spoken to family members, counselors, coaches, etc., trying to understand the player and their work ethic, their personality, and countless other traits. If you have two great athletes and one is more polished but one is hungrier and more coachable, in the long run you and your program may be better served taking the latter. The trans-formative effect of hard work on a player and, by extension, on a program and is tremendous.

The head coach has to lead and set the tone, but for continuous and sustainable success the drive has to be, to a large degree, player driven. There has to be player to player accountability and that comes from putting together a team of the right guys. And that means looking for those things in the scouting process that may not be quite so obvious.

In case you missed this story I told last week I’ll repeat it here to finish my point. I was talking to a friend recently who told me something that happened a week or two ago. As most of you know, OU and other teams do player led 7-on-7 each week during the offseason. Apparently one of the freshman at OU was having a bad day, dropping a lot of passes or whatever. So I was told Sterling Shepard and a couple other upper classmen went up to the freshman after practice and insisted that he stay after to catch some extra balls. But they didn’t just tell him to stay after and then go on about their way. They stayed after with him.

Those are teammates, the kind of guys you want around and within your program. They work hard and they create an environment where others have to rise up to their level. There is no substitute for hard work and it’s the only thing that will get Oklahoma or any other program back to a championship level.