The Football Brainiacs

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This morning I wanted to pass along an interesting recruiting story that happened recently. Many fans, including many Sooner fans, tend to believe that without winning recruiting is destined to fail. To a degree, this is true. But I think it is debatable what degree of “winning” is really required to have success recruiting at a historical program like Oklahoma.

A couple years ago OU had a strong close in recruiting after the Alabama game, securing commitments from the likes of Joe Mixon and Steven Parker. But interestingly, this season, after a less than stellar showing (8-5 record) Oklahoma finished strong with commitments from Gabriel Campbell (beating out both his in-state schools and Alabama), Ricky DeBerry (beating out Ohio State, Alabama, etc.), Neville Gallimore (beating out FSU, Oregon, Ohio State, etc.) and others.

Recently, a coaching friend of mine took one of the top 2017 players in the country on a trip to visit a few programs. This particular player’s offer list includes the likes of Alabama, USC, Florida State, Ohio State and just about any other program you can think of. On the trip they visited Alabama, Tennessee and the players childhood favorite, Ohio State. Alabama and Ohio State were two schools he was very interested in prior to the trip. Tennessee was just a stop they made primarily because my friend was working the camp there. Alabama and Ohio State were programs that appeared in the playoffs (Ohio State ultimately winning the championship). Meanwhile Tennessee finished with a record of 7-6.

At one of the three schools, though the prospect enjoyed his trip, the prospect didn’t get a chance to meet the head coach. At another school, he met the head coach but the head coach didn’t really seem to be familiar with the prospect’s film. But to his (and my) surprise, the prospects favorite visit of all three schools and the school that really turned his head and made him rethink his recruitment was in fact Tennessee. One of the first things the prospect and my friend told me after the trip was that they felt an incredible amount of “love” and warmth from the Tennessee staff. Which isn’t to say that they didn’t feel welcomed or “feel the love” from the other programs but Tennessee took it to another level. There was just a different level of excitement and it was demonstrated right from the beginning of the trip.

The two drove up from Tuscaloosa arriving in Knoxville after dark. When they arrived the entire staff, including coach Butch Jones, was waiting outside for the pair upon their arrival! That welcome from the staff and from the head coach set the tone for the rest of the visit. For the rest of the trip, the entire staff recruited my friend and the prospect. They did the usual things of touring them around the facilities, introducing them to players, explaining how the prospect would fit in schematically, etc. But the thing that really stood out was just the real excitement they felt in the building and how wanted they felt.

There are some who are quick to dismiss this kind of recruiting and say, “that’s just an immature kid who wants people to stroke his ego and isn’t looking at the bigger picture”. But I completely disagree. Firstly, I know this particular prospect and he is not only, in my opinion one of the finest athletes in the 2017 class, he is also one of the most serious, intelligent, well spoken, hard working prospects you’ll come across…ever. If one could project a future first rounder, this particular player has all the mental and physical attributes to be one.

What a lot of people forget is that regardless of the hype or the rankings, these players are still young. At any age it’s normal to doubt one’s self but it’s even more normal at a young age. When an entire staff is genuinely excited it infuses a young athlete with the belief that these people believe and that engenders confidence. When an entire staff is genuinely excited it gives a young athlete the sense that they will be well taken care of; that they won’t just be a number. It gives the athlete the sense that this person will afford them the opportunity to succeed and fail. I remember speaking to Steven Parker’s father after he committed to Oklahoma and I asked him why they chose Oklahoma and his answer went a little something like this:

Simply put, Bob Stoops and Mike Stoops did the best job recruiting my son. As a father, I wanted my son to be somewhere where I was absolutely certain about how much they wanted my son. And while there were a lot of programs that wanted him, Bob and Mike did a tremendous job consistently demonstrating that. I’ve always said that if you go somewhere where you’re wanted they’re going to give you more chances to fail.

What Mr. Parker meant by that last line about receiving “more chances to fail” is that coaches tend to want to prove themselves right. If the head coach recruits a kid, he doesn’t want to believe he wasted his time. Football isn’t a race where anyone can discern the difference between who won and who lost. There is a lot of subjective judgment. So when you go into an environment where you were recruited hard and wanted badly, you’ll tend to be given the benefit of the doubt once you get on campus and begin to compete. A guy that wasn’t high on the staff’s board may make a mistake and the gut response of the coach may be, “just what I expected”. A prospect who was highly sought after by the staff may make the same mistake and the gut response of the coach may be, “oh he just slipped on that one…he’ll get it”. The starting impression can be a lasting one. Prospects intuitively know that and their coaches and family members definitely know that.

It’s human nature to want to go where you feel you’re most wanted and most welcomed. Obviously that isn’t the entire picture of recruiting, otherwise mid-major programs would be out recruiting schools like Alabama and Florida State. But Tennessee isn’t a mid-major program. It has the benefit of a great tradition, great facilities and the hope of better days. So it meets a number of the other requirements (as does OU of course). So once that certain threshold is met, I think it can be of tremendous benefit if the staff as a unit (including the head coach) really work on showing a prospect just how much they are wanted, showing a parent just how well taken care of their child will be. Standing outside at night waiting on a prospect isn’t just telling someone how much they are wanted, it’s showing them how much they are wanted.

The point of this post it to say that I simply don’t think it’s accurate to say that the only way a program can recruit at a high level is by winning national championships or even competing for them. Sometimes it’s just about showing more love.