Crystal Ball
February 04, 2004 09:42 AM | General
February 4, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – When West Virginia unveils its 2004 football recruiting class today, be sure to take a moment and consider tight end Anthony Becht’s path to Morgantown.
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| Tight end Anthony Becht's only other offer was to play at IUP when he signed with West Virginia in 1996. (WVU Sports Communications photo) |
Becht not only wasn’t on any of the ever popular recruiting lists college football fans have grown to rely on, he wasn’t even recruited by another Division I-A school.
Today Becht is one of the top young tight ends in the National Football League with the New York Jets. The former first-round draft pick set a career high with 40 catches for 356 yards and four touchdowns this year.
Back in the winter of 1996, Becht was all set to go to IUP before West Virginia’s Bill Kirelawich called him about a week before signing day to officially offer him a scholarship.
“Things weren’t looking good,” Becht said by cell phone Tuesday afternoon on his way to receiving the Thurman Munson Award for community service in New York City. “Division I was out and no one from Division I-AA or even the Yankee Conference schools had offered, so Division II was looking like the best route.”
Becht, then a 6-foot-5, 210-pound wide receiver, was tucked away in Philadelphia’s Catholic League playing at Monsignor Bonner High School. His team wasn’t eligible for the Pennsylvania state playoffs and couldn’t even play for the city championship. Consequently, Catholic League players were often overlooked because almost no one saw them play.
“We have one of the biggest high school all-star games in the Big 33 game,” said Becht. “Basically the players who played in that game were Central and Western Pa players. We won our league championship but didn’t get as much notoriety as maybe a team from our area that got to play in the state tournament. The publicity for the players to get scholarships wasn’t as great.”
Even though he wasn’t well known, Becht had a lot going for him. He possessed great hands, he had a big frame he could easily fill out, he came from a fabulous family, he was intelligent and he was ambitious. Unfortunately, almost all of Becht’s positive attributes don’t show up on computer printouts fans pay to read.
“None of us know which of those guys have it in their heart to succeed,” said Kirelawich. “I look at these guys who write about the top recruiting classes and it makes me laugh. It’s so ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is these guys are making good livings doing this stuff.”
Kirelawich had seen enough film to realize there was no way Becht was going to be a college wide receiver. But his instinct led him to believe that Becht might be able to make it as a tight end. The only thing he needed to be sure of was Becht’s height. Once Kirelawich saw him in person he was convinced.
Now Kirelawich’s toughest part was selling Becht to the rest of the WVU coaches. At the time under long-time Coach Don Nehlen, West Virginia had a three-vote recruiting system. The recruiting coach, the position coach and the recruiting coordinator each had to sign off on a prospect before he was officially extended a scholarship. If there were any disagreements, Nehlen was the final arbiter. When it came to recruiting quarterbacks, Nehlen approved all scholarship offers because of the obvious importance of that position.
Even though recruiting coordinator Donnie Young, exterior offensive line coach Dave McMichael and defensive coordinator Steve Dunlap were all in agreement that Becht could probably play tight end, they were noticeably concerned about that fact that he had no other D-I offers.
“That is the symbol of how good a recruit is by how many other schools wants him,” said Kirelawich. “When you read the papers and you see that this guy has 30 offers and that guy has 50 offers you’ve got to think the guy with the most offers is the most valuable recruit. That’s not always necessarily true.”
“Bill really had to sell Anthony to us because you had to predict on this one, which is very difficult to do,” recalled Young. “When you’re giving a scholarship out you’d like to know where the kid is going to play.”
Sensing the rest of the staff was still hung up on the fact that Becht wasn’t being recruited by any other schools, Kirelawich talked to one of his close coaching buddies at Delaware and asked him to give Becht a courtesy call.
Once that was done, Kirelawich went back to Young and informed him that Delaware was now jumping on Becht.
“You’ve got to try and pull some strings in the back there and see if you can slip him in,” Kirelawich laughed.
“It’s true,” Becht said. “They were good friends and every year Kirlav kept busting his chops about how he had missed out on me. To this day he’ll never live that one down.”
Kirelawich downplays his moxie, “The big thing is it wasn’t just me,” he said. “There were other guys that looked at the film and saw the same things I did. Donnie looked at him … a number of guys looked at him and liked what they saw. It never comes down to one guy.
“It’s so much a group operation that you can’t lay the blame or the credit on the shoulders of one guy who’s really undeserving of either,” he added. “It was the intelligence, the resourcefulness and the insight of a lot of guys.”
“If we thought they were a good football player then we could find a place for them,” said Young. “I think Rich (Rodriguez) is the same way now.”
Even though Becht didn’t have any other offers Kirelawich still recruited him like he was going up against Penn State to sign him.
“He may not have a lot of options to go to other places but he really had an option not to come here,” said Kirelawich. “We wanted to make sure we put our best foot forward like we would anyone else.”
Becht was thankful for the opportunity he was presented at WVU, “It comes down to they gave me the facilities to become the player that I wanted to become,” he said. “I basically took it upon myself to use that to its fullest and get everything out of it that I could. It worked out for me whether it would have been football or the business world because I was prepared for both angles.”
Young, who chased 18-year-olds at WVU for 30 years from 1970 under Bobby Bowden until Nehlen’s retirement following the 2000 season, says he’s never encountered a situation where such an unheralded prospect turned out so well.
“The only other player that came close to that was (defensive tackle) Mike Fox,” said Young. “In high school he was similar to Anthony in that he was real tall and lanky and tough.”
“Mike Fox at least had MAC schools recruiting him, though,” said Kirelawich. “Anthony didn’t have any.”
Kirelawich also brings up linebacker Dave Preston, who waited right down to signing day before he received a scholarship offer from WVU.
“We had a kid bail out on us and on the last day we called up Dave and asked him if he wanted a scholarship,” said Kirelawich. “We told him to come on down and sign it. We didn’t even take the papers up to him. He got the scholarship and the next year Dave Preston started for West Virginia is his first game ever and had a wonderful career. There are guys like that.”
Kirelawich says he doesn’t get worked up about recruiting the way he did 10-15 years ago and it doesn’t matter if he uncovers an unknown gem or beats out Ohio State for a big-name player, “The only thing that makes me feel better is if I think the kid can help the team and that he helps himself along the way. My thing about recruiting is I’m going to do what I can to help our team. I’ve long since quit trying to be the greatest recruiter that ever lived. I just want my share of guys.”
Even though Young is now four years removed from being West Virginia’s recruiting coordinator, he still feels the sense of achievement and excitement when the Mountaineers uncover a sleeper prospect or the fax machine spits out the paperwork for a big-name player.
“It’s a great feeling for the coaches,” he said.
For those of you still not convinced and hung up on the recruiting lists, keep in mind that West Virginia also managed to sign a skinny quarterback from Pittsburgh named Marc Bulger in the same recruiting class with Becht.
Bulger had one other scholarship offer from Virginia Tech and he was left hanging when Gary Tranquill left the Hokies to coach at Michigan State. Bulger signed with West Virginia and this weekend he will be playing in the Pro Bowl for the NFC.
“I think all of the ratings are hit or miss,” said Becht. “I think there were probably 20 guys that came in with me and by the end of my senior year half of the guys had transferred or left. Some of the other guys never played a snap. It’s an honor to be named a high school All-American but it’s more about who can develop into a better player and have room for improvement.”
“They’re credits to themselves,” said Kirelawich of the Anthony Bechts and Marc Bulgers of the world who slip through the cracks. “They’re the guys that prove that these recruiting gurus really don’t know what they’re talking about. The last time I looked none of us had a crystal ball.”
That’s certainly something to think about when you’re reading the list of West Virginia’s recruits announced today. You never know, there may be another Anthony Becht of Marc Bulger among them.
