Web Trends
March 26, 2004 09:34 AM | General
March 26, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For West Virginia University football recruiting coordinator Herb Hand, the crowd around the office water cooler has gotten a whole lot bigger. He can thank the Internet for that.
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| WVU recruiting coordinator Herb Hand says he can spend a good portion of his day tracking down Internet rumors.
(All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
Hand devotes a good amount of his day to scanning web sites and message boards in order to keep up with what others are saying and writing about Mountaineer football. It is his job to know what’s going on; if he doesn’t, it could mean the difference between signing a blue chip prospect and seeing him wind up at another school.
“If there is something on the computer about West Virginia football I’m going to know about it because it’s my job to know about it,” he said. “If that information is on the Internet that means that any kid from here to China can access it. Any information whether it’s good or bad is still information a kid uses to help him make a decision.”
Cyberspace has become college football’s latest battle ground.
A few years ago Texas football coach Mack Brown hired a person with the sole responsibility of chasing down Texas-sized Internet gossip. West Virginia hasn’t quite gone to that extreme … yet.
“It’s very easy to spend your whole day tracking Internet rumors but it’s just something you’ve got to do,” said Hand. “If you don’t manage the Internet as a resource then it can sting you. You’d better know what’s going on and have a handle on this stuff.”
Hand illustrates a perfect example of how a harmless post on an Internet chat board can grow into a full-blown recruiting crisis.
“We had a walk-on tryout and we decided to keep a quarterback and bring him in for the spring,” said Hand. “Somebody decides to put this on the Internet. ‘My friend so-and-so is a quarterback and he is going to West Virginia from the walk-on tryout to play quarterback.’ This is all prior to signing date.
“Well another quarterback who we’re in a pretty good recruiting battle for was told that information and it was used against us,” Hand continued. “They had the (walk-on’s) high school stats and laid it right out in front of the recruit. We found out about it and explained the situation and wound up getting the kid. But that’s the type of stuff being used and you’ve got to be able to know how to manage it the best you can.”
Hand says the coaching staff has become doubly cautious when it comes to players and the Internet.
“We talk to them about the Internet stuff and how things in our circle stay in our circle,” he said. “There are certain things that are brought up in meetings that they don’t need to be discussing with people.”
And while Hand is leery of the rumors and gossip that take place daily on chat boards, he also knows he has to walk a fine line and not curb people’s enthusiasm for Mountaineer football. The majority of the people posting messages are loyal fans who want nothing more than for the program to succeed.
“We’re happy that there are so many fans out there interested in our program,” said Hand. “I’ve done chats on some of the message boards and I’ve tried to educate our fans about the impact they can have when they post a message. I always tell them to think about what they’re writing before they hit the send button because everyone in the world has an opportunity to read it.”
In addition to chasing down rumors, Hand says the Internet has become a valuable tool for the football office.
“The Boston Globe came out with a nice article about the BCS, we downloaded it from the Internet, made copies and sent it to all of our junior recruits … that’s the type of information we can get immediately because of the Internet,” says Hand.
In years past, it was a common practice for football coaching staffs to subscribe to many metropolitan newspapers to keep up on opponent information. And while the cost wasn’t exorbitant, it could run into the “thousands of dollars each year,” according to Mike Kerin, director of football operations.
“We mainly ordered the papers from the areas of our opponents,” said Kerin. “I would go through them and get information and then pass it along to the GAs to cut out. Most of it was propaganda material for the locker room walls.
“Today all of that stuff is taken care of through the Internet,” Kerin added, “but I don’t do any of that message board stuff … I don’t go there.”
Kerin, a former tight end at Colorado in the mid 1970s, had to learn how to use a computer from scratch. About 10 years ago, he went from finding out where the on-switch was to becoming reasonably comfortable in front of a computer screen. From there he passed on his knowledge to the coaching staff.
“I can tell you this, when I was 40 years old I said, ‘I’ve got to learn to do this.’ So I went to (Deputy Athletic Director) Mike Parsons and I got an old computer from sports information,” said Kerin. “There wasn’t even a mouse with it: it was just the black screen with green letters. It was just a word processor.
“From there I just kind of taught myself,” Kerin said. “And then about six months into it I realized that there were much better computers out there and we bought a better one. Now I can’t live without it.”
Today all of the coaches have laptop computers to look at video tape and develop practice schedules and game plans. Even some of the old-school coaches like Rick Trickett and Bill Kirelawich are beginning to come around a little bit.
“They give me grief about being on the computer so much but then on the other hand they say, ‘Hey, what are they saying about us on the Internet?’” said Hand. “They know what’s going on.”
Hand says the Internet has helped him become a much more educated recruiter. He has to be. Prospects can come up with some very difficult questions and Hand has to have a good answer for them … often times having to come up with one on the fly.
Last summer a major issue for West Virginia University football was the possible breakup of the Big East conference. Miami, Virginia Tech and then Boston College opted to leave the Big East to join the ACC.
Hand kept up with conference realignment as best as he could. Then, when discussions began taking place about the Big East’s BCS position being in jeopardy, Herb had to quickly become an expert on that topic, too. He found himself watching C-Span as much as he was watching Sports Center.
“I’m watching those programs on C-Span with Orin Hatch running those congressional hearings,” said Hand. “People ask why was he running it? Well he’s from Utah and there are about five or six schools in his state that don’t have access to the BCS. The last thing I remember him saying was, ‘You’ve got to get this straightened out or we’re going to do it. We don’t want to, but we will if we have to.’”
In the meantime, competing schools were using the Big East’s precarious situation to their advantage. Once again, Hand had to be on his toes.
“I’m sure some of the battles we had with LSU they brought that up,” he said. “Who wouldn’t? If the shoe was on the other foot I would have done the same thing.”
Hand says the best response was to simply tell prospects the truth. “Not speculate, just tell them the truth about what the situation was,” he said. “We felt confident that we were going to have a spot in the BCS through 2005 at least. And then in 2005 we figured that we were going to see a lot of changes because of the way the BCS was being presented to Congress.
“We were like, ‘This is what we know and this is what we can tell you.’ Guys respect when you’re honest with them,” said Hand.
When the news finally came out on a Sunday evening last month that the Big East was going to keep its status as a BCS conference, Hand was relieved but also confident it was going to turn out that way.
“When I was driving in to work that morning and I heard it on the radio I couldn’t wait to get in and get on the Internet to see ESPN.com and CNNSI.com and all of those web sites I look at,” he said. “Then I printed out some of the articles and mailed them out to our prospects. It was our way of telling them, “Look, the sky is not falling.’”
Another disaster averted.
It’s just another typical day in this new-age world of college football. And you can thank the Internet for that.
