Strong Finish
February 06, 2008 07:11 PM | General
February 6, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Getting a late start in the cut-throat business of college football recruiting is not a good prescription for success, says recruiting experts Mike Farrell, Randall Thomason, Jamie Newberg and Bob Lichtenfels. But that also doesn’t mean it’s impossible to have a solid recruiting class.
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| Associate Head Coach and Director of Recruiting Doc Holliday managed to make up for lost time with a strong recruiting finish.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“It is very difficult when there is a coaching change,” Farrell replied via email. “I never consider a coach’s first recruiting class his first true effort because he has such limited time to put things together. The new coach has to worry as much about keeping the commitments he inherits as he does in recruiting new players.”
“Recruiting is about relationships and building relationships and that’s tough to do with such a short recruiting window,” added Scout.com National Recruiting Editor Jamie Newberg.
Bill Stewart was hired to replace Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia on Jan. 3 and he didn’t have a full staff in place until a week and a half before signing day. By then most of the top players had already selected schools.
“West Virginia just needs to fill needs,” said Newberg. “Regardless of what has happened this is still one of the better programs in college football and this team is loaded with talent. They just need to overcome it all and go get the players that fill their needs and kids that they can plug in their system.”
Former longtime WVU recruiting coordinator Donnie Young agrees with Newberg.
“There are an awful lot of good players out there. If you get the right kids and they fit into your team well you can (overcome the late start) with a good evaluation,” Young explained. “Maybe you won’t get the big, big name kids but you can still get really good football players.”
Bob Lichtenfels covers the Northeast for Scout and is very familiar with West Virginia’s recruiting efforts. He gives two examples of good football players the Mountaineers landed late that may have slipped through the cracks.
“The defensive lineman from Miami, Jorge Wright, slid under the radar a bit and a number of bigger programs jumped on him late in the game when he committed to WVU. Wright was a very productive player against solid competition,” Lichtenfels noted. “Norwin’s Tyler Urban is an athletic kid who could play a number of positions for them and maybe even be another Owen Schmitt.”
The experts all cite instances when coaching staffs got off to late starts yet finished with outstanding recruiting classes.
“When Urban Meyer took over for Ron Zook he inherited some talented recruits and added a few of his own and Florida finished No. 15 in the country,” said Farrell, a national recruiting analyst for Rivals.com.
“Alabama was in a similar situation last year when Nick Saban was hired to replace Mike Shula,” added Rivals regional recruiting expert Randall Thomason. “Saban’s new staff was able to close the Alabama class very respectably despite being short on time.
“The Crimson Tide pulled in some quality in-state talent but also scored out of state with late commitments from four-star prospects like defensive tackle Luther Davis, running back Demetrius Goode and defensive back Kareem Jackson.
“Another example from a year ago would be North Carolina’s new staff led by head coach Butch Davis,” Thomason noted. “The Tar Heels finished No. 17 in the Rivals.com team rankings with a class headlined by a signing-day commitment from five-star defensive tackle Marvin Austin.”
All four also maintain that schools can have success on the football field without having highly rated recruiting classes.
“Aside from West Virginia, I think Virginia Tech, Boston College, Wisconsin and Oregon are a few programs that have had consistent success without having high recruiting rankings each year,” Farrell said.
Newberg singled out the recruiting and player development efforts at Virginia Tech and Wisconsin as two prime examples of having success without having highly rated signing classes.
“These schools do a nice job of identifying players that fit their schemes and then they do a wonderful job of developing them and coaching them up,” Newberg said.
Thomason is impressed with the recruiting system Coach Jim Grobe has developed at Wake Forest. Ironically, Grobe’s wide receivers coach Jeff Mullen is now at West Virginia.
“From 2002-2007, the Demon Deacons have averaged being ranked 76th in Rivals.com’s team recruiting rankings. Jim Grobe’s policy of redshirting all of his true freshmen has generated a pipeline of quality depth and senior leadership year after year,” Thomason said. “His low ranked recruiting classes since 2002 have been the core of a program that has won 20 games in the last two seasons and captured the 2006 ACC championship.”
“Rankings are fun and they look good, but at the end of the day the coach and his staff still have to develop the talent that they bring in,” Lichtenfels added.
