The 10 steps of football recruitment

By Adam Samson

Friday, April 10, 2009

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Click on a bronze Jayhawk to learn more about a player. — Map by Jesse Temple

Football is back in session at least for this Saturday as the Jayhawks take the field at Memorial Stadium for their annual spring game.

The spring game, set for 2 p.m., is an important weekend for recruits, said Brandon Blaney, recruiting coordinator and assistant offensive line coach.

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Photo by Brenna Hawley

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SPRING GAME SATURDAY

Football’s spring game will take place at 2 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Admission will be free to the public and gates will open at 1 p.m. Fans will receive a free 2009 magnet schedule. The team is asking that fans enter and sit on the west side of the stadium. The game will be broadcast on KUathletics.com as well as the Jayhawk Radio Network, 610 AM and 105.9 FM in Lawrence. Metro Sports, Sunflower channel 37, will televise the game.

— Stephen Montemayor

“The spring game is somewhat similar to basketball’s first practice and Late Night in the Phog,” Blaney said. “If there’s an enthusiastic, loud and large crowd, enthusiasm certainly makes a good impact on recruits’ decisions as they go.”

Kansas has begun to cast its recruiting net, so far offering scholarships to 60 prospects, 13 of whom have already orally committed to other schools. For the 5.7 percent of current high school juniors who will pursue Division-I college football, the coming months will paint a better picture as to where they stand in the recruiting process.

Here is a closer look at the college football recruiting process:

SENDING OUT HIGHLIGHT FILM

For a recruit, the highlight film is one of the first steps in the process and can affect the type of attention college coaches will devote to a recruit.

Defensive back Tyler Patmon said he started his recruiting process by sending his junior-year highlight film to about 40 schools. Of the 40 schools, many sent letters expressing interest in Patmon’s cornerback skills, but only Iowa State and Kansas sent offers.

Blaney said that Kansas received well over 1,000 highlight and game films every recruiting cycle, and that each coach had a voice in deciding which recruits to offer scholarships to.

“It’s a collective effort,” Blaney said. “There isn’t one coach pulling the trigger. Every single position coach and coordinator has a recruiting responsibility and has a say in who we recruit, especially at their position.”

JUNIOR CAMPS

Colleges usually hold junior camps in the spring or summer, which allow a recruit to become familiar with the school, coaches and other recruits vying for scholarship offers. Kansas held its annual junior day event Feb. 21, when high school juniors were invited to campus for an unofficial visit.

“The number-one essential to recruiting is wherever you’re thinking about going, make sure you go to a camp there,” offensive lineman Gavin Howard said. “Because that’s how the coaches look at you, they get to coach you, and you see how they coach also.”

CONTACT FROM COACHES

The NCAA permits coaches to call recruits at any time throughout the recruiting process, but there are limitations on how often the coach may call.

“It’s very stressful and strenuous on a high school student because it’s probably one of the biggest decisions you’ll have to make,” safety Bradley McDougald said. “It may seem like a lot of fun having coaches call your phone but after a while it gets to be really repetitive.”

EVALUATION

The evaluation period, which begins in May and continues until signing day, is when coaches prioritize players. Blaney said that during the evaluation process, coaches looked for progress from the athlete’s junior to senior year to determine whether the player would continue to grow in the program and eventually contribute at the Division-I level.

“There are schools that take a national recruiting approach where they look on the Internet and see which guys are supposedly the top guys in the country,” Blaney said. “The big thing we have to be able to do in recruiting is estimate what a player is going to play like at age 21, 22 and 23, since it’s a very rare occasion when a freshman comes in and plays right away.”

UNOFFICIAL COLLEGE VISITS

Recruits can take as many unofficial visits as desired at any time throughout the recruiting process, but the visit must be paid for by the recruit and his family.

Howard visited Kansas on his own dime four times and didn’t visit officially until after he signed his letter of intent.

OFFICIAL COLLEGE VISITS

Official visits for the recruit and his family are paid for by the interested school. The paid trip consists of transportation to and from the college, housing and meals during the visit, and entertainment for the recruit and his family that may include a home athletics event. A recruit is limited to five official visits and he can only visit a school once officially.

“I was most impressed with the hospitality from the coaches and players on my visit,” defensive lineman Randall Dent said. “And I was also impressed with the basketball game in the Phog.”

The completion of the Anderson Family Football Complex last summer proved to be a strong factor in recruits’ decisions.

Patmon said he was in awe on his official visit when he toured Memorial Staduim and the weight room and the players’ lounge in the football complex.

“When we went up there to Lawrence, we saw the facilities and that was one of the reasons I chose Kansas,” Patmon said. “It was really nice and I know Kansas is a program that is up-and-coming and it’s going to get better by time.”

TAKING THE ACT OR SAT

Taking a standardized test is one of the key steps in the recruiting process. Blaney said that he thought it was important for the prospects to know the NCAA academic requirements and that taking the ACT or SAT early on in the student athlete’s high school career was essential.

“I think the biggest obstacle is getting an athlete to understand that they are academically held accountable for the decisions,” Blaney said. “Whether they be good or bad decisions they make at age 14 and 15 in their freshman and sophomore years.”

FACTORS THAT GO INTO A RECRUIT’S DECISION

According to a 2008 report by the Journal of Sports Economics, geographic distance is the primary factor in a recruits’ college consideration. The team’s on-field performance, conference affiliation, facilities, playing-time opportunities and academic reputation also influence the decision.

Distance wasn’t a factor, though, for some of the recruits in Kansas’ 2009 recruiting class. The Jayhawks snagged two recruits from Florida, wide receiver Erick McGriff and running back Deshaun Sands, and junior-college defensive lineman Quinton Woods is from California.

ORAL COMMITMENT

A recruit can commit to a university only orally until he is able to sign his national letter of intent. The oral commitment is no more than a promise to the coaches that he will sign with their school. At any time the recruit can break the commitment.

If a recruit decides after orally committing that he would like to look at other schools, he can decommit without any penalties or violations.

One example of decommitment in Kansas’ recently signed recruiting class is McDougald. KU coaches continued to recruit McDougald while he was committed to Ohio State. McDougald accepted a scholarship offer from Ohio State in June and was committed to the Buckeyes but then he decided to take more official visits. As soon as he made that decision, his relationship with Ohio State coach Jim Tressel changed.

“I had wanted to look around, so then from there, coach Tressel and I talked, and he basically said the offer was still there, but if I looked other places, he would look elsewhere and that would open my recruitment up,” McDougald said.

NATIONAL LETTER OF INTENT

This recruiting season, the signing period began Feb. 4 and lasted through April 1, although Blaney said most athletes sign their letter of intent on the first day.

The letter of intent binds the athlete to the college he signs with. If the recruit doesn’t follow through and opts to transfer, he can lose a year of eligibility if he goes to another Division-I institution.

It is only after receiving a signed letter of intent that a coach can comment on the recruit publicly.

— — Edited by Liz Schubauer

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