How to Recruit College Football Players

Video Transcript

"Now I'm going to talk about the heart and soul on the football program at the college level, recruiting. You need great players to win a lot of games. Just like when we talked about the staff and surrounding yourself with great people you want character people on your program. Those are the guys that go out and play on Saturday. You coach, so you can't play. The good programs in the country have great character kids that also happen to be great football players. Those are the kids you want to get into your program. Recruiting is a year round deal. I'm going to talk you through the in-season recruiting which a lot of guys, if you want to separate yourself and become a great football coach you have to be able to recruit. Recruiting is so much about having some people skills relating to these kids today because, as you know, kids are so much different than they were 10 or 15 years ago. You have to find a way, a niche to get in. In-season recruiting is going to involve a lot of phone calls. You're going to be on the phone usually every night with your top recruits. You're just checking in and making sure that when you call they say, "Hey, Coach Ruggles," instead of having to identify yourself. That's my goal with every kid I recruit. I don't want to have to say, "Hey, this is Coach Ruggles, from school so and so." They know and are excited to talk to you. That's what you want to sell. You want to sell your university but you also want to sell yourself as a person. During the season, at some points, you're going to have to go on the road. You're going to go into these kids schools and talk to as many people as you possibly can about the people you're going to recruit. There's going to be mistakes made but you want to do all your homework. With the power of the Internet and the power of the people in these towns, they want to talk about these kids. So, find out as much information as you possibly can during the season about these kids. Again, it's a character thing. Talent goes so far. Any day of the week I'll take a kid that has alot of character over a kid that can play. I think when you find both you're going to have a very successful program. But, recruiting is the lifeline to any program and if you don't want to recruit at the college level, I don't think you'll be able to be a college football coach. So, take pride in it, sell your university, but more importantly, sell yourself. When it comes time for these kids to make the biggest decision in their life they don't want to say no to your university, but more importantly, they don't want to say no to you as a person."