Off-Season Recruiting in College Football

Video Transcript

"Now comes the grind of off-season recruiting. Once your season is over, you're going to be on the road for about three weeks at a time, so, you might as well get used to living out of a hotel. Which is good. You get some airline miles, you get some perks. But, you're going to be away from your family and away from your home for awhile. Not everybody will want to put a smile on their face and be selling the school every day, but that's where the acting comes in. You have to take pride. If it's one of those days where you don't feel like getting up and talking to kids, too bad. Put on your smile, put on your nice clothes, put on your school emblem, and get out and attack these kids. In the off-season we're flying and driving all over the place to recruit and to find talent. From Canada to the South, to the West, it doesn't matter. Wherever these kids are, we'll find them. If you're good enough, you'll be found. So, our off-season consists of many things from getting out, seeing these kids, going to their house to do what's called an official visit. If we're going to offer you a scholarship or when you're one of the kids we want, as a coach, we'll be in your home in front of your parents giving them a chance to ask us questions and to see us as a person. As a parent you're going to send your child away for four to five years and you want to feel comfortable with the people you're sending your child to. You're not going to be there to put their head on the pillow but you want to have some idea of where your son is going to play football and who he's going to play for. Again, that's what we call a home visit. After that, you do an official visit to the university where we will pay for you to come on to our campus. You'll stay 48 hours and spend time with our players and our coaches. You'll eat like a king. Usually, your parents will come with you. That gives you and your parent?s a first hand look and give us a chance to sell our university. You'll stay with one of our players. We'll usually put you with what we call, one of our character players. Someone that's had a great experience and wants to share it with you as an incoming recruit. We will do everything in our power, legally, to convince you to come to our university. It's fun. As a coach, you'll bring your wife or your girlfriend with you. They'll have a chance to interact with the wives or the mothers that are on the visit. And, they'll get a chance to eat a free meal, which is always good, too. It keeps you in good standing at the home front. Recruiting is a grind. But, at the end of the day, you can be the best coach in the world, but if you don't have great players that are going to go out there and do what you tell them on a consistent basis then you're not going to win a lot of games then you'll probably be fired. So, recruiting is a lifeline. Get after it. Take pride in what you do. To be a great recruiter you have to have some people skills and be a great salesman at the same time."