Recruiting Philosophy 

 Most everything in recruiting falls under three basic categories. There is

little if anything that does not fall under one of these three categories.

                            1.               Identifying prospects

                            2.               Evaluating prospects

                            3.               Selling prospects.

 Identifying Prospects

 Regardless of where you coach, the first step of recruiting is identifying

prospects.  Identifying prospects has a lot to do with hard work and personal

relationships.  Hard work comes in the form of making more school visits than

your opponents, making more phone calls than your opponent and working harder

than your opponent when gathering information.  This is especially true in an

unusual academic situation.  How many schools can we visit in a day during the

identifying process?  We will work hard and fast.  A personal relationship with

high school coaches is critical to the identifying process.  The high school

coach can be a valuable tool if our relationship with him is good. 

 Evaluating Prospects

 This is perhaps the most difficult part of recruiting.  One reason it is

difficult is because of the inconsistencies of the process.   I believe most

coaches can sell and most will work hard in the identifying process but not many

coaches are very good evaluators.   Pro football has traditionally had a

separate department to evaluate talent recognizing that a good coach does not

necessarily make a good evaluator.  Setting up the evaluation process is

critical to our success.  There is an old saying about recruiting that fits into

the evaluating process " It's not the one you lose that beats you but the one

you take that can't play that defeats you."

 Selling Prospects

 This traditionally is the part of recruiting that most coaches do well.  Each

prospect is different.  Each prospect requires a different sales strategy; no

two prospects are the same.

 Recruiting Niche

 The sooner we correctly identify our niche in recruiting the better chances we

have of establishing a solid recruiting base.  We are looking for a recruiting

base to serve us well for a long time.  Some examples: are we going to be an

instate based recruiting program?  Are we going to be a junior college based

program? Are we going to be a national recruiting base program?  Who we are

going to be is not as important as answering the question as soon as possible.

 Work Ethic

 In general coaches are hard workers.  The work ethic in recruiting has to be

as intense as the work ethic during the season.  The staff will work as hard at

recruiting as any staff in the country and more important we will work smarter

and more creative than any other staff in the country.  This is part of all

three of the recruiting categories 

 Offensive Philosophy

 There are certain offensive principles we will always adhere to.  In an ideal

world a balanced offensive has proven down through the years to be the most

effective.  Within in that framework and the framework of our present personnel

we will build an offense.  While building the offense we will follow the

following principles:

        1.    We will always base our offense on the personnel we have at the present

time understanding that what we do is not as important as who is doing it. 

While we are working within an offense that uses our personnel most efficiently

we will recruit to the balanced system we eventually want to run.         

                  2.               Regardless of the way we decide to line up on most downs we will always
have a two back attack so we can be efficient in short yardage and goal line
situations.  The two back also allows us to be better on defense.
                    3.               We will always do 9on7, S/Y G/L, Team Pass/Pup vs. the offense.
                    4.               We will be a practice script offensive staff.
                    5.               We will be quality-controlled game plan organized.
                    6.               We will quality control game plan overage.
                    7.               We will quality control Missed Assignment 
 
 Defensive Philosophy
 
 Much like an offensive philosophy, balance has proven over time the most
efficient.  Teams that have been to conservative as well as those teams that
have blitzed every down have over the course of the season paid for their
predictability.  While we are building our defense we will follow the following
principles:
 
                     1.               We will keep in mind at all times that our talent is more important than
our scheme.  We will do whatever our present players can do and at the same time
recruit the players that will ultimately be able to do what we want to do.
                    2.               Regardless what we are doing scheme wise we will constantly work on
tackling and pursuit angles.  We will grade pursuit and not play anyone who has
a bad pursuit grade.
                     3.               We will explain why the defense has to be in better shape than the
offense.
                     4.               We will always do 9on7, S/Y G/L work, team pass/pup vs. the offense
                     5.               We will be a practice script defensive staff
                     6.               We will be a quality control game plan defensive staff
                     7.               We will be a quality control game plan overage
                     8.               We will quality control missed tackles, missed assignments and lost
contain. 
 
 
 
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