Recruiting Dynamos and Other Brief Notes

As a precursor, I realize that the college football game, from the perspective of a coach, is a three headed beast. Recruiting, coaching, alumni relations. Two of the three are sales jobs, fill the larders with golden talent and fill the coffers with gold talents.

I have always tried to avoid being a recruitnik. I've got plenty of buddies who subscribe to recruiting service after recruiting service, who think that Scout and Rivals are for amateurs. Guys whose video collections of teenagers in tight pants would merit jail time in any other context.

Instead, I've tried to let the coaches do their jobs, wait until the class is signed, then look at the videos of who we've gotten, not who got away. Intellectually, I realize putting your evening's mood into the hands a jorts wearing,over-sized group of pimply faced 17 and 18 year olds, each living in his own personalized version of the Ptolemaic solar system is risky. And of course, let's face it, is there anything more meaningless than an "oral commitment?" As scUM is finding out....chortle, smirk!

Which led me to think. If it's frustrating to me, what if your very livelihood depended on it?

It's one thing to be a head coach---it's fair to say there's a soft landing if the efforts are unsuccessful and your gig goes the way of the Dodo.

But what of the assistant coaches....these are the unsung heroes, the trench warriors of the guerrilla recruiting conflicts.

So, I cheated and looked at the commitments to see who's bringing in the bacon.

Two names stand out. Greg Mattison and Charlie Strong.

Strong is credited with recruiting a slew of 4-stars including Ricky Barnum-OL, Jeremy Brown-DB, Ramon Buchanan-DB/OLB, Lerentee McCray-MLB, T.J. Pridemore-MLB.

I know it's been noted elsewhere, but nice move offering Omar Hunter's teammate T.J. Pridemore a scholarship. As a solid 3-star who might well pan out on his own, it certainly increased our access to Omar Hunter and will pacify his college transition. Kind of like adding a llama to a sheep herd. And I think we may need Pridemore's influence over the next couple of weeks. One of my buddies made some observations about Hunter that caused me to reach for the DiGel but showed the shrewdness of the Pridemore offer. I've watched Hunter's videos....amazing, he runs down QB's covers the field sideline-to-sideline and is clearly as fast as the advertised 4.7. But, as was pointed out, he previously committed to Notre Dame, then reversed because ND was too far from home. A few weeks later, after he adds USC to his list of finalists he refuses to answer media questions about the prior "too far from home comment." Then I'm told he was quoted today as saying Georgia revoked his scholarship offer (I find that difficult to swallow....many a school has been known to renege on a lower quality recruit for a 5-star, much less a 5-star among 5-stars). This is especially dubious as Hunter was slated to visit there this weekend (I'm sure they didn't cancel the recruiting weekend).

Which transitions this discussion, briefly, to Mattison. Mattison is credited for recruiting Hunter, Caleb Sturgis, Chaz Sutton, Bryan Jones and Adrian Bushnell. A 5-star and a pair of 4-stars ain't bad.

These guys are certainly earning their keep.

Finally, you've got to respect the cool hand of Urban "I'm a terrible opener but a great closer" Meyer in the recruiting process. His penchant for withholding scholarship offers until deep into the recruiting season to garner the best talent takes guts. For the second year in a row, the horse is responding to the crop down the home stretch. And you've got to love the penchant for hustling the early recruits we do get into school by January. I understand we've got 8 enrolled as we speak, including Janoris Jenkins. f$u has only 3

Oh, and, boy oh boy, if we get Julius Jones...a pair of 6-4, 215 lb. receivers is almost too much to hope for.

Let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we?