Whitey
07-01-2007, 08:51 AM
Weis making adjustments to recruiting
By Lou Somogyi
BlueandGold.com
The great athletes "let the game come to them" and don’t always force the action. On occasion, though, they do have to assert their will. Charlie Weis had a similar adjustment at Notre Dame when it came to recruiting.
In his first couple of years, Weis was amenable to play along with prospects and he was liberal in his stance on some issues. For example, if a recruit issued a nebulous "silent commitment" but still wanted to visit other schools, Weis provided the green light.
The events of last February have made the Irish head coach re-evaluate such a stance. It is akin to your fiancée saying, "I’d still like to get married, but I would like to date other people until the day of the wedding." Defensive end Justin Trattou (Florida), wide receiver Greg Little (North Carolina) and offensive lineman Chris Little (Georgia) all wore Notre Dame’s engagement ring, but each ended up going to the altar with someone else.
Steve Ruark/APNotre Dame head coach Charlie Weis is still adjusting to the recruiting game with the Irish.
"The biggest thing I’ve learned in recruiting is not just outworking people, which I believe you can do in a number of cases, but having a conviction strong enough that you’re willing to stick to it," Weis said.
"Recruiting is something too many people put in the hands of 17-year-olds and let them dictate the rules. Although it’s their decision, you still can establish the rules. And if people don’t want to play by the rules, then you have to find people who will. There are plenty of players in this country who can read and write and are good kids who can play. You can set the rules, but you just have to find the people who want to abide by them."
According to many in the adult community, and in psychological branches, most teen-agers or adolescents, as rebellious and cantankerous as they can be, deep down yearn for structure, discipline and heeding an authority figure. If you provide an adolescent an inch, he will take advantage of it -- and you. If you don’t, there’s a pretty good chance he will respect you more.
Some Irish followers feared that Weis’ hard-line stance on National Signing Day (2007) with future prospects would make them less apt to cast their lot with Notre Dame. Yet by early June, Notre Dame had 14 public verbal commitments, easily the most in school history, and more than double the same total last year.
"You want to know something: I’m having more success by having more, hard, fast rules than when my attitude was, 'Let’s just recruit the whole country,'" Weis said. "Think about it: How many kids are really family-oriented guys? Most of them are. So when you lay it out for them like that, they understand the concept. Every one of the kids I talked to about, 'Once you get married, there might be good looking girls walk by, but you’re married.' It’s not like, 'I can go with her, or I can go with her' -- they all understand that analogy. And if they don’t like that, they’re not going to fit here, no matter how good they are.
"So when I lose a kid, sometimes I lose him for the right reasons. You can’t believe how many kids say, 'I like the family atmosphere. I like the high character, the high standards.' It’s making a positive impression on them. When everyone thought it would be a deterrent, it’s had the opposite residual effect, which has been encouraging to me not so much as the head coach at Notre Dame, but as a person. It’s encouraging to me that there are enough people out there who 'get it.'"
There is another analogy to recruiting that Weis has learned to apply. The greatest hitters in baseball fail seven out of 10 times. Likewise, there is no shame in recruiting to expanding your pool and increasing the margin of error. If you are in need of five defensive linemen, for example, chances are you will have to look at 15 or 20 such prospects seriously, not just eight or nine.
The batting percentage in recruiting can’t always be around .500. Furthermore, what good does it do when you need four defensive linemen, offer four scholarships, and land two? You can brag about the .500 average, but it’s like hitting a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth when you’re four runs down.
The Irish staff already extended more scholarship offers to recruits by the middle of May this year than it did all of last year.
"If you’re going after four or five defensive linemen, you can’t offer four or five," Weis said. "You have to offer at least double that -- if you find them. Because for every one you’re offering, there are another 10 or 20 schools that are trying to get this kid as well. This year we’ve been more aggressive in going after the position where we’re taking multiple players.
"When you’re going after zero quarterbacks or just one, if you get a guy (early), then you’re closed for business (at the position)."
Recruiting has become a sport unto itself in the last couple of decades, but particularly in the last 10 years with the growth of the Internet. It used to be that whom a school landed was the main topic of conversation. Today, it’s just as much about all the prospects you failed to add to your haul.
Charlie Weis interview
# Part 1: Rigors of coaching
# Part 2: Being the hunted
# Part 3: Recruiting adjustments
# Part 4: Building quality depth
# Part 5: Starting fresh at QB
Consequently, when you attempt to recruit the marquee prospects as Notre Dame does, chances are you come up on the short end more times than not. It goes back to the greatest hitters failing seven out of 10 times, or even the greatest shooters in basketball coming up short at least half of the time. Weis said he’s adapted to this mode of thinking.
"You have to be willing to take some criticism from (writers and fans) when you don’t get a (top recruit) -- because if you don’t go after those guys in the first place, no matter who you’re competing with, you don’t know if you’ll ever have a chance of getting them," he said.
Weis acknowledged that he’s not completely comfortable with having nearly 70 percent of a recruiting class completed prior to the group’s high school senior year. Who’s to say a player hasn’t already peaked as an athlete in high school? Or what if a "late bloomer" emerges as a senior but doesn’t have room on Notre Dame’s recruiting bus?
"I don’t like the way it is now," said Weis of the accelerated recruiting pace. "My last stint in college was in the late 1980s (at South Carolina). Back then, you took your five visits after your senior year of football, and then in February you signed with somebody. It wasn’t this way. But this is how the rules are in recruiting now.
"That’s why I was at the (NCAA coaches) convention last year saying we should have an early signing period, because at least you would know that all these kids who committed early can go ahead and sign. And if somebody backed out on you, then you go get somebody else. That was my whole rationale: Let’s all know what we have. Some people would take the early signing in December. I would take it in August."
With 14 prospects in the bank and about eight more to go, the Irish staff must be judicious in how it hands out the remaining scholarships. Many of the blue-chips will wait until the U.S. Army All-American Game in January, and still others will hold off until February. This is an area where Weis is willing to bend a little and let a premier recruit set the rules. After all, he left spots open right until the end a couple of years ago for offensive lineman Sam Young and defensive lineman Gerald McCoy (Oklahoma). Some people are just worth the wait.
"You have to be careful when you’re doing this to make sure you don’t leave a good guy on the board," Weis said. "You got this player, but if your top guy wants to say yes -- come on down!"
At least a couple of scholarships also must be kept open for the late-blooming seniors, a la Taylor Dever last year.
"You always leave room for that, and the biggest place where that happens is the offensive line," Weis said. "There are guys who grow into their bodies. He might have been some big, dorky guy as a sophomore because he hadn’t caught up to his body, and then all of a sudden his senior year…there are also guys you take who aren’t going to be ready when they walk in the door.
"Even at Notre Dame, we take guys where people say, 'Why would they take him?' Well, you look at his frame, you look at his pedigree, whether it’s a father who played in the NFL or something else, you sometimes say, 'This kid’s going to be a monster by the time he’s done here.' Everyone wants the monster now. But there is room for a guy to come in here and, as (Bill) Parcells used to say, 'Go down to Joplin (Missouri).' Mickey Mantle was sent down to Joplin before the Yankees brought him up."
By Lou Somogyi
BlueandGold.com
The great athletes "let the game come to them" and don’t always force the action. On occasion, though, they do have to assert their will. Charlie Weis had a similar adjustment at Notre Dame when it came to recruiting.
In his first couple of years, Weis was amenable to play along with prospects and he was liberal in his stance on some issues. For example, if a recruit issued a nebulous "silent commitment" but still wanted to visit other schools, Weis provided the green light.
The events of last February have made the Irish head coach re-evaluate such a stance. It is akin to your fiancée saying, "I’d still like to get married, but I would like to date other people until the day of the wedding." Defensive end Justin Trattou (Florida), wide receiver Greg Little (North Carolina) and offensive lineman Chris Little (Georgia) all wore Notre Dame’s engagement ring, but each ended up going to the altar with someone else.
Steve Ruark/APNotre Dame head coach Charlie Weis is still adjusting to the recruiting game with the Irish.
"The biggest thing I’ve learned in recruiting is not just outworking people, which I believe you can do in a number of cases, but having a conviction strong enough that you’re willing to stick to it," Weis said.
"Recruiting is something too many people put in the hands of 17-year-olds and let them dictate the rules. Although it’s their decision, you still can establish the rules. And if people don’t want to play by the rules, then you have to find people who will. There are plenty of players in this country who can read and write and are good kids who can play. You can set the rules, but you just have to find the people who want to abide by them."
According to many in the adult community, and in psychological branches, most teen-agers or adolescents, as rebellious and cantankerous as they can be, deep down yearn for structure, discipline and heeding an authority figure. If you provide an adolescent an inch, he will take advantage of it -- and you. If you don’t, there’s a pretty good chance he will respect you more.
Some Irish followers feared that Weis’ hard-line stance on National Signing Day (2007) with future prospects would make them less apt to cast their lot with Notre Dame. Yet by early June, Notre Dame had 14 public verbal commitments, easily the most in school history, and more than double the same total last year.
"You want to know something: I’m having more success by having more, hard, fast rules than when my attitude was, 'Let’s just recruit the whole country,'" Weis said. "Think about it: How many kids are really family-oriented guys? Most of them are. So when you lay it out for them like that, they understand the concept. Every one of the kids I talked to about, 'Once you get married, there might be good looking girls walk by, but you’re married.' It’s not like, 'I can go with her, or I can go with her' -- they all understand that analogy. And if they don’t like that, they’re not going to fit here, no matter how good they are.
"So when I lose a kid, sometimes I lose him for the right reasons. You can’t believe how many kids say, 'I like the family atmosphere. I like the high character, the high standards.' It’s making a positive impression on them. When everyone thought it would be a deterrent, it’s had the opposite residual effect, which has been encouraging to me not so much as the head coach at Notre Dame, but as a person. It’s encouraging to me that there are enough people out there who 'get it.'"
There is another analogy to recruiting that Weis has learned to apply. The greatest hitters in baseball fail seven out of 10 times. Likewise, there is no shame in recruiting to expanding your pool and increasing the margin of error. If you are in need of five defensive linemen, for example, chances are you will have to look at 15 or 20 such prospects seriously, not just eight or nine.
The batting percentage in recruiting can’t always be around .500. Furthermore, what good does it do when you need four defensive linemen, offer four scholarships, and land two? You can brag about the .500 average, but it’s like hitting a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth when you’re four runs down.
The Irish staff already extended more scholarship offers to recruits by the middle of May this year than it did all of last year.
"If you’re going after four or five defensive linemen, you can’t offer four or five," Weis said. "You have to offer at least double that -- if you find them. Because for every one you’re offering, there are another 10 or 20 schools that are trying to get this kid as well. This year we’ve been more aggressive in going after the position where we’re taking multiple players.
"When you’re going after zero quarterbacks or just one, if you get a guy (early), then you’re closed for business (at the position)."
Recruiting has become a sport unto itself in the last couple of decades, but particularly in the last 10 years with the growth of the Internet. It used to be that whom a school landed was the main topic of conversation. Today, it’s just as much about all the prospects you failed to add to your haul.
Charlie Weis interview
# Part 1: Rigors of coaching
# Part 2: Being the hunted
# Part 3: Recruiting adjustments
# Part 4: Building quality depth
# Part 5: Starting fresh at QB
Consequently, when you attempt to recruit the marquee prospects as Notre Dame does, chances are you come up on the short end more times than not. It goes back to the greatest hitters failing seven out of 10 times, or even the greatest shooters in basketball coming up short at least half of the time. Weis said he’s adapted to this mode of thinking.
"You have to be willing to take some criticism from (writers and fans) when you don’t get a (top recruit) -- because if you don’t go after those guys in the first place, no matter who you’re competing with, you don’t know if you’ll ever have a chance of getting them," he said.
Weis acknowledged that he’s not completely comfortable with having nearly 70 percent of a recruiting class completed prior to the group’s high school senior year. Who’s to say a player hasn’t already peaked as an athlete in high school? Or what if a "late bloomer" emerges as a senior but doesn’t have room on Notre Dame’s recruiting bus?
"I don’t like the way it is now," said Weis of the accelerated recruiting pace. "My last stint in college was in the late 1980s (at South Carolina). Back then, you took your five visits after your senior year of football, and then in February you signed with somebody. It wasn’t this way. But this is how the rules are in recruiting now.
"That’s why I was at the (NCAA coaches) convention last year saying we should have an early signing period, because at least you would know that all these kids who committed early can go ahead and sign. And if somebody backed out on you, then you go get somebody else. That was my whole rationale: Let’s all know what we have. Some people would take the early signing in December. I would take it in August."
With 14 prospects in the bank and about eight more to go, the Irish staff must be judicious in how it hands out the remaining scholarships. Many of the blue-chips will wait until the U.S. Army All-American Game in January, and still others will hold off until February. This is an area where Weis is willing to bend a little and let a premier recruit set the rules. After all, he left spots open right until the end a couple of years ago for offensive lineman Sam Young and defensive lineman Gerald McCoy (Oklahoma). Some people are just worth the wait.
"You have to be careful when you’re doing this to make sure you don’t leave a good guy on the board," Weis said. "You got this player, but if your top guy wants to say yes -- come on down!"
At least a couple of scholarships also must be kept open for the late-blooming seniors, a la Taylor Dever last year.
"You always leave room for that, and the biggest place where that happens is the offensive line," Weis said. "There are guys who grow into their bodies. He might have been some big, dorky guy as a sophomore because he hadn’t caught up to his body, and then all of a sudden his senior year…there are also guys you take who aren’t going to be ready when they walk in the door.
"Even at Notre Dame, we take guys where people say, 'Why would they take him?' Well, you look at his frame, you look at his pedigree, whether it’s a father who played in the NFL or something else, you sometimes say, 'This kid’s going to be a monster by the time he’s done here.' Everyone wants the monster now. But there is room for a guy to come in here and, as (Bill) Parcells used to say, 'Go down to Joplin (Missouri).' Mickey Mantle was sent down to Joplin before the Yankees brought him up."