After I posted the podcast Saturday, and we since we have had our discussions about where Hill and Pugh should play, I started wondering more about the more human parts of college football recruiting.

We all pretty much know the NCAA rules and regulations behind the recruiting process with the official and non-official visits, verbal commitments, dead and quiet periods, Letter Of Intent day(LOI), etc…  But I began to scratch my head and ponder just what a head coach and recruiting staff really look for in recruits.

I have a good friend here in Maryland who is a legendary head coach in Maryland (Baltimore) High School football, Roger Wrenn.  He was in the football coaching profession for 43 years and retired with 14 city championships to his credit.

One thing to understand about Coach Wrenn’s position in high school ball here in Maryland is that Baltimore County football is taken as seriously here as WPIAL football is in PA.  Way above what the PGH City League is like in fact and national reputation.

I’ve talked with Coach Wrenn extensively on the subject of recruiting and he firmly maintains that the ‘best’ college HCs look at raw talent and character combined first.

Raw talent (as opposed to finished talent which might mean the talent ceiling has been met – more on that later) is the key for the first look – meaning that is what gets the staff’s attention.  But he also maintains it means noting if that kid can’t subjugate his ego and become ‘coachable’ and become a team player if he isn’t already.

High school recruits are often the star and center of attention on their teams and in many cases feel ‘separate from’.  That is where their character comes in.  Either the kid has it already and is a true team player or the staff sees a personal abilityfor the player to be able to become a team player once in college and no longer the star.

So based on my prior conversations with Rodger and my previous understanding of the recruiting game, sparse as it is, I did some researching to see what other coaches have to say about it, what they look for in recruits and their approaches to the recruitment process.

I decided to whittle down my research to address five main questions I have about the recruiting process that we are all somewhat familiar with but may not know all that much about.  I also wanted to choose subjects that fit in with our own discussions about Pitt’s current 2016 recruiting class.

I’ll address two of those five questions this morning:

Here goes:

1.  When do college staffs first get seriously interested in potential recruits?

We have talked on here about the fact that Pitt’s Thomas MacVittie may be behind the 8-ball a bit because he didn’t start at QB until his SR year in college. Personally I think that makes a difference in how he was viewed by prospective schools who were deciding whether or not to offer him a scholarship.

On the face of it his offers are sparse – Cincinnati, Toledo,a late offer from LSU and of course Pitt. On the other hand he committed very early on in the process and because he didn’t start before his SR year he may have been overlooked by the bigger schools.  Except, IMO, OSU – they don’t miss anything at all in the state of Ohio, especially if the kid went to Moeller HS.

But the truth is that in this day and age the scouting process start as soon as the kid hits 9^th or 10^th grade and in most cases ends directly after his junior year in HS.  Yes, that is correct – most recruits’ senior seasons don’t mean much to recruiters.  Now, the recruitment pressure continues up until the morning of LOI Day.  But the scouting has been done and finished before that.

In June of 2014 Athlon magazine’s website had a good article on this titled “High School Senior Seasons Are An Afterthought”.  In it we read this:

“With the explosion of combines, camps and websites like HUDL, which allow prospects to upload their own highlights, college coaches agree: As it concerns top prospects, the senior season is obsolete.

 Recruiting works at hyper-speed in 2014. Coaches race to get to a prospect first simply to call dibs. The prevalence of unofficial visits and online scouting websites has sped up the cycle. By early May, 33 of Rivals’ Top 100 2015 prospects were committed to a school. 

Bob Shoop, the defensive coordinator at Penn State (at the time), says he and his staff have already watched film of 150 safeties in the Class of 2015 and a “significant” number of local 2016 prospects in the region. These days, coaches can’t afford to wait for senior film; they have to evaluate prospects and determine if they’re good enough much earlier. 

“A significant portion of evaluation is done well prior to the senior year,” Shoop says. “It’s sort of become, ‘let’s get an offer out to this guy, let’s get one out to that guy.’”

That isn’t to say a kid is screwed if his JR year is a slump from his previous play.  Some high school players may not remain on the national radar when that happens, especially if they were probable 2* – marginal 3*when they would be rated.

But local colleges have hired scouts and trusted alumni who have been watching high school games in the area for years and will recommend players based on the two characteristics mentioned above:

As always, there are exceptions. As a junior at Katy High School in Texas, Andy Dalton didn’t even start full-time at quarterback. He split time and wasn’t handed the reins until he was a senior. Now an NFL starting quarterback, Dalton had just two offers in high school: UTEP and TCU, where he ultimately ended up.

“Sometimes people can get overlooked,” says Memphis coach Justin Fuente, who coached Dalton at TCU. “We take a little bit more of an old-school approach to it. We try to slow down just a little bit.”

Well – there it is, Maybe MacVittie is the next Andy Dalton.  What this quote does show is that college recruiting is a game of attrition so to get your school’s foot in the recruit’s door you have to be ready and quick with the offer.

This is why we see so damn many offers out to so many kids.  Again – when I look at the offers Pitt has out to the 2018 senior HS class, two years in the future, I discount most of them because all that a ‘formal’ offer is at that point is a piece of paper in the mail vice a phone call.  Right now we have 44 offers to the ’18 class and three offers out, three years early for the ’19 class – to kids that were 15 or 16 year old high school freshman last season.

2. What do the high school players themselves have to do to be recruited?

Above we talked about the schools targeting young players, those who are so talented at that age the schools feel they have to offer or they’ll miss out on a possible ‘can’t miss’ star player.  I’d think, without looking it up, that these are the kids who the recruiting services are giving the 4* and 5* designations to after their JR years – or even earlier in some cases.

But the vast majority of high school players are not going to get that number of stars next to their name.  The 3* and 2* players are most likely going to have to work their butts off to 1) get recognized as a decent prospect and 2) play well enough (talent) and keep their academics up and noses clean (character) for the schools to take a chance on giving them one of a limited 85 total scholarships.

Bleacher Report did a good piece on this issue back in 2013 that is timely today.

“On the players’ side, it is still early. Offers generally don’t start pouring in until the end of the spring of junior year. Up to that point, it’s about getting exposure through unofficial visits, camps and making sure the schools have your tapes.

Oh, and most importantly, working hard.  People often discount just how hard football players like Jadeveon Clowney work to get to signing day.

These kids do not get nearly enough credit for working hard to position themselves for success. Talent comes naturally, but harnessing that talent, putting in the work in the weight room and getting great play on film takes hard work.

These guys are not given anything, and any player who has been through the process will let you know just how much of “just being a kid” they missed to set themselves up for future success.

Note: We talked a few days ago about MacVittie’s decision to remain in school for his senior year even though he could have graduated early and enrolled in time for the spring practice/scrimmages as RB Chawntez Moss has done.

“Just being a kid” is exactly the reason why most recruits choose not to do so – in essence this is their last gasp at being a somewhat normal teenager doing normal teenage things. However, the fun and social aspects of a senior year in high school aside, some recruits need that extra three months of school, and sometimes summer school or tutoring, to meet the NCAA and university academic requirements.

Remember that a college cannot have anything to do with a recruit prior to a LOI being signed.  Pitt, and other schools, can’t provide tutoring or – the biggest misconception out there – send the player to a prep school.  Schools just can’t do that.  They can, and do, call schools like The Kiski School  locally or the well-know football factory Milford Academy in upstate NY.  BTW – Kiski is one of my almost-alma mater high schools.

During their junior season, most players are invited to unofficially visit the campus for a game. Basically, players get to see the on-field product and some of the behind-the-scenes things that make a program work.”

Essentially, it is an ordeal.  Once summer time hits, coaches are begging kids to get to their camp. Camp is important from the school’s perspective for a couple of reasons.

First and foremost, schools get to really assess the caliber of the athlete. They can get their own heights, weights, 40 times and such. They don’t have to rely on combines, scouting services, the kids themselves or the high schools for that easily manipulated information.

Emphasis mine and this is why I don’t put too much stock in recruit sites evaluations and stars.  The schools use them only to get names of players they don’t already know about.  They can act as a baseline for discussion but I don’t use them much beyond that.

My head coach friend Rodger? He firmly believes the recruiting sites are strictly in the business of making money and will say and write basically what local fans want to hear about the recruits their schools are considering – especially in the recruits are in the same geographic area as the school itself.

That makes sense and I’ll take his experienced word on it.  I talked to a different high school coach who said that he called a recruiting site that had listed one of his players as a 4* – when the kid truthfully wasn’t that good of a player. “Good, but not that good” was how the coach phrased it to me.

The coach wanted some background on how that four star award happened and never got a call-back.  He figured that because the local college had gotten a verbal from the player two years earlier that factored into the site’s decision.

But this is also why we never see a recruit getting his rating downgraded after his senior year if he doesn’t play well.  At least I can’t remember every seeing it happen.

We’ll see a star added to a recruit by a specific site here and there and fans love that, but it pisses subscribers off when you take their kids’ star away.  Do that too many times and it hits the recruiting sites pocketbook.

But here is a really interesting part – what happens when the players themselves start visiting schools?

“Recruiting is a delicate, intense ordeal for both players and coaches.

Kids can break things up by taking the wrong visit, trying to play both sides against the middle or not showing enough interest. Coaches can lose kids by saying the wrong thing to a mom or simply not telling the kid what he needs to hear.

It goes unmentioned, but current players can lose potential student-athletes because of official visits. Poor pairings result in a bad experience for all the parties involved, and while the goal is to get talent, no one wants to play with kids they do not like during the visit. Coaches must understand who the recruit truly is and who on his roster would fit with that youngster’s personality.”

We saw this in living color when PSU and Pitt were competing for LeSean McCoy’s services…From the PSU Black Shoes Diaries:

McCoy was rumored to be Penn State bound all through 2005.  Internet rumor stated during his official visit to Penn State he got in a fight with Michael Robinson which led him to commit to Miami. But either his grades or his SAT scores prevented him from enrolling, so he attended prep school for a year in 2006 to get his grades up.

With Larry Coker on the hot seat all season McCoy reopened his recruiting. He was spotted on the University Park campus several times leading many to believe he was PSU bound. It was rumored he was awaiting his latest SAT scores before announcing his decision, but it was expected he was going to commit before the holidays. As the days and weeks wore on, it was becoming apparent something was going on. Now we know.

Of course that was slanted terribly and just plain wrong – McCoy has a very serious ankle injury in his SR year of high school that would have kept him from playing for Miami right away so Miami pulled the offer. But the rumor about the Robinson fight has been verified and, thanks to Robinson for that, we had McCoy for two years.

2.A. What do the university’s staff and scouts look for in a player?

Great question Reed, thanks for asking!

Here is a very good website that addresses just this issue and delves into what happens when a player wants to be recruited and, in turn, a school wants to recruit a player.  For an example, let’s show what the scouts look for in a BCS (now called FBS) level QB:

Physical Mensurable:

Height: 6’4″ Weight: 220 lbs.

Stats:

40yd: 4.5,  Bench: 260 lbs.,   Squat: 425 lbs.

Coach Keys:

Must be polished.

Pro-Style QBs or Passing Spread QBs should be able to throw the Deep Out, Comeback, Dig, and Seam Route with no loft.

Should be able to throw ball through goalpost from opposite 40 yard line.

Proficient ability to throw receivers open and execute the back shoulder throw.

Dual-Threat QBs may be raw as passers but should show as the best pure athlete on the field in every game and possess elite size/speed combinations.

Has to have demonstrated QB ability multiple years at an All-State level or High All Area/District at a minimum.

Should have recognition from national recruiting media and log performances on the camp and combine circuit.

Remember that is an itemized punch list for a scout to use in finding prototype big-time QB when sifting through the many, many high school QBs there are out there. But there is a ton of room for interpretation here.

For instance – what in hell does “Must be polished” mean in this list of requirements? Should the kid be able to set a proper formal dinner table for six including a shrimp fork, three wine glasses and a finger bowl?  Of course not, unless Yale is looking at you – then you’ll probably end up as a Wiffenpoof and live with a ‘partner’ after your college career is finished.

We know that phrase pertains to football but just how does one wear that cloak of polishment? (New word, really!)  Does it mean cool under pressure – well, if so a SR in HS is most probably more mature and able to be that than a SO.  And if you have a good OL in front of you it is much easier to remain calm in the pocket then when a LB is sitting on your face every other play.  But then again we have read that a SR season is an ‘afterthought’…?

That’s subjective as can be… and really is kind of unnecessary to list IMO.

Has to have demonstrated QB ability multiple years at an All-State level or High All Area/District at a minimum.  This makes sense in that if the premise that a player’s senior season is an ‘afterthought’ then he had better have a decent resume before that.  I suppose most high school QBs who are recruited into FBS schools have been multiple year starters, but then again we know there are exceptions.

Of course we here at Pitt hope that caveat doesn’t apply in MacVittie’s case.  What happened with him is that because of his ‘tangibles’ (also listed above) Pitt took a good look at him, got him into camp and offered based on a projection that he’ll pick up the college game as he goes through his underclass years.

Now, be able throw the ball through the goal posts from the opposite 40 yard line (70 yards away).  I remember when the Ravens drafted QB Kyle Boller with their 1^st pick of the NFL draft years ago – the then Ravens coach, Brian Billick, was an ex-NFL OC and loved the strong armed kids who could go deep.

He even went so far as to make a press release video of Boller doing the above on one knee!!  OMG!!

The problem with Boller was that he couldn’t remember the plays very well, or what he was doing out there at times and completely failed in the pros.  He had a strong arm and a bucket head.

So what happens next for the Ravens? Billick bites the bullet and acquires noodle armed Trent Dilfer who had a football computer in his cranium and they win the super bowl.

Dual-threat QBs must be the best pure athlete on the field… Well then, Pitt need not be looking for this as long as Whitehead takes the field for us. Sorry, load of crap.  Let’s drop the drama and say he must be equally good at both aspects, passing and running, and be able to beat the defense either way.

And finally the most realistic – Should have recognition from national recruiting media and log performances on the camp and combine circuit.

Notice it say “recognition” and not 4* or 5*s.  The fact here is that the national recruiting media is so damn large these days the kids that are completely overlooked are few and far between.  This goes back to what we have said on here before in that schools will use services to identify prospects but will do the evaluations – hence the second part of that sentence – on their own.

I have heard many times that offers have been issued based on the staff seeing a film of a player only but that is pretty rare and usually happens after the majority of the recruiting class is filled out anyway.  What happens more often is that the staff sees a film then calls the players and asks him to take a visit or come to a camp so they can see him in person – then the decision to offer or not is made.

Sometimes that happens on the spot and sometimes it’s a ‘We’ll call you later.” type of deal.

The bottom line of college football recruiting is that it isn’t a scientific process nor is it smoke and mirrors.  It is really a combination of both with some just plain gambling throw in.  We Pitt fans know that we have had 4* and 5* kids not pan out and falter – either on the field of play or because of other issues.

It is those other issues that are the hardest to quantify.

Another coach told me that he once had a solid and talented recruit who had a choice between the University of Maryland, which is right in the kid’s backyard and an offer from Nebraska in the Midwest.  The coach strongly advised him to take the local offer because he knew the recruit was from a strong and supportive family and that he was a Mama’s Boy in the sense that he was antsy when he was away from the family on camp trips, attending combines, etc.

However, the boy’s father, absent for much of the player’s young life, told the kid to go to the bigger school that put more players in the pros.  In essence looking at dollar signs rather than a good and happy college experience for his kid. (Stop me if you have heard this before Mr. Foster).

You can guess the outcome.  The kid last one year, transfers to a D2 school because at that point he’s old news and so on and so on.  It happens all the time.

The question marks could be staying at home when they should go away from influences, leaving a girlfriend behind, the harder to handle academic level in college, partying with upperclassmen and a whole new group of football hanger-ons.

And most often if a player can’t navigate the minefield of college ball and fails to succeed (and by that I mean have a four year run in college without personal problems) it is the inability to abide by the rules and requirements set down by the university and coaching staff  or… just simply not being the center of attention any longer.

There are so many factors involved other than the fact that the player has a strong or not arm or what the player’s 40 time is or what he can bench press.

A great example of these external factors at work was Pitt’s recruitment of Mark Myers. Here was a great kid from a great family and had all the measurable you’d want in a QB.  Played on an Ohio championship team and just really looked the part of the prototype QB a school wants.

Rivals.com loved the kid and rated him at 4*s, #11 nationally and in their top 300 players.  Great get huh?  The problem was – and this is how very subjective recruiting services are – the other sites had him as 3*s and 32^nd, 44^th and 103^rd of that year’s QBs.

He was going to be Wannstedt’s QB of the future.  But life got in the way and Mark Myers became disillusioned by the lack of playing time and the required role of the QB under Todd Graham.

But more importantly Myers didn’t find the level of fun at a D1 school in Pitt like he had in HS.  His academics slipped and he finally pulled out to go to John Carroll – where he was closer to home and recovered the joy in the game he had lost at Pitt.  He flourished.

No recruiting site or scout is going to be able to predict that from watching the kid play a few games in high school and no staff is going to see that unfold because ‘Having fun’ isn’t one of the things on the QB position’s checklist above.

EDIT Note: I started writing this on Sunday morning… We’ll have the Part 2 of this article either tomorrow morning or I’ll finish it up on Thursday.  Oh, and Devin Street’s little brother just verbalized to Pitt.  Yea Us!