AFM RSS Feed Follow Us on Twitter       
AMERICAN FOOTBALL MONTHLY THE #1 RESOURCE FOR FOOTBALL COACHES
ABOUT |  CONTACT |  ADVERTISE |  HELP  



   User Name    Password 
      Password Help





Article Categories


AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


Tuesday Morning Quarterback

RECRUITING AS A LABEL
by: Richard Scott
© More from this issue

Click for Printer Friendly Version          

College football is big into labels. Some coaches are “ball coaches.” Some are “Xs and Os guys.” Some players are “solid.” Others are “raw.” Those labels seem harmless enough, but the subtle context they carry can be negative.


Not sure? Then ask yourself this: what do you think of when someone says, “he’s a recruiter?”

Do you think of a guy who works the phones, hits the road, charms mamas, wows daddies and builds relationships with coaches and school administrators and signs the best and the most players?

Maybe, but all too often we think of a guy who can ‘em but can’t really coach ‘em all that well. Even worse, all too often we think ... brace yourself ... minority.

“Being identified as a recruiter, I hate that,” Rodney Garner, Georgia’s defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator, told the Athens Banner-Herald. “I have a problem with that. They say ‘Rodney Garner. The recruiter.’ Nobody takes into consideration in 2001 I had two first-round draft picks – Richard Seymour and Marcus Stroud, the sixth and 13th pick in the draft. The next year we had Charles Grant. The next year Johnathan Sullivan. But ‘He’s just a recruiter.’”

It hardly seems to matter beyond Athens, Ga., that Garner is a hard-nosed ball “ball coach” who knows how to get the most out of his players, or that he’s worked hard to prepare himself for bigger, better things. But it should matter. Joe Whitt Jr. has seen this problem up close and personal. He grew up around the Auburn program when Garner was a player and a young assistant coach. He also grew up as the son of Joe Whitt, an Auburn assistant since 1981.

Many Auburn fans automatically assume Whitt is still on the staff because he can recruit, and while it’s true Whitt can recruit with the best of them, he’s also a solid, old-school “ball coach” who demands the most of his players – and gets it. Just ask all the players he’s sent to the NFL – and the undersized linebackers who helped Auburn go 13-0 last year.

Unfortunately for Whitt, he’s now 55 years old and he still isn’t a head coach or a coordinator. He’s never had any worthy offers. Could it be the fact that he’s “a recruiter?”

“My dad’s been at this level for 25 years and I think he’s the best linebacker coach - period,” says Whitt Jr., a 26-year-old Louisville assistant. “But the first thing people say about Joe Whitt Sr. is ‘he’s a recruiter.’ He’s a great recruiter, yeah, but he’s a better ball coach.”

Whitt’s son is also showing signs of being an effective recruiter, but he doesn’t want to get caught in the same old trap.

“That’s the first thing they want to say: all the young black guys are there to recruit,” Whitt Jr. says. “I’m a ball coach first. It’s tough sometimes but you have to go out there and prove yourself and make sure you get your name on the boards, come to the clinics, visit other schools, go to camps and let people know you want to be a coordinator and a head coach someday.”

In an effort to expand his knowledge and horizons, Whitt Jr. convinced Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino to move him from wide receivers to cornerbacks two years ago.

“Coach Petrino wants me to be a coordinator,” Whitt Jr. says, “but I need to keep learning and developing.”

In addition to the false assumption that good recruiters are just on the staff to recruit, good recruiters are often held back by their success on the recruiting trail.

“You get labeled as a recruiter, and you might be one hell of a coach, but think about this: most of your offensive and defensive coordinators don’t go on the road and if I’m a head coach and you’re my best recruiter, why should I move you to coordinator knowing that’s going to take you off the road,” says Carey Bailey, Minnesota’s defensive line coach. “If you are a good recruiter, you’re kind of in a Catch 22. I can’t get into a position of more responsibility and more money because I’m valuable to the program as a recruiter.”

The list of minority defensive coordinators is finally growing, with coaches such as Florida’s Charlie Strong, Miami’s Randy Shannon and South Carolina’s Tyrone Nix. The list of minority offensive coordinators grew by at least two in the off-season, but the most important aspect of both hires is that new Notre Dame offensive coordinator Michael Haywood was the recruiting coordinator and running backs coach at Texas and new Illinois offensive coordinator Mike Locksley was the recruiting coordinator and running backs coach at Florida.

Those are significant hires at major programs, hires that should open the eyes and minds of head coaches at every college level. However, those hires alone won’t be enough if minority coaches don’t continue to do everything they can to change the perception behind the “recruiter” labels.

Garner helped himself by attended two NCAA-sponsored seminars for minority coaches designed to address the shortage of minorities in head coaching positions. In those seminars he learned tips on interviewing, hiring a staff, implementing an offensive and defensive schemes, as well as crisis and time management skills.

“It was three days of intense training,” Garner said. “We started at 7:30 in the morning, we worked through lunch, worked through dinner. We’d get through at 10 or 11 o’clock at night. They were trying to cram a lot of information in a short period of time. I definitely feel like I benefited. I know it helped me become a better coach from an organizational standpoint.”

Still, there’s only so much Garner and his fellow “recruiters” can do. At some point university presidents, athletic directors and search committees have to do more to open their minds and move past labels and assumptions.


The game of football already carries enough negative labels. Can’t we start making things better by getting rid of the “recruiter” label?






NEW BOOK!

AFM Videos Streaming Memberships Now Available Digital Download - 304 Pages of Football Forms for the Winning Coach



















HOME
MAGAZINE
SUBSCRIBE ONLINE COLUMNISTS COACHING VIDEOS


Copyright 2024, AmericanFootballMonthly.com
All Rights Reserved