A history of recruiting; how coaches have stayed a step ahead

pjnchamps · Jun 23, 2008

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/andy_staples/06/19/recruiting.main/index.html?eref=T1

<H1>Posted: Monday June 23, 2008 1:15PM; Updated: Monday June 23, 2008 2:03PM

Andy Staples>INSIDE RECRUITING

<H1>A history of recruiting; how coaches have stayed a step ahead
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Story Highlights

Through the years coaches have come up with innovative ways to recruit

Former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer used the 'rules' to his advantage

Once the NCAA bans something, like texting recruits, coaches find something else

Oregon wooed players like Kyle Williams by producing personalized comic books and fake SI covers.
Courtesy of Deryk Gilmore

Deryk Gilmore knew the idea had worked when he read that a recruit had referred to himself as "Bonecrusher" during an interview. Gilmore, then the director of player development at Oregon, had assigned each of the Ducks' top recruiting targets for the class of 2004 with a superhero's nickname. Each player got his own logo, and those logos adorned the mailings Oregon coaches sent each week.
Gilmore one-upped himself the following year. "Players want to be larger than life," said Gilmore, who now uses his marketing savvy to help his clients as an agent for Priority Sports and Entertainment. "We had to find a way to make them larger than life."
Gilmore enlisted Oregon students Brett Kautter, Heather Terry and Brian Merrell to create a one-of-a-kind recruiting tool that -- while still adhering to NCAA rules -- would make recruits think of Oregon as the nation's coolest program.
So when Oregon coaches identified their top 20 prospects for the class of 2005, Gilmore and his staff designed custom comic books starring each recruit as the hero who leads the Ducks to a national title. Because NCAA rules at the time only allowed programs to send letter-sized, black-and-white pages to recruits, Gilmore sent each prospect one page a week. After a few months, the recruit had the full comic book. And when that recruit came to Eugene for an official visit, he would find the bound, full-color book sitting on a table, possibly alongside a fake Sports Illustrated cover -- attached to a real copy of the magazine -- featuring the prospect wearing an Oregon uniform and holding the Heisman Trophy.
Recruits loved the books, and they helped the Ducks land several stars. For example, Jonathan Stewart didn't lead the Ducks to a national title the way he did in Snoop: A Hero Is Born, but he did become the school's second-leading rusher in just three seasons. Before they could immortalize the class of 2006 in graphic-novel form, Gilmore and his team received the ultimate backhanded compliment -- the NCAA banned the books.
College sports' governing body decreed that only material created by coaches could be mailed to recruits. The decision prompted Oregon compliance director Bill Clever to tell The Oregonian: "Unless one of our coaches is (Doonesbury creator) GarryTrudeau, it wouldn't be permissible within the spirit of the rule....

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CParso · Jun 23, 2008

Interesting. I'd never heard that story about Oregon before - what an innovative idea.

I'm unaware of anything really original that our coaches do, and that is fine with me.

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A history of recruiting; how coaches have stayed a step ahead

pjnchamps Founding Member

CParso Founding Member

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