What do college football fans get all excited about this time of year once the National Championship game is over? Recruiting. Recruiting. Recruiting. Fans start taking notice of who has a verbal commit or has signed with their school. College football fans also put a lot of stock into these recruits and how it will make their program better in the coming years.
Recruiting gets fans, coaches, and even sports writers excited when they see or don't see who is coming to their perspective campuses. Texas football legend Darrell Royal once said "It's not about the X's and O's but the Jimmys and Joes." What Royal allegedly said here is right on point with recruiting. People matter and the type of people who a coach recruits matters to viability of his program.
Recruiting matters. It's matters a whole lot.
Most college football coaches will tell you that recruiting does matter and that great players make their coach look even greater. To me, it's pretty simple math. If a team has more talented football players, then they have a greater chance at winning more games. Nick Saban has won his titles with some pretty talented athletes. Some people say coaching plays an equal role in winning, but I disagree with that. You could be the greatest coach on the planet like a Nick Saban, but if he didn't have those gigantic offensive and defensive lines, great running backs, and quarterbacks would he have all those national titles? I think not. Michigan has had some great teams in the history of that school, but have not been winning like usual the last few years. Is it the coaching or the talent of those kids? I still say it's the players.
People like saying that Phil Jackson is a great coach. He is, however, he still had the best talent on the planet to win his 11 NBA titles. When you have Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal it helps an awful bit.
Back to college football. Kids getting recruited these days have lots of options and are very much up on all the different ways they can get to know a school. Social media has changed everything for coaches. Coaches have to continually sell their program. That is why facilities, weight rooms, uniforms (Oregon), and who outfits the school have become such an increasingly huge part of the whole recruitment process. If a player goes up toe Eugene, Oregon and checks out what the Ducks have to offer and then goes to San Diego State, it's really a no brainer for that athlete. They go play for the Oregon Ducks. Schools are spending big, big money on how their facilities look and it is paying off handsomely for the big programs. Every Pac-12 university has undergone a face lift to improve their status with recruits. Public relations and advertising have put their footprint on college football.
Once schools get their facilities in check they want to get into the top 10 of recruiting classes. Schools that have played for the National Championship in the past seven years, averaged top 8 classes. That tells me that the better players have been on the better teams and are winning of winning titles for the school and their coaches.
Don't get me wrong, it's not like I am saying that coaches can simply role out the ball and the players just play great. The coaches do coach, but when the talent is that much better than everybody else it makes it easier for the coaches to do their job. Coaches can't coach speed, so when they get the faster players it's like playing men against boys.
In the end, recruiting is the big tool that coaches have that will spell doom or spell wins for them. The bottom line of college sports is winning, that is what coaches are judged on and fired on, so it is up to them and their coaching staffs to recruit the best players that fit their system. Fans and alumni hope that their coach is a master at getting the players that will bring glory to the team. Here's to wishing...
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