It’s often said to raise children; it takes a village. Recruiting isn’t all that much different.
You don’t close as strong as West Virginia did down the stretch without a total team effort something that spans every department within a football program. And I do mean every department.
“Recruiting is a total team effort,” head coach Neal Brown said.
Yes, the head coach and ten assistants play a critical role in the process by offering, visiting and connecting with various prospects on the recruiting board but behind the curtain there is much more.
The process begins with a recruiting department, headed by director of player personnel Brian Bennett. The group, along with recruiting coordinators Casey Smithson and Scott Gasper review and evaluate film of prospects and assign grades to each.
That process starts with an intern putting the prospects into a database and then the trio of recruiting department personnel, along with Matt Jansen assigning a grade to each of the prospects after evaluating them. There is an R put in front of that grade to symbolize that the recruiting department has evaluated.
From there, it goes to the graduate assistants who do their own grade at positions off an evaluation and a G is put in front of the grade. It then goes to the assistant coaches, first an area and then individual position coaches, who make their own positional evaluations and grades before sending it back to Bennett and ultimately Brown to make a final decision on a scholarship offer.
"Most kids end up with between four and five evaluations," Bennett said.
Already for the 2021 class there are over 1,000 in the system and Bennett expects to have around 1,500 evaluations initial done for the class by the time it's over.
Once the prospects are identified as potential recruits and make it to campus, they are greeted by on-campus recruiting coordinator Katie Guisto and assistant LaChelle Stanley who handle and coordinate the hosting of the players and the families when they’re visiting. That is along with the assistant coaches and others that make a player feel welcomed in Morgantown.
The Mountaineers put an emphasis on developing relationships with prospects at multiple levels. It's a strategy that boils down to building more connections which leads to prospects having more reasons to eventually pick the Mountaineers.
"I want a kid when he thinks of west Virginia to think of eight smiling faces instead of just one," Bennett said.
When a player is on campus they also are introduced to the academic aspects with Brittney O’Dell and her staff and that is a key area when dealing with parents. And there has been campus involvement as well as Brown highlighted that four deans met with potential recruits to personally answer questions.
“That just shows buy-in across campus,” he said.
Strength and conditioning, led by Mike Joseph, is another critical piece which is often of the utmost importance to recruits who are focused on developing to get them to the next level. Helping in that department is the sports science aspect that Joseph has incorporated into his regimen to give the Mountaineers an edge over opponents.
Nutrition and student enhancement are also key aspects that recruits are interested in and the Mountaineers are covered in that department as well.
“We do a tremendous job behind the scenes. They aren’t names you hear a lot but they play a critical role behind the scenes,” Brown said.
There is additional support from Coleman Barnes, in branding, and Patrick Johnston in the operations standpoint to go along with outreach from Will Johnson, who is in charge of former player outreach.
Player involvement has been critical as well to show the buy-in from the top, down. The Mountaineers select players to host recruits on official visits and they also have been involved in a player panel at junior days where prospective recruits and their families can ask questions about the day-to-day in the program without the coaches involved.
“Our players are a big part of the process and I don’t think that’s something that gets talked about enough,” Brown said.
The final aspect comes with the digital media and branding that has become an important aspect of recruiting with videos and graphics. That department is headed by Austin Gaines and is just another piece to a larger puzzle that leads to prospects eventually picking the Mountaineers.
It’s a lot of moving pieces, but one that must come together to make it all work.
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