Example of GT recruitment issues

There seems to be some disconnect at GT over recruiting prospects. There is a situation at a local HS that disturbs me. CBB is the recruiter assigned to a 6' 6" 320 lb. junior O-lineman. He has been very interested in GT for a long time. CPJ has met the kid and they appear to be interested. The problem is that CBB recently visited the school and was talking to another possible recruit at the school. The entire time he was there, he never even checked in on this junior O-lineman at all. The young man already has an offer from an SEC school and has had talks with 2 other top level SEC schools and a top level ACC school. Wouldn't it make sense to at least check in with the 6' 6" junior O-lineman while trying to sign the other kid? Also of note, grades are not a problem with this particular kid. Very interesting that they don't seem to want to cultivate a rapport with the recruits and their families. What a shame. And that's just one story. That's the kind of thing that leads to GT ranking next to last in recruiting in the lowly ACC.

Originally Posted by zenbuzz

There seems to be some disconnect at GT over recruiting prospects. There is a situation at a local HS that disturbs me. CBB is the recruiter assigned to a 6' 6" 320 lb. junior O-lineman. He has been very interested in GT for a long time. CPJ has met the kid and they appear to be interested. The problem is that CBB recently visited the school and was talking to another possible recruit at the school. The entire time he was there, he never even checked in on this junior O-lineman at all. The young man already has an offer from an SEC school and has had talks with 2 other top level SEC schools and a top level ACC school. Wouldn't it make sense to at least check in with the 6' 6" junior O-lineman while trying to sign the other kid? Also of note, grades are not a problem with this particular kid. Very interesting that they don't seem to want to cultivate a rapport with the recruits and their families. What a shame. And that's just one story. That's the kind of thing that leads to GT ranking next to last in recruiting in the lowly ACC.

Aren't there restrictions on the number of times you can visit a recruit in person? I agree with your premise that we should be going out of our way to see kids as often as possible to "show the love", but sometimes the staff really isn't allowed to.

I'm sure that coaches can shake hands with any football player in the locker room, even if he is on a visit to see another player. Happens all the time.

We are on probation and must follow the rules to a T. You are only allowed a certain amount of times to visit a recruit in person. My guess is this is one of those wink wink rules but we are in a different situation basically over $350.00.

Apparently out terrible ranking is due to small class size. Avg star has us at #6 in ACC, but I think you do have to consider # of players pretty hard too. If we offered more players, we'd probably have to lower our standards to give out all of our scholarships. Didn't we have a small class last year too? Is
This going to catch up with us?

Originally Posted by dressedcheeseside

Sounds like you a close to this situation. Maybe not, I dunno. But it's very hard to make assumptions based on partial information. Who knows why the coach didn't "check in" on the kid. There could be a dozen legitimate reasons. Maybe the kid was in class taking a test? Maybe he didn't have a break in his schedule over the time period the coach planned on being there? Maybe the coach had an appointment with another prospect? Maybe the coach texted or called him and said "Yo son, I'll be at your school tomorrow but only for a brief time and I gotta see so and so. I'll check in with ya next time."

Even if this case is as you say, to extrapolate we don't cultivate relationships with kids as a general course of action across the whole staff based on this one incident is ridiculous.

Maybe not so ridiculous if the perception of the recruit or his family is affected. Also If one coach is ineffective at recruiting, it does reflect on the whole staff. There should be some unified approach to recruiting by the coaching staff. After all, we have a very low number of verbals and have lost guys regularly. I know others have too, but the other schools that lose players maintain a full slate of signees. We don't.

Originally Posted by HelluvaMGTmjr

Apparently out terrible ranking is due to small class size. Avg star has us at #6 in ACC, but I think you do have to consider # of players pretty hard too. If we offered more players, we'd probably have to lower our standards to give out all of our scholarships. Didn't we have a small class last year too? Is
This going to catch up with us?

No, the low ranking is because the players that we end up signing are not judged to be as good as what the other teams are signing---the accuracy of the evaluation process, notwithstanding (my favorite word, btw). We fare okay against the Temples and Marshalls and FAU's of the world. Against FSU, Georgia, Vanderbilt, and North Carolina, not so much.