March 24, 2006
NCSA welcomes Bob Chmiel to the team as featured spokesman and football recruiting expert. Chmiel brings more than 20 years of experience in recruiting, coaching and personnel development under famed coaches Lou Holtz, Bo Schembechler, and Lee Corso. He spent seven years as Notre Dame's director of football operations and recruiting coordinator/assistant coach. Prior, Chmiel was the University of Michigan's football recruiting coordinator, where he also served as an assistant coach.
After completing his coaching career, Chmiel worked as a college football analyst for ESPN and has also provided commentary for Comcast Sports. He currently writes for Blue and Gold Publications and hosts "Sports Talk" on WSBT Radio in South Bend, Indiana.
Recently, Chmiel stopped by NCSA to work with our Recruiting Coaches evaluating football talent. He also shared his thoughts on recruiting, training and the benefits of NCSA:
What do you look for in recruits?
I always say that number one, you have to be the right kind of person to be recruited and avoid getting into any kind of trouble. Number two, you have to be the best student that you can possibly be. Remember, you can always improve as a student. There is always the opportunity to learn and grow. College admissions representatives are often concerned with the most immediate grades, grades as a junior rather than as a freshman, because those show development and dedication.
The other thing I tell student-athletes is to show as much leadership as you possibly can and try to be the best teammate you can possibly be. There are different forms of leadership - leadership by example and leadership by being vocal, both are important. When a college coach starts to recruit you, you're part of a puzzle. The pieces are all on the table and as the pieces start to fit in, they show the true picture of you as an individual and where you fit into the team.
I also tell student-athletes that if they want to play football, there is a place for them to play football. When Michigan plays Notre Dame on Saturday and Hope College plays Kalamazoo College, that game is as important to them as the Michigan-Notre Dame game. I also tell kids to look at the NFL Draft and the schools in the draft. There are guys being drafted from schools that I'd never heard of. Last year there were three schools with athletes being drafted that I wasn't familiar with. So there's always the opportunity to showcase yourself on any level and if not, the results of playing football at a high level will help you take off in life too.
What skills and/or physical traits do you look for in student-athletes?
There are certain skills that are either nature or nurture. Every player that I've ever evaluated, I've looked at from the feet up. If an individual doesn't have the ability to move their feet or conversely, the less ability they have to move their feet, the more they slide down the chain of recruits. Footwork is critically important.
The other thing to remember is, no matter what you do in football attempt to remain in the football position. Work to be a knee bender as opposed to a waist bender. When I evaluate if the athlete has the ability to get lower to make a tackle or has to get lower to be a blocker, I want to make sure they bend at the knees, not at the waist.
How would NCSA have been beneficial to you when you were recruiting student-athletes?
Over the years, going from 16-millimeter film to VCR and DVD made evaluating student-athletes quicker and easier. Evaluating 16-millimeter film took a long time because the film was of each game in its entirety, rather than clips of a specific athlete. The May Evaluation Period was actually an evaluation period. We went to the high schools to see athletes play because we hadn't seen them before unless we'd previously been to their games.
Now with the use of DVDs and computers, you have the innovative product that NCSA has developed - the virtual tryout. For a coach, the virtual tryout provides instant access through the computer, and for the student-athlete it permits communication with coaches to be quicker and easier. Coaches have the chance to determine at what level an individual will have the ability to compete by evaluating performance highlights online rather than waiting for a tape in the mail. Before, student-athletes could be chasing rainbows, spending a lot of time and money contacting schools on their own that they were never going to be recruited by. Now, with the ability to be evaluated faster and with NCSA's guidance, they start to become more realistic earlier. This allows them to consider options that they otherwise wouldn't have and ultimately find the right fit.
I believe NCSA really helps student-athletes, coaches and parents in so many ways. But I don't think the final chapter for NCSA has been written yet. I think it will evolve into something even bigger.
