Crossing the Line in Recruiting?
May 19th, 2008 - byIf you have been reading this column for the last few weeks, you have no doubt seen the infamous Brennan Carroll USC walk-on video. This actually led to reports of Coach Rick Neuheisel of UCLA showing the video to prospective recruits. The LA Times reported on the fallout from the video:
An attempt at humor — something that Coach Pete Carroll said “we were just having fun with” — backfired on the USC program this week, prompting the school to pull a video off youtube.com.The footage was of Carroll’s son, Brennan, the Trojans’ tight ends coach, putting a group of potential walk-ons through a series of drills during a tryout.Throughout, Brennan Carroll is shown hamming it up for the camera — and using language laced with profanities.The video was produced by USC and originally posted on Pete Carroll’s website as part of a “mic’d up” series. It was taken down from the site when the school started getting negative feedback from those who didn’t perceive it as a joke.“It was just a silly thing we wanted to do because Brennan takes so much ownership of the walk-on tryouts,” said Ben Malcolmson, director of online media for petecarroll.com. “That was our goal. It was taken by a lot of people in the way it was not intended. It wasn’t serving its purpose if it wasn’t being received in the right light.”Malcolmson said when the video was first posted April 8 it was “overwhelmingly well received. But as time went on, I think it sort of shifted to a more negative perception.”Pete Carroll said the intent of the video was a “spoof.”Pete Carroll’s recruiting machine will continue running smoothly and Rick Neuhesisel still has a lot of ground to gain before Cal is on the same plane as USC, but the incident highlights the importance of impressions. Coaches are always looking for an edge on each-other to make a great impression on prospective Student Athletes. But, in all likelihood any mistakes they make will cause only a minor blip on the radar.
Recruits will never get a second to chance to make a great first impression, so they need to be prepared. Having questions ready and being able to politely and humbly respond to coaches are just two important pieces to the puzzle. NCSA strives to make sure that all of our Student Athlete’s are ready to make a great first impression. Are you ready?
