July 25, 2006
By Bob Chmiel
NCSA Recruiting Analyst Bob Chmiel, also a former Notre Dame and University of Michigan recruiting coordinator, breaks down how colleges initially identify talented high school football player:
When I first arrived onto the college football scene in 1979, most colleges and universities began the recruiting process by sending envelope-sized questionnaires to high school coaches. One side held the address of the school and the coach. The other side was a standard generic printed note from the head coach requesting and thanking the recipient for the completion of the form. As it was folded, the inside then contained the actual form to be completed and the final fold was a self-addressed and postage paid for return to the college address.
There was another side of the questionnaire to be completed by the high school coach. It contained a series of boxes that asked for the name, position, height, weight, 40-time, grade point average, address and telephone number of the prospect recommended. Additionally, there would usually be four to five spaces for names of prospects, along with three to four below that for rising juniors.
Some of the colleges asked for the coach to grade the individual as to his ability to compete at the collegiate level. As I am writing, I am thinking, "wow, that was a bit primitive," but yet the way of the times.
When, and if, the high school coach completed the form, he merely placed it in the mail and returned it to the college. Upon arrival at the college, it was duplicated and filed away. The original form went to the coach geographically responsible for the area.
The college coach assigned then went through a second process of elimination in that he would analyze the prospects and place a check next to those young men who he initially felt passed, as reported in his questionnaire.
The coach then took this form back to the recruiting secretary and those individuals checked were put into the system. The secretary, after sending out the initial college football questionnaire, checked the card and returned it to the geographical coach.
The coach then filed it in a small filing box in his office with other prospects in the system. For state schools, this process could be effective in that in those days, recruiting was much more provincial. For a school that recruited nationally, this method was logistically impossible.
Think with me, there are approximately 20,000 high schools in the United States. If half of these schools responded with two prospects, you would have an overload of names to deal with…a logistical nightmare.
What was critical in those days was staff continuity, the same coaches going back to the same areas and bringing back the names of sophomores, juniors and even freshman, to be placed on a watch list.
As the years passed and with the advent of the VCR, the calendar driven process was drastically moved up. Information came earlier and coaches wanted more and more from the recruiting office.
Also, as the years passed, it became apparent that those people who sold recruiting lists were becoming more proficient, more accurate, more respected and turning out their product in a more timely fashion. Coaches were establishing rapport with the authors of these services. Those relationships can become beneficial, but present yet another scenario and a topic in themselves. In the mid-1980's, these list took on a large role in the process and every recruiting coordinator was searching for that perfect and most accurate list. Every day saw yet another letter in the mail introducing a new recruiting service. Some were as specific as, "the best recruiting list in West Texas."
Now to get to the original question at hand…how do colleges and universities initially identify talented high school football players? As you can see, the process is ongoing and the evaluation of the process changes constantly. The present information, and the accuracy of that information, is better than ever.
So what is the answer? My first response is that the best information is through the resources of the coaches on staff. Are nine men able to accurately survey the entire country? The answer is obvious.
The staff then turns to "RELIABLE and TRUSTED" sources. In other words, recruiting services that have stood the test of time and through past research by going over their offerings, have shown to be accurate and without agenda.
Hypothetically, let's take the best four recruiting services and place those players who they felt were of a can't miss variety, and put them into a computer. Then ask that computer to generate a list of players whose names appeared on three of the four lists. This creates a very good "starting point" for your recruiting effort.
Again, RELIABLE SOURCES are a must. Who are they? That is up to you, the recruiting coordinator, to decide.
