PLAYER PERSONNEL
obtain information about players by watching them in action with a view to making recommendations about the acquisition of players
Identifying players is a challenge, you have hundreds of thousands of players all over the country looking to ball. From the large 6A schools to the small 7 on 7 teams, players are everywhere. But how do you narrow it down?
My philosophy is a simple concept, but takes time and dedication to perfect it week after week. The philosophy includes two parts that utilize statistics in order to find and evaluate not only the best players, but the best fits for our schools. First, that the search must begin nationwide, but narrowing down in the states and schools that will most likely produce players. And secondly, the players must be able to perform on the field. I will go into more detail below.
NATIONWIDE RECRUITING
In order to begin the search, we must first see what states produce the most players. Every year, I identify what states produce the most NFL Draftees after every draft. I do not go by birthplace, but by high school or junior college. The key is to identify which schools and which states can consistently produce key players, but also ensure that population is taking into account. Obviously the most populated states will statistically produce the most, but we must also identify states and schools that will consistently produce high level talent due to the resources available as well as coaching opportunities. Below are charts from 2014 to 2019
NATIONWIDE RECRUITING
As seen above, there is no shocker that Florida, Texas, and California are among the top performers when it comes to players drafted in the NFL, but there are a few states that became outliers that became crucial to recruiting when I was working in the player personnel office at Colorado State. In the 2019 NFL Draft, 13 players were selected from Ohio, a significant increase from prior years. So we noticed that Ohio was producing players that can play at a higher level. In the next class, CSU recruited two offensive linemen from Ohio. We also had to be realistic. As a good G5 school, we could recruit nationwide and grab from California and Texas, but we did not want to pool as our resources into schools like Florida and Pennsylvania, as we typically only received one recruit every cycle. So in this case, this was valuable information, but not enough. That is where the second part of the philosophy comes into play