PLAYERS WILL PLAY
The second part of the philosophy is that the players must be able to produce on the field. After conducting a nationwide search and figuring out which coaches will go where, whether due to ties to the community through prior jobs or other means, it is time to identify which players we go after. First, we start where everyone starts, you look at ratings on all the websites and watch tape and mark them down, this is not revolutionary, but it is due diligence and it must be done.
Once the simple part is out of the way, then we dig in deeper. We go to MaxPreps, and we see who plays, who can succeed and put up yards, catches, and tackles and other relevant information.
Lets dive into how this can help recruiting and how guys who were ignored because of their ratings, were identified by myself that ended up becoming stars.
KEDON SLOVIS
QUARTERBACK
The former USC and Pittsburgh quarterback was a 2 star recruit coming out of Desert Mountain, AZ and didn’t even have a photo on 247 when he was first identified.
But his stats told a different story. 5 weeks through the high school season, Slovis was the number 3 passer in the state, ahead of higher ranked quarterbacks Spencer Rattler and Brock Purdy. Every play was cut up and I presented him in my weekly meetings where we went position by position with other student workers and I stood by, and still stand by, my opinion that this guy will be a future NFL Quarterback.
Many of the other students and even the DPP were skeptical, but he showed enough promise that we reached out and he came on an UNOFFICAL visit, we didn’t even have to plane an official visit. A few months go by and although I am pushing to recruit him harder, our coaches feel different.
Word gets out on twitter than Iowa and USC had offered him, and we go crazy. How could we let a QB who came on a visit himself slip through our fingers. Departments get lost in the stars and ignored the stats. Kedon Slovis didn’t have the stars in the beginning (ended up being a 3 star at the end of the season), but he could play and he had the stats to prove it
LOGAN STEWART
SAFETY
Now for a success story. It is post signing day and the team needs either transfers or JUCO players who can start contributing to the team from day one. Like usual, we first go through the transfer portal, then we go on 247sports to see any unsigned JUCO players. But that was not enough for me. For JUCO, and especially the ones that don’t get coverage, ratings do not capture everyone. So I begin doing the same process I did with Slovis. After spending hours combing through stats of JUCO’s that had underwhelming seasons, I was able to identify a player named Logan Stewart who played for Iowa Central. Luckily, he was born in Colorado and was in Fort Collins training. Although it took a while as we were transitioning DPP’s post signing day, we finally got Logan on campus and took him on as a walk-on. He contributed to the defense in practice, and one year later, Coach Bobo awarded him a full scholarship.
In conclusion, we can always start with the stars, but we need the stats and the film to back it up. Stewart and Slovis are just one of many examples where we identify players, not because of their stars, but because of their tape and stats.
