Recruiting Thoughts and Recruiter Pages

Caw Caw · December 5, 2016

So made a bowl ahead of schedule. There were missed opportunities for us to do better mid-season, but we overachieved. I've been thinking long and hard about where we sit in recruiting. I've spent a ton of free time looking through our lists of offers, checking social media, etc. I'm currently in sales so this part of the game is really interesting to me. Let me start with something we don't look at and isn't really utilized for out school. Below are some (read: all that have more than two recruits) of our coaches recruiting pages. Ekeler's and Litrell's show their last schools, but that's really it. I did like looking at this to see the type of talent they have brought in, in the past, at P5 programs. I think we as a fan base, and them as an Athletics Department, should be doing more to get these recruiter profiles updated and put on the right schools. Also we should be updating who's recruiting who, I think for parents/kids doing there homework it's a good way to check someone's reputation and build it. Personally I think it adds to the recruiters "skill" or at least the perception of.

Our Coaches (All former team pages):

http://247sports.com/Coach/Mike-Ekeler-354/AllTimeRecruits

http://247sports.com/Coach/Seth-Littrell-161/AllTimeRecruits

http://247sports.com/Coach/Troy-Reffett-1106

For Reference:

http://247sports.com/Season/2017-Football/CompositeCoachRankings?Conference=C-USA (C-USA recruiter rankings)

http://247sports.com/Coach/Ryan-Silverfield-3832 (Highest Rated G5 Recruiter from 24 this year)

Look, I'm not going to fully judge the class until closer to signing day, I'm hoping there are some bigger pieces in the pipeline slowing down the rest of the class. I know that's wishful thinking, and probably unlikely but this staff has surprised us with early results so far, so i'm at least going to give them their first full recruiting cycle to prove them wrong. I will say that coaches twitters and some of what i'm considering our uncommitted offers have been way too quiet for me to be comfortable. We really need to step up the social media game. It is a HUGE piece to today's puzzle. Kids are asking for picture edits, etc. They want to be able to see themselves playing for their schools ahead of time. Honestly one of my favorite recruiting tools ever released was the quotes from Trice talking about becoming Miami for the DFW. It starts with one great class who decides to stay home and represent the DFW. We should be bombarding social media with that kind of message. These coaches are young, and I realize that they don't have a lot of time, but if they aren't going to do social media directly it needs to be outsourced (I'd probably do it for free to a point).

As a lot of people have pointed out, facilities, coach and staff, cost of living subsidy, academics, campus life, etc. All being improved over the last decade or so, we're running out of reasons we aren't succeeding. At a certain point, once we've done our best to competitively equip our staff it comes down to selling and effort. I know there have been mentions of having the least amount of spending for recruiting, but we also don't need to travel any further than down the road in order to recruit. Obviously we'll fill some needs with JuCo and transfer players, but you get the point.

Here's some important pages:

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/school/_/id/249/class/2017 (Commitments)

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/school/_/id/249/class/2017/page/offers (Under reported offers list)

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http://northtexas.247sports.com/Season/2017-Football/Commits (Commmitments)

http://northtexas.247sports.com/Season/2017-Football/Offers (Best Offers List)

http://northtexas.247sports.com/Season/2017-Football/Targets (Target List)

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Rivals is down I will update later.

I post all this to say, I'm nervous still that our recruiting trend will stay the same regardless of the trend. I am optimistic that we'll have a better class than our expectation at the moment, but that's just my instinct. I'm going to try and be way more active in helping the actual experts around the board target and update so they can spend there time giving us the insights I can't (yet) provide. Hopefully this staff finds a way to get it done, just like they found a way to overachieve on the field this year. GMG.

Harry · December 6, 2016

Brother you are not alone. Everyone like 98% are thrilled about the bowl but the #1 concern I continue to hear is recruiting.

You are absolutely right about social media - it really has changed the recruiting game. In particular Twitter. It used to be the prospects would use the recruiting services to communicate their choices but now they - much like our president elect - use Twitter as their primary means of recruiting communication. And if you don't think a schools Twitter following doesn't impact these decisions you're crazy. We need to harness that and we're light years from where we were under Mac etc but still have a long way to go.

Not to hijack your thread but let me piggy back and add another concern that I have on recruiting. The bowl thing is great, but we need to be real careful that we don't let the excitement around the bowl and extra practices etc overshadow the critical recruiting work that needs to occur right now. I know first hand that - in an earlier time - our program suffered on being able to close on some key mid term and high school recruits during the weeks leading up to a bowl. This bowl can be a great thing for recruiting but it requires a focus and discipline that keeps our staffs focus on this recruiting class.

Also you are 100% correct the recruiting budget HAS to be increased.

I hope and expect that Wren is very tuned in to how important this recruiting class is and doing everything he can to help his coaching staff succeed. Instead of reinvent the wheel, let's look at successful C-USA schools like La. Tech, WKU, Marshall etc and see what they are doing to consistently land high level high school prospects, jumps and transfers. They seem consistently to do it with fewer resources than we have. Gmg

Wag Tag · December 6, 2016

3 hours ago, Caw Caw said:

So made a bowl ahead of schedule. There were missed opportunities for us to do better mid-season, but we overachieved. I've been thinking long and hard about where we sit in recruiting. I've spent a ton of free time looking through our lists of offers, checking social media, etc. I'm currently in sales so this part of the game is really interesting to me. Let me start with something we don't look at and isn't really utilized for out school. Below are some (read: all that have more than two recruits) of our coaches recruiting pages. Ekeler's and Litrell's show their last schools, but that's really it. I did like looking at this to see the type of talent they have brought in, in the past, at P5 programs. I think we as a fan base, and them as an Athletics Department, should be doing more to get these recruiter profiles updated and put on the right schools. Also we should be updating who's recruiting who, I think for parents/kids doing there homework it's a good way to check someone's reputation and build it. Personally I think it adds to the recruiters "skill" or at least the perception of.

Our Coaches (All former team pages):

http://247sports.com/Coach/Mike-Ekeler-354/AllTimeRecruits

http://247sports.com/Coach/Seth-Littrell-161/AllTimeRecruits

http://247sports.com/Coach/Troy-Reffett-1106

For Reference:

http://247sports.com/Season/2017-Football/CompositeCoachRankings?Conference=C-USA (C-USA recruiter rankings)

http://247sports.com/Coach/Ryan-Silverfield-3832 (Highest Rated G5 Recruiter from 24 this year)

Look, I'm not going to fully judge the class until closer to signing day, I'm hoping there are some bigger pieces in the pipeline slowing down the rest of the class. I know that's wishful thinking, and probably unlikely but this staff has surprised us with early results so far, so i'm at least going to give them their first full recruiting cycle to prove them wrong. I will say that coaches twitters and some of what i'm considering our uncommitted offers have been way too quiet for me to be comfortable. We really need to step up the social media game. It is a HUGE piece to today's puzzle. Kids are asking for picture edits, etc. They want to be able to see themselves playing for their schools ahead of time. Honestly one of my favorite recruiting tools ever released was the quotes from Trice talking about becoming Miami for the DFW. It starts with one great class who decides to stay home and represent the DFW. We should be bombarding social media with that kind of message. These coaches are young, and I realize that they don't have a lot of time, but if they aren't going to do social media directly it needs to be outsourced (I'd probably do it for free to a point).

As a lot of people have pointed out, facilities, coach and staff, cost of living subsidy, academics, campus life, etc. All being improved over the last decade or so, we're running out of reasons we aren't succeeding. At a certain point, once we've done our best to competitively equip our staff it comes down to selling and effort. I know there have been mentions of having the least amount of spending for recruiting, but we also don't need to travel any further than down the road in order to recruit. Obviously we'll fill some needs with JuCo and transfer players, but you get the point.

Here's some important pages:

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/school/_/id/249/class/2017 (Commitments)

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/school/_/id/249/class/2017/page/offers (Under reported offers list)

-

http://northtexas.247sports.com/Season/2017-Football/Commits (Commmitments)

http://northtexas.247sports.com/Season/2017-Football/Offers (Best Offers List)

http://northtexas.247sports.com/Season/2017-Football/Targets (Target List)

-

Rivals is down I will update later.

I post all this to say, I'm nervous still that our recruiting trend will stay the same regardless of the trend. I am optimistic that we'll have a better class than our expectation at the moment, but that's just my instinct. I'm going to try and be way more active in helping the actual experts around the board target and update so they can spend there time giving us the insights I can't (yet) provide. Hopefully this staff finds a way to get it done, just like they found a way to overachieve on the field this year. GMG.

It is very concerning to me when you state how we are behind on the social media side! With the youth of this staff and the new hires in the support areas this is unacceptable. As stated recruiting does involve sales and marketing, and not just W/L. Their should be schools and conferences we should not loose recruits to period! Looking forward to 2/2 and a great class! GMG

Caw Caw · December 6, 2016

@Wag Tag As Harry mentioned, we've made progress but these coaches get lost in practice, during the season, etc. They update on major events but not constant communication, which like it or not is important. LeBlanc is the only recruiter I've seen get a photo with a recruit since recruiting season began. Social Media is not longer an extra tool, it's a requirement to relevance. If you're Alabama, your traditional media coverage and fan social media presence can make up for a lack of effort. Plus your already at the pinnacle. At our level every little thing helps you elevate yourself next to the competition.

@Harry It's part of the conversation, you're not hijacking it at all. I absolutely think four weeks of practice is great for development, and we need that, but adding more talent to this team may be more important than the bowl itself. I don't think having beaten this team already it's a great recruiting opportunity, not that any local Dallas exposure ever hurts, but it is drawing focus from the recruiting season. I only say that because as it's been mentioned in other posts it doesn't appear we've hit full speed like some other competing schools. AND even if we are, it's not being broadcast. This comes back to the social media thing, but perception is probably more important than the reality. I've seen pictures of Frank Wilson be tweeted out at recruits houses as quickly as the day recruiting season opened. There needs to be the same, not just from LeBlanc and Perry but our OC, DC and Head Coach. A fundamental truth of both recruiting and human psychology is that people want to be wanted, included and pursued. Just reflect on the women you've dated. The customer, recruit or woman you're pursuing always will want you to go the extra mile and show them. They want to be showed off not checked up on in a text or call.

Ben Gooding · December 6, 2016

5 minutes ago, Caw Caw said:

@Wag Tag As Harry mentioned, we've made progress but these coaches get lost in practice, during the season, etc. They update on major events but not constant communication, which like it or not is important. LeBlanc is the only recruiter I've seen get a photo with a recruit since recruiting season began. Social Media is not longer an extra tool, it's a requirement to relevance. If you're Alabama, your traditional media coverage and fan social media presence can make up for a lack of effort. Plus your already at the pinnacle. At our level every little thing helps you elevate yourself next to the competition.

@Harry It's part of the conversation, you're not hijacking it at all. I absolutely think four weeks of practice is great for development, and we need that, but adding more talent to this team may be more important than the bowl itself. I don't think having beaten this team already it's a great recruiting opportunity, not that any local Dallas exposure ever hurts, but it is drawing focus from the recruiting season. I only say that because as it's been mentioned in other posts it doesn't appear we've hit full speed like some other competing schools. AND even if we are, it's not being broadcast. This comes back to the social media thing, but perception is probably more important than the reality. I've seen pictures of Frank Wilson be tweeted out at recruits houses as quickly as the day recruiting season opened. There needs to be the same, not just from LeBlanc and Perry but our OC, DC and Head Coach. A fundamental truth of both recruiting and human psychology is that people want to be wanted, included and pursued. Just reflect on the women you've dated. The customer, recruit or woman you're pursuing always will want you to go the extra mile and show them. They want to be showed off not checked up on in a text or call.

This guy ^ is gonna be good at keeping up with this recruiting stuff.

Withers940 · December 6, 2016

Need to get Ekeler on the road. That man is full of energy and can sell a winter coat to the devil

BTG_Fan1 · December 6, 2016

I did notice, EK has been recruiting at AZ Western for multiple cycles now... Would be good to set them up as a pipleline..

BTG_Fan1 · December 6, 2016

What we need is to get more students involved in the Ath. Program.. We have kids who working in Computer Design and they could be putting out tons of stuff, Even doing things like Player Interviews on why they picked UNT over other schools, etc... I know a # of students need to do internships, and even need service hours as well that are willing/would be willing to do stuff for free that are just trying to get in the door. along with getting exposure and producing material as well for their advancement after college.

In BTG we saw that they have 1 guy producing all of the graphics, when we have a vast # of students that could be designing multiple different ideas.. Most of the students in my degree(Sports Management) are looking/willing to work for the AD but we haven't gotten anything back.. If anything the school should be having the players/students brainstorm and think of new ways to possibly land/ draw more interest to UNT..