New Recruiting Coordinator Announced

[MeanGreenTexan]

http://www.meangreensports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/013118aaa.html

Luke Walerius comes to us from Kentucky, where he was previously a "recruiting assistant".   He obtained his undergrad & grad degrees from UK.   
Kinda concerned about his lack of Texas ties... but hopefully his skills can offset them.

Welcome aboard Luke!    You will be very familiar with the recruiting challenges we face here coming from UK.

[ghost of smith hall]

I have to agree. I certainly hope he proves me wrong but I am very skeptical of hiring a recruiting coordinator with seemingly zero ties to Texas high school football. The coaches in this state are a great group of guys, but they tend to stick together. Out of state and in-state P5 universities are hiring Texas high school coaches like crazy for that very reason. I really hope this works out.

[MGNation92]

I think it's helpful he has experience recruiting at a non football school, could help a program like UNT where the current public perception is that our football program has sucked and will continue to suck.

[jtm0097]

Not going to write off the hire, but hopefully he develops some Texas connections lol

[GrandGreen]

I hope I am wrong, but I don't like this hire at all.  This staff needs someone with Texas ties and hired just the opposite.  Not a lot of experience and is apparently going to start at zero to develop a Texas high school network.  It looks like a continuation of the thinking that keeps NT far behind the conference leaders in recruiting.  

This looks like another wasted opportunity for NT to improve their relationship with Texas high school coaches.  

Edited January 31, 2018 by GrandGreen

[TreeFiddy]

I think Littrell is pretty tight with the Stoops family.  Maybe he comes highly recommended.

[EagleMBA]

I wish Luke all the best...may he productive be!

[H-towngreen]

Certainly would’ve hoped for someone with Texas ties

[Travis]

We can always just buy him a Texas tie. No big deal. 

[meangreenJW]

43 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

I hope I am wrong, but I don't like this hire at all.  This staff needs someone with Texas ties and hired just the opposite.  Not a lot of experience and is apparently going to start at zero to develop a Texas high school network.  It looks like a continuation of the thinking that keeps NT far behind the conference leaders in recruiting.  

This looks like another wasted opportunity for NT to improve their relationship with Texas high school coaches.  

I understand the point here, but would also offer that Scotty Conley had about as deep of Texas ties as you could hope for in that position and not sure it helped much.

[MeanGreenTexan]

4 minutes ago, meangreenJW said:

I understand the point here, but would also offer that Scotty Conley had about as deep of Texas ties as you could hope for in that position and not sure it helped much.

He was also old enough to collect full retirement benefits from the State.  Recruiting is definitely a young man's game. 

Conley was also the director of football ops...   Stenklyft was the recruiting coordinator last year.  He moved over to take Conley's spot, thus opening this spot for Walerius.

[meangreenJW]

3 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

He was also old enough to collect full retirement benefits from the State.  Recruiting is definitely a young man's game. 

Conley was also the director of football ops...   Stenklyft was the recruiting coordinator last year.  He moved over to take Conley's spot, thus opening this spot for Walerius.

He was the director of high school relations which seems like a recruiting position. But I don't know what his actual duties were.

http://www.meangreensports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/scott_conley_848223.html

[UNTLifer]

With the connections SL, Harrell and staff have and are making, I think they will be fine introducing him to the coaches throughout God's country.  Besides, I much prefer the coaches to have those great relationships because they are the ones on the road the most.  Walerius can coordinate and insure the recruits are well taken care of on their visits to Denton.

[Greenrex]

Does this position, Recruiting Coordinator, have any on field duties? 

[Wag Tag]

Hire someone with Texas ties, but no experience as a recruiting co ordinator or a coordinator with experience? No brainer! Congrats to all!GMG

[oldguystudent]

As somebody who moved to this great state and learned the hard way that I didn't have "Texas ties," in my industry, I learned how to create and cultivate relationships pretty quickly. 

The main difference between where I was from and where I'd arrived was small talk -- I was used to getting straight to business, getting in, and getting out, lest I annoy my customer with wasting his time.  When I arrived here, after getting thrown out of a couple offices for being to "pushy," I learned to visually scour a customer's office, pick up that their kid was doing 4H llama breeding and had to learn what color guard was because there was some girl holding a flag on the wall.   

I definitely had to learn that the many, many times people said, "Well bless your heart," to me that it wasn't a good thing. 

It took me about a year before I became THE go to guy and invaluable resource for the entire northern half of Texas (and the panhandle and El Paso).  It was so strong, that I was still getting phone calls two years after I'd quit.  

Why am I boasting like this?  

Because I so tire of this constant, incessant, "HE DOESN'T HAVE TEXAS TIES!" rally cry I see at every hire.  

There might be a little bit of a learning curve at the beginning, but it's certainly not insurmountable.   

Give me talent over locality any day of the week. 

Edited January 31, 2018 by oldguystudent

[UNT Mean Green]

This position is more about the technical skills that are required for the job, rather than ties to any base of people. I would not worry about Texas Ties one bit. This is more about evaluating film, organizing prospects and visits, and overseeing communication both internal in the operation and external with the prospects and their families, orchestrating with facilities, etc. 

[MeanGreenTexan]

28 minutes ago, Wag Tag said:

Hire someone with Texas ties, but no experience as a recruiting co ordinator or a coordinator with experience? No brainer! Congrats to all!GMG

Why would someone with Texas ties automatically not have any experience?

I like that Walerius is young, and that he's had to toil away at a bottom-feeder SEC school, having to come up with creative ways to get his staff in on higher-rated guys.   It's not an insurmountable obstacle.   Sorry if I'm making it out to be...   just a preference thing I guess.

[VideoEagle]

After a little digging, I notice Stenklyft had no Texas ties before he got here either. I think we'd agree Stenklyft did better last year than the guy with deep Texas roots the year before. 

I'll trust Littrell's judgement on this hire. 

[97and03]

31 minutes ago, UNT Mean Green said:

This position is more about the technical skills that are required for the job, rather than ties to any base of people. I would not worry about Texas Ties one bit. This is more about evaluating film, organizing prospects and visits, and overseeing communication both internal in the operation and external with the prospects and their families, orchestrating with facilities, etc. 

Exactly.

 

 I knew I would come on here and see a stream of "no Texas ties!" posts, but that isn't this position. Now if they hire a director of high school relations with no Texas ties, then we should get some torches and pitchforks. 

[Harry]

35 minutes ago, UNT Mean Green said:

This position is more about the technical skills that are required for the job, rather than ties to any base of people. I would not worry about Texas Ties one bit. This is more about evaluating film, organizing prospects and visits, and overseeing communication both internal in the operation and external with the prospects and their families, orchestrating with facilities, etc. 

Valid take.  So you see no advantage for a guy organizing etc to have knowledge of the Texas football landscape?  Has he no interaction with HS coaches where a knowledge of Texas would be helpful to us? Not doubting you just interested.

I will say this, I like he is coming from an SEC school.  He has seen things working at the highest level of college football and could be valuable in that particular regard alone.

[97and03]

1 minute ago, Harry said:

Valid take.  So you see no advantage for a guy organizing etc to have knowledge of the Texas football landscape?  Has he no interaction with HS coaches where a knowledge of Texas would be helpful to us?

Any football recruiter in the South knows Texas, even if the coaches don't know him directly. 

[VideoEagle]

Just an FYI : Tim Brewster the new recruiting coordinator at A&M has no ties to Texas in the last 18 years. Texas ties don't seem important to doing the job. 

Edited January 31, 2018 by VideoEagle

[Harry]

3 minutes ago, 97and03 said:

Any football recruiter in the South knows Texas, even if the coaches don't know him directly. 

I hear you, but some southern schools more than others. I just looked at the Kentucky roster and was surprised to see they didn't have one single player from Texas listed.

http://ukathletics.com/roster.aspx?path=football

[97and03]

Just now, Harry said:

I hear you, but some southern schools more than others. I just looked at the Kentucky roster and was surprised to see they didn't have one single player from Texas listed.

http://ukathletics.com/roster.aspx?path=football

I was surprised also, but I did note they cast a pretty wide net. I think I saw players from ten or so states.