Good Recruiting Article

[Harry]

http://www.wacotrib.com/sports/content/spo...xsvc=7&cxcat=17

Bears' ace recruiter gives 5 stars to the truth

By Jerry Hill Tribune-Herald assistant sports editor

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Wesley McGriff has a rather unorthodox view of recruiting.

In a cut-throat business that thrives on more empty promises than any politican, he tells the truth. Rather than talking bowl games, X's and O's and shoe contracts, he recites lines from a rap song. And he's even shown up at a recruit's church, just to put in a good word with the pastor.

“It ain't the X's and O's, it's the Henrys and Joes,” said the 38-year-old McGriff, Baylor's recruiting coordinator and best pitch man. “So you better go out there and get you some ballplayers.”

In his pursuit of a recruit, no stone is left unturned.

“He's on a first-name basis with the principal, the counselor, the coach, the janitors, the preachers, the whole community,” said Baylor head coach Guy Morriss.

“That ol' security guard, he can tell you more about the kid than any coach will ever tell you,” McGriff said. “He might tell you he's a good kid. But if he turns around and raises his eyebrow a little bit, you know he's not a good kid.

“You've got to talk to everybody in that school, because you're investing in that kid a scholarship to come in and help you win games. And he may be a good football player. But if he doesn't have good character or he's not committed to working hard, then you'll have a lot of turnover and you don't have a chance to build a program.”

It's the lifeblood of any college football program. Building starts with recruiting.

“I think we're to the point where we're really ready to kick down the door,” Morriss said. “And we try to tell them: ‘You could be the difference.' I think everybody really believes it's fixing to take off, and they want to be a part of it, kind of get in on the ground level.”

Three days from national signing day, the Bears have commitments from 18 high school recruits after bringing in seven players at the mid-year break.

Of those 25 players, McGriff has brought in nearly half. Twelve have come from either his Dallas recruiting area or the spots he picked up when Mark Nelson left for Tulsa.

Part of McGriff's recruiting drive comes from a survival instinct. After Division II coaching stops at Savannah State, Kentucky State and Eastern Kentucky, he doesn't want to go back.

“It's like being in prison. You ain't going back,” he said. “People ask me why I recruit so hard: ‘Man, I'm not going back to Division II.' You got nothing to sell.

“The only way you keep yourself from going back is you've got to work hard at your craft, and you've got to win. Because if you don't, you know the common denominator of losing is getting fired.”

When Morriss' staff came to Baylor three years ago, one of the recruiting problems was building bridges.

On McGriff's first trip to Dallas Lincoln, he “took some heat” from coach Reginald Samples.

“He called all his coaches together and said, ‘Hey, look, we finally got somebody from Baylor in here,' '' McGriff said. “I took some heat, but I stood in the fire, because I knew that one day they'd have a guy.”

Last year, Baylor signed Antonio Jones, a Dallas Morning News all-area linebacker from Lincoln.

“I think the second time I was there (at Lincoln), I told him, ‘I'm here, baby. I'm ready for my beating,' '' McGriff said. “So he knew at that point that this guy's going to be all right. I can sit down and talk with him. So it's basically about developing those relationships.”

And it starts with the high school coaches. Recruiting can begin and end in the office of the head coach.

“Just from the first time I met him a couple of years ago, I could tell he was real honest, up front,” said Dallas Skyline coach Derick Roberson. “I immediately felt comfortable with him. And I think with that comfort, you try to give him the best shot at recruiting your kids. Because you know he's going to do what he can to take care of them.”

When McGriff was recruiting Skyline defensive back Josh Bell three years ago, he got the cold shoulder.

“He looked at me like, ‘Yeah, you're anoher guy that's promising me an opportunity that's not going to happen,' '' McGriff said. “And when I asked Coach Roberson about it, he explained that another school had pulled his scholarship offer back. If I didn't have that relationship with Coach Rob, I never would have found that out.”

McGriff has the kind of personality that's hard not to like.

“I don't think Wesley McGriff has ever met a stranger,” said former Arlington Bowie coach Anthony Criss, who is sending his son, Dominique, and another Bowie player to Baylor.

“First of all, Coach McGriff is a really down-to-earth guy. He doesn't come by talking a lot about football. He wants to know what he can do to help build the character of a young man. He doesn't mind being a mentor and a role model.”

The key in recruiting, though, is becoming a friend. That's why his CD collection now includes a heavy dose of rap.

“In my opinion, you've got to come down to their level,” McGriff said. “You've got to keep up with the trends and the fads, because you can't always just go into the schools and talk about graduation rates and how many people come to the games.

“You've got to show that kid that you care about him as more than a football player. That young man has to know that if he comes to your university and and something goes wrong with a girlfriend or in the classroom or back home, that he can come into your office and sit down and talk about it. When the kids know that and feels that, you've got a chance.”

One of the keys is finding the player's circle of influence. It usually starts with the high school coach, but it can include a girlfriend, teammate, counselor, favorite teacher, principal, and even the janitor.

“I've even gone to church with a kid and talked to the minister when I found out the pastor was involved,” McGriff said.

Two years ago, when he was recruiting tight end Jason Smith from Dallas W.T. White, McGriff found out that one of Smith's biggest influence was a neighbor.

“I go over there one day, and they're in there working on an 18-wheeler,” he said. “Well, I jumped right in there with them and started working on the 18-wheeler. Sometimes, you've got to jump out of the box.”

Like the high school coach, parents can be allies or foes. And the sales pitch can change in the same house.

The late Bill Davis, McGriff's college coach, told him: “You've got to drink wine with the whinos and eat steak with the bourgeoisie.”

“You have to find out what the parents are interested in,” McGriff said. “The kid's dad may be interested in getting him to the NFL, but the mom says she could care less about football. ‘Talk to me about your graduation. Talk to me about how safe your campus is. Is my baby going to have time to study, or is he going to be out there practicing all day.'

“All of a sudden, I'm an academician when I'm talking to her. And when I'm talking to the dad, and he wants to talk about the NFL, I turn into Mel Kiper.”

The toughest part for McGriff is when a recruit decommits and switches to another school.

Just this year, he received a text message from a player saying he was going to commit to another school, “because you've been dishonest.”

“The decommitment didn't bother me. It was that word dishonest,” McGriff said. “I called the mother and said, ‘Listen, it's fine that he wants to go to another school. But I don't want that on my tombstone that I was dishonest with him.' And it turned out that the other university said I lied to the kid. And when the smoke cleared, they realized I wasn't dishonest with him, and they stayed firm with Baylor.”

Losing recruits is part of the game. Especially at Baylor, “you can't win ‘em all.”

“When I got to Kentucky, and I lost a kid for the first time ... I thought I was going to lose my mind,” McGriff said. “I've got these facilities now, I've got a conference. This ain't supposed to happen to me now.”

“But it tells me that I was in on the right guy.”

McGriff recognizes that it's not all him. He said he couldn't be on the road full time without director of football operations Jerry Pickle and administrative assistant Sherri Elwood.

There's also eight other assistants and Morriss, a recruiting jewel who can “go into any high school and mix it up with the kids and coaches.”

But McGriff is the one who has the recruits listening.

“I'm just a country boy trying to make it,” he said.

jhill@wacotrib.com