Like Bowden, Nick Saban found the talent. In the past four years, Alabama has won three BCS championships and had 13 players selected in the first round of the NFL draft. Bobby Bowden led Florida State to 14 consecutive top-five finishes because he harvested the state's wellspring of talent. The top men in the game are as effective in recruiting as they are brilliant in coaching. Coaching is the 17 Broncos who have played for Petersen and been drafted by NFL teams.Ĭoaching is Barry Alvarez building a program at Wisconsin, or Chip Kelly taking Oregon from good to great. Coaching is Appalachian State beating Michigan.Ĭoaching is Boise State's Chris Petersen signing players the big boys overlook and winning more than 90 percent of his games. Recruiting is Michigan beating Appalachian State. Coaching is Meyer winning at Bowling Green and at Utah with the same degree of success as at Florida and Ohio State. Ask Urban Meyer, who took Zook's recruits and won a national championship at Florida. But the head coaches who know how to recruit and don't have the ability to lead a program don't last long.Īsk Ron Zook, who brought personability and salesmanship to Florida and Illinois and got fired from both jobs. There's a long list of assistant coaches who have become head coaches because they know how to recruit. We read about it because it holds the possibility of new life, and change, and success. But coaching is the brains and the heart and the soul of it. Recruiting may be the lifeblood of college football. Coaching is two-star plus two-star equals more than five-star. "He could take his'n and beat your'n," Gaither said, "and take your'n and beat his'n."Ĭoaching is alchemy. Gaither described the ability of Alabama coach Bear Bryant. No one captured why coaching is more important than recruiting better than Jake Gaither, the Florida A&M coaching legend, some 50-odd years ago. The debate of coaching versus recruiting is no debate at all. There's a reason coaches pour so much time, effort and emotion into the madness that is dealing with 17- and 18-year-old recruits. Just ask Tennessee.Ĭolorado and Utah know all too well that if you don't get gifted defensive backs each recruiting class, then you're never going to have success against the high-flying Pac-12 offenses. You miss out on recruiting a talented quarterback who fits your system, like Mack Brown did after Colt McCoy departed, and it explains part of the Longhorns' recent struggles.ĭon't recruit quality depth along the defensive line, and you're not going to win many games in the SEC. There are myriad statistics that prove the importance of recruiting, but on the whole, how you do on the recruiting trail can be useful for creating a baseline for a program's expectations. It should be noted that the Crimson Tide - winners of three of the past four titles - have finished no lower than third in the past six recruiting cycles. 12.įlorida has the best average at 3.87, followed by Texas at 5.62 and Alabama at 5.87. Only two teams didn't boast top-10 averages: Auburn and Oregon, who had eight-year averages around No. The teams that have played in the past seven BCS National Championships - Alabama, Auburn, Florida, LSU, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas - averaged recruiting classes that ranked No. There's a tremendous amount of quality coaches in college football today, but the best ones are the ones that know that getting talent in recruiting translates to wins on Saturdays." "Any good head coach understands the importance of recruiting and how talent can help you overcome a lot of different things. "Having great players can make any coach look good," Florida State recruiting coordinator Tim Brewster said. What is important is that the quote is right on the money. It's not clear who originally said that, but it's often attributed to Texas legend Darrell Royal. "It's not the X's and the O's but the Jimmys and the Joes."
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