forums

Butch Davis yesterday revealed his main recruiting secret

The Franchise

The Franchise

The Best EVER
Premium
Joined
Sep 4, 2012
Messages
43,263
...He told the world one of the reasons he was the best in the game at evaluating HS talent that would translate into major D1 talent. Butch broke it down to one simple thing--is the kid willing to compete and fight?

He said that when he was recruiting kids, and they brought up any sort of demands about being given immediate playing time or talked about guys on the depth chart he'd quit recruiting them. Primarily, he was looking for guys who wanted to compete their asses off. That's the secret to his success.

This is how guys like Sumlin have gotten into trouble. They've put too much emphasis on accumulating high-star recruits and not enough on finding savages who want to compete.

I'm all for 5 star talent, but those guys also have to have lion hearts. Take a guy like Bosa at OTU. 5 star talent with a 5 star motor. At the end of the day, football is the ultimate game of violence and competition. If you're a coddled guy who doesn't want to compete, I don't care how many stars you have next to your name. You're going to fail, and you're going to get your coach fired.
 
Advertisement
Hard to argue with that logic. The 3 star kid who will do whatever it takes to compete has a very good chance of beating out the 4 star for playing time.

I think it was Howie Long who said about 20 years back that a motivated avr team will always beat an unmotivated good team.
 
The Franchise said:
...He told the world one of the reasons he was the best in the game at evaluating HS talent that would translate into major D1 talent. Butch broke it down to one simple thing--is the kid willing to compete and fight?

He said that when he was recruiting kids, and they brought up any sort of demands about being given immediate playing time or talked about guys on the depth chart he'd quit recruiting them. Primarily, he was looking for guys who wanted to compete their asses off. That's the secret to his success.

This is how guys like Sumlin have gotten into trouble. They've put too much emphasis on accumulating high-star recruits and not enough on finding savages who want to compete.

I'm all for 5 star talent, but those guys also have to have lion hearts. Take a guy like Bosa at OTU. 5 star talent with a 5 star motor. At the end of the day, football is the ultimate game of violence and competition. If you're a coddled guy who doesn't want to compete, I don't care how many stars you have next to your name. You're going to fail, and you're going to get your coach fired.
Click to expand...

Wonder how many Miami players over the last 10 years truly fit that mold.
 
Coaches would be well-served to listen to Butch on this subject. I know it's hard when boosters are so caught up with class rankings. But Butch was the best of all time when it came to evaluating kids. Listen to the master.
 
Great post. And this is why a kid like Desmond Phillips should be in this class,

Listen to the end of this video when he says "I just want to play man"

[video=youtube;PrlkB15a47s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrlkB15a47s[/video]
 
It's the former staff's lack of depth that has caused our lack of competition! They felt the need to start true freshman. More so for recruiting, than winning games! Butch took it on the chin for the 1st few years, but he built the greatest CFB team ever by building that depth!
 
This is why I like Jack Allison, he wasn't fazed by any talk of Eason coming aboard this class...
 
Advertisement
Agree with the original post. But I would add that the kid still needs to have the talent. Dallas Crawford has the heart of a lion. But he's not a great safety no matter how hard he competes. We want a few guys like Dallas on our team because of the edge they give us. But we need more guys like Perryman who has both relentless will and the ability to make plays.
 
grover said:
Agree with the original post. But I would add that the kid still needs to have the talent. Dallas Crawford has the heart of a lion. But he's not a great safety no matter how hard he competes. We want a few guys like Dallas on our team because of the edge they give us. But we need more guys like Perryman who has both relentless will and the ability to make plays.
Click to expand...

I think with a system where he doesn't have to think so **** much he'd be better
 
The Franchise said:
...He told the world one of the reasons he was the best in the game at evaluating HS talent that would translate into major D1 talent. Butch broke it down to one simple thing--is the kid willing to compete and fight?

He said that when he was recruiting kids, and they brought up any sort of demands about being given immediate playing time or talked about guys on the depth chart he'd quit recruiting them. Primarily, he was looking for guys who wanted to compete their asses off. That's the secret to his success.

This is how guys like Sumlin have gotten into trouble. They've put too much emphasis on accumulating high-star recruits and not enough on finding savages who want to compete.

I'm all for 5 star talent, but those guys also have to have lion hearts. Take a guy like Bosa at OTU. 5 star talent with a 5 star motor. At the end of the day, football is the ultimate game of violence and competition. If you're a coddled guy who doesn't want to compete, I don't care how many stars you have next to your name. You're going to fail, and you're going to get your coach fired.
Click to expand...

He's said that multiple times way before yesterday. He even alluded to that weeks ago on the radio show.

Said the moment anyone asked about the depth at his position, they immediately terminated the visit. Not interested.
 
Advertisement
The Franchise said:
...He told the world one of the reasons he was the best in the game at evaluating HS talent that would translate into major D1 talent. Butch broke it down to one simple thing--is the kid willing to compete and fight?

He said that when he was recruiting kids, and they brought up any sort of demands about being given immediate playing time or talked about guys on the depth chart he'd quit recruiting them. Primarily, he was looking for guys who wanted to compete their asses off. That's the secret to his success.

This is how guys like Sumlin have gotten into trouble. They've put too much emphasis on accumulating high-star recruits and not enough on finding savages who want to compete.

I'm all for 5 star talent, but those guys also have to have lion hearts. Take a guy like Bosa at OTU. 5 star talent with a 5 star motor. At the end of the day, football is the ultimate game of violence and competition. If you're a coddled guy who doesn't want to compete, I don't care how many stars you have next to your name. You're going to fail, and you're going to get your coach fired.
Click to expand...

And blah blah blah
 
The Franchise said:
Coaches would be well-served to listen to Butch on this subject. I know it's hard when boosters are so caught up with class rankings. But Butch was the best of all time when it came to evaluating kids. Listen to the master.
Click to expand...

To that point Butch worked with a famous sports psychologist to create a phychological profile of high school players that would be ultra competitive. All to help them indentify what traits to look for.
You have to give it to Butch in that regard.
 
Back
Top