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Hiring a head coach who's a "recruiter"

CanesAreAble

CanesAreAble

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Posted this about a week ago in the WEZ, but thought I would re-post here in light of the Cristobal talk.



First of all, I think there are three components to recruiting that all get lumped under the "recruiting" umbrella:

1. Philosophy -- What type of player are you after? Do you prioritize measurables or intangibles? What's the sliding scale between the two, etc...?
2. Evaluation -- Can you identify talent based on crappy camcorder footage against crappy competition with crappy coaching?
3. Selling -- Can you convince your targets to come to your school?

When people say recruiting, I think they generally mean selling, but that isn't as important as the other two factors, especially evaluating (the most crucial part, IMO).

How much selling do people think the head coach actually does? Yes, the head coach establishes a brand, and yes the head coach uses his allowable contact to close the deal, but the legwork is done by the position coaches and the administrative staff.

The head coach's main responsibility in recruiting is determining a philosophy and evaluating talent properly. This is where Golden failed. He de-emphasized speed. He wanted big LBs and traditional 3-4 D-linemen. D'Onofrio was cut from the same cloth, and we saw that video footage of the staff recruiting powwow:

[video=youtube;OUNDZkWYqjA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUNDZkWYqjA[/video]

Now supposedly the player in question went to Bucknell or some ****. FOH. And Golden's camp offers were filled with guys that washed out quickly. Terrible philosophy and terrible evaluation.


Now this brings me to Wario Cristobal. He keeps getting mentioned as an ace recruiter. "Miami would clean up in South Florida if they hire him," blah blah blah.

Again, the head coach's main job is evaluating. So what proof is there that Cristobal knows how to evaluate talent? Supposedly he didn't even want T.Y. Hilton when he was at FIU. Someone practically twisted his arm. If true, that certainly doesn't inspire confidence.

He may be a great salesman (which is debatable), but that's irrelevant if he's selling the wrong guys. Let's not forget Al Golden was a master salesman. IIRC Tom Lemming rated him the best recruiter in the country. James Coley is considered a great salesman as well. It doesn't matter if you can't win because of poor evals and poor coaching/development.

Hire a coach who can evaluate talent and use it properly. Hire a coach who's smart enough to have good salesmen on his staff. Win games.


Winning is the best "recruiting" tool.
 
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Imo we havent had a great recruiter since butch, tell me im lying. Fk rankings to many major misses and we know all there names. Butch gets those kids,mario gets kids at bama because of saban period
 
Getting a few guys from Miami to commit to Bama now a days, doesn't necessarily mean he is a good recruiter. Success sells itself. I do believe he's a better coach and evaluator because of his experience there. He's not in my top two, but I would be upset if hew was chosen. Let's be honest, he'll be ten times as good as Golden and he can keep the boys home. That and a good staff would have us back in the picture.
 
CanesAreAble said:
Now this brings me to Wario Cristobal. He keeps getting mentioned as an ace recruiter. "Miami would clean up in South Florida if they hire him," blah blah blah.

Again, the head coach's main job is evaluating. So what proof is there that Cristobal knows how to evaluate talent? Supposedly he didn't even want T.Y. Hilton when he was at FIU. Someone practically twisted his arm. If true, that certainly doesn't inspire confidence
Click to expand...
I've asked this question at least once in another thread, but apparently people who question the Great Cristobal's "recruiting prowess" are "*****ing just to *****" and are being "willfully ignorant."

From what I've seen, Mario has not shown any special ability to recruit or evaluate talent. No one is saying that he should have recruited his way to going 74-0 at FIU, but it is borderline absurd to say that someone has such "recruiting prowess" when he failed as hard as he did at FIU and only can point to his recruiting ability at a school which can pretty much recruits itself at this point.
 
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Not his time in Miami, maybe after he calls offense or defense plays for a major college program or HC a smaller school with some success... We will be right back in this position in about 3 more failed years if he is the HC we choose
 
McGahee2TheHouse said:
CanesAreAble said:
Now this brings me to Wario Cristobal. He keeps getting mentioned as an ace recruiter. "Miami would clean up in South Florida if they hire him," blah blah blah.

Again, the head coach's main job is evaluating. So what proof is there that Cristobal knows how to evaluate talent? Supposedly he didn't even want T.Y. Hilton when he was at FIU. Someone practically twisted his arm. If true, that certainly doesn't inspire confidence
Click to expand...
I've asked this question at least once in another thread, but apparently people who question the Great Cristobal's "recruiting prowess" are "*****ing just to *****" and are being "willfully ignorant."

From what I've seen, Mario has not shown any special ability to recruit or evaluate talent. No one is saying that he should have recruited his way to going 74-0 at FIU, but it is borderline absurd to say that someone has such "recruiting prowess" when he failed as hard as he did at FIU and only can point to his recruiting ability at a school which can pretty much recruits itself at this point.
Click to expand...



On top of that, when he was at FIU, he was recruiting against Sun Belt teams. He didn't even do anything remarkable there. Don Strock had a 5-6 season before the bottom fell out the year of the brawl.
 
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CanesAreAble said:
Gator Hatar said:
Let's be honest, he'll be ten times as good as Golden and he can keep the boys home.
Click to expand...


Maybe for a year or two, but if he doesn't win, the kids will stop buying in.

What if he keeps Coley on has his OC? It would be a disaster.
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I remember when Coley (another national recruiter of the year, no?) was supposed to save Miami with his mystical recruiting abilities too.

Then we had losing seasons.
 
Good post. I agree with you 100% but to play devils advocate & the sake of discussion, what do you think about Clemson hiring a recruiter in Dabo? And how are the situations different between him and Cristobal?
 
Kyle Liburd said:
Good post. I agree with you 100% but to play devils advocate & the sake of discussion, what do you think about Clemson hiring a recruiter in Dabo? And how are the situations different between him and Cristobal?
Click to expand...

I think it's probably an anomaly and not a strategy that we should use when our next hire pretty much makes or breaks the program for good.

I also don't think that Miami is going to pay their coordinators anything close to what Clemson pays.
 
Our last two head coaches both had a top 3 recruiting class in their second year.

Anyone can promise the world to these kids.

Unfortunately, on the field performance matters.

We hire a great football coach and the kids will flock here.
 
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If Cristobal has the same record as Golden did last year in his 4th year, we would have had the same ****** class.
 
It takes both recruiting as well as Xs and Os.

Winning remains the best recruiter of them all.
 
FWIW, Cuban Alf is slowly rising up my chart in the slime factor category. After denigrating our program while recruiting for Rutgers (and I'm sure he did some while at FIU) and then ditching us after a month on the job for Saban just to be a recruiter, his reputation has taken a big hit.

It's no coincidence that the sofla HS coaches like Cuban Alf - the slimier you are, the more they like you.
 
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Agreed that evaluation and direction are more important than selling.

But I wouldn't discount the value of selling, either. Urban Meyer attacked recruiting battles like they were games. His 2008 Gator team was loaded with out of state blue chippers.

One thing I like about Herman is that he seems to embrace that part of the job.
 
Kyle Liburd said:
Good post. I agree with you 100% but to play devils advocate & the sake of discussion, what do you think about Clemson hiring a recruiter in Dabo? And how are the situations different between him and Cristobal?
Click to expand...

Dabo was the asst HC/wr coach for Clemson when they canned Tommy Bowden... He wasn't hired to replace him. He got the interim tag and got it lifted after beating their rival USCe 31-14. Nostalgia hire. And they got it right.... 2 VERY different situations.
 
off-topic but since someone mentioned Dabo..

A pro for Cristobal: he knows how to build a staff. that sort of goes unheralded about him.

if youre worried about getting Cristobal because he's just a recruiter. he showed during his FIU days, he could build a competent staff for example finding Collins the current D-Coord of UF.
 
Kevin said:
off-topic but since someone mentioned Dabo..

A pro for Cristobal: he knows how to build a staff. that sort of goes unheralded about him.

if youre worried about getting Cristobal because he's just a recruiter. he showed during his FIU days, he could build a competent staff for example finding Collins the current D-Coord of UF.
Click to expand...

I give him credit for hiring Todd ORlando but who else? Coley?
 
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