by Grant Mollring, Tudor Collegiate Strategies
How many of you have gotten through an entire recruiting cycle and have lamented on the overall quality of your recruiting class? How much time and energy did you spend on the big fish and what was your return on investment? It could be that you landed a game-changer and the entire course of your program was changed. Or it could be that you didn’t get that elite recruit and by the time you needed to move on to the next wave, the good and solid recruits were scooped up also.
Let’s focus on the 2 “abilities” in recruiting. The natural tendency is to focus on the Athletic Ability and how these recruits can benefit our program. We all rank them in our own way and want nothing more than to become the Georgia Football or Oklahoma Softball of our level and consistently land multiple top talents. But what is reality? Let’s think about how many of the blue-chippers you had on your board last year, quantify the amount of time you spent on them, how long the recruiting process played out, and what the final decision was; does it frustrate you thinking of it? In a lot of cases, we spend so much of our investment on keeping those players interested, planning the perfect visit, watching them play 15 times a year, only to be left out in the cold on decision date when an upper-level team moves in and signs them. We are sometimes left holding our tail and becoming frustrated that we didn’t do enough or that we failed in an area where we actually had very little control.
The second “ability” is the GET-ABILITY. What is the likelihood that if you recruited the athlete effectively, efficiently, and built a great relationship with them; are they coming to play for you and your program? Do you have their major, is the location somewhere that fits what they are looking for, can you be financially competitive with their expectations? All of these things are ways to qualify your prospect and to move them up your “getability” ranking. We want you to invest your time and energy wisely and to narrow your list by using different factors. The getability factor could be one of them! Believe it or not Coach, there are some kids just waiting for you to tell them you want them. Will they help balance out your roster or meet your number? Maybe they can be a valuable walk-on who embraces and enhances the culture of your program. They may just develop into a starter for you. Find those kids and make a determination if they are right for you.
The goal is to find balance in your recruiting. Whether it is loading up with top flight talent and filling in the roster with developmental players, or building depth and numbers by recruiting athletes that are talented but maybe need some polish.
We consistently work with coaches across all sports and divisions about tiering your recruits into 3 levels. The top 25% may go into the A category, 50% in the B category, and 25% in the C category. Do this for both talent and the likelihood you can get them and see where each recruit falls in the tier system for each factor. What you have done by doing this is provided a guide for how much time and energy you should spend on each category. These numbers are adjustable by you and your staff but serve as a really good reminder that the time spent on recruiting should match the number of players in each category. Keep your list fluid and qualify your recruits early by their abilities and where they might fall in your tiers, adjust accordingly, and get after it. The ultimate goal is to recognize their 2 abilities and to create a plan to achieve the balance you want within your program. As long as you are real with it, can be consistent with your process, and continue to adjust and adapt, you will be able to look back on your class and feel like you accomplished what you needed to.
Grant Mollring works with college coaches as the Midwest Regional Recruiting Coordinator for Tudor Collegiate Strategies. If you have questions for Grant about his article or just want to set up a call with him, you can email him at grant@dantudor.com.
And save the link for his upcoming webinar on August 14, 2024 at 11:00am CT on this very topic of the recruiting “abilities”.