Prospecting for gold: football recruiters find blue-chip players anywhere and everywhere

Sporting News, The, Jan 31, 1994 by Michael Bradley

It was a brusing lesson about college football's caste system. Mack Brown's first two seasons at North Carolina had been dreadful 1-10 affairs. At a school where basketball comes first -- and often second and third -- his rebuilding task was more formidable than usual. But Brown was undaunted. He continued selling in-state recruits on the possibility of future success and hit the road to spread the Tar Heels name throughout the nation.

That's where his problems started. The North Carolina name gained Brown some access to top prospects, but Brown learned quickly that name wasn't everything. You had to win. In several cases, the Tar Heels ran a poor fifth to the big boys in the blue-chip sweepstakes. High school stars loved Carolina's tree-lined campus and academic reputation, but, oh, that won-lost record.

"I looked at the people we were competing against for some of the top out-of-state players, and they were all playing on New Year's Day," Brown says. "You can promise some players that you're going to get better, but unless you can show them proof, the great players don't want to come to your school."

Now Brown has proof. Consecutive nine-victory seasons and a pile of positive publicity about the Heels' turnaround have given him considerable ammunition on the recruiting trails. While he still mines the local talent first, he has expanded his focus and is landing top talent from other parts of the country.

Last year, he raided Pennsylvania, Alabama and Florida to grab some big-timers. This year, he has received oral commitments from superb defensive back Greg Williams of Bolingbrook, Ill., rated one of the top 25 players in the country by Bluechip Illustrated, and linebacker/tight end Mike Pringley of Linden, N.J. There should be more.

"When you're losing, you can't get into any homes," Brown says. "Five years ago when we were 1-10, we couldn't have visited the players we are today."

Brown won't be the only head coach spanning the time zones this week as the race to the February 2 signing day enters its final leg. He will be fighting off-field battles with the likes of Michigan, Florida State, Miami, Tennessee, Stanford, Wisconsin and, of course, Notre Dame, the generally accepted national-recruiting champion.

When then-head coach Bo Schembechler brought Bob Chmiel to Michigan six years ago as recruiting coordinator, he charged him with expanding the Wolverines' prospect base. The results have been dramatic. For the past two years, Michigan has taken players from nearly every state imaginable. Although the Wolverines are working on another far-flung class this year, their rivals are growing in numbers.

"There is no question that we're competing against more programs each year on a national basis," Chmiel says. "The players are getting more mobile, and their official visits are spanning the country."

To recruit nationally, a school must have a unique combination of on-field success, considerable TV exposure and instant recognition. Chmiel says the Wolverines' distinctive helmets even help. A nationwide apparel sales boom has turned teen-agers into walking advertisements for popular schools. But no matter how enticing a school's sweatshirt might be, one thing remains constant in the national recruiting derby. Losers need not apply. If they don't play on TV, they don't get a second look from blue-chippers.

"When you're building a program, you aren't going to get the best players," says Pete Garcia, Miami's director of football operations. "They don't know who you are."

Scott Schuhmann, Stanford's athletic recruiting coordinator, agrees. The Cardinal have a national reputation for academics, but it wasn't until the football team started winning that they could lure players from other time zones.

In the past, prep stars would confine their visits to in-state schools, area conference schools and, maybe, several high-profile schools such as Notre Dame, which has been luring players from every known area code for decades. That has changed. Consider a player like tight end Ahndre Patterson, a Dallas star who visited Michigan, Tennessee, Florida State and Miami before settling on the Vols -- one of three Texans in Tennessee's already tremendous class.

Patterson isn't alone. Standout quarterback Peyton Manning from New Orleans -- the son of Ole Miss legend Archie -- is considering the Rebels, but his other choices include Michigan, Notre Dame, Florida State, Florida and Tennessee. Have arm, will travel. And several other top players have decided to play far from home. Miami's class already includes players from Michigan, California, Colorado and Pennsylvania. Stanford raided Texas, Alabama and Florida for some serious speed, and Wisconsin has commitments from players in California, Colorado and Pennsylvania.

"When we assemble our final list of prospects, we don't care where they live," Chmiel says.

When Barry Alvarez came to Wisconsin before the 1990 season, he had a unique recruiting philosophy: You have to fail to succeed. If applied to the football field, the Badgers would have been poised for some big success. A series of awful seasons, including a 2-9 mark in 1989, had made the Dairy State's finest the Big Ten equivalent of the catfish -- a true bottom-feeder.