Setting sale

Sporting News, The, Jan 30, 1995 by Michael Bradley

If Brian Boykin and James Manley incurred any expenses during their trip home to Birmingham for Christmas break, they should be able to deduct them from their 1994 income tax returns. The two young men may be Vanderbilt student athletes, but when they left campus following their final exams, Boykin and Manley became salesmen. Their targets were high school seniors Damien Charley and Jason Smith, and their product was Commodores football.

The NCAA might not be too keen on the idea, but the two Commodores defenders (Boykin is an end, Manley a tackle) deserve fat commission checks. Thanks to their efforts, Charley and Smith remain committed to Vanderbilt and should sign national letters-of-intent February 1. They're part of a 10-man recruiting class expected to join the Commodores program - with as many as eight more players on the way. It's not a Top 10 group, but it is remarkable in its own right when one considers the circumstances surrounding the Vandy recruiting effort.

Although Charley and Smith had already pledged to Vanderbilt before their casual holiday luncheon with Boykin and Manley, the folks in Nashville had reason to worry whether the players would honor their promises. Both had made oral commitments to the school while Gerry DiNardo was still head coach. When DiNardo left December 9 to take over the struggling Louisiana State program, neither player would have been excoriated had he decided to play elsewhere. New coaches and old recruits don't always make good couples.

But Charley and Smith will be in Nashville next September, hoping to be part of the turnaround promised by new Coach Rod Dowhower, a former Cleveland Browns assistant who hasn't coached in the collegiate ranks since 1979 and who has a record as a head coach (pro and college combined) of 10-29-1.

Charley and Smith chose Vanderbilt for the school itself - its sterling academic credentials and Southeastern Conference affiliation - rather than the coach. And though they may have needed no additional attention while the Commodores chose a new coach, they received it nonetheless. Whether it was the reassuring words of Boykin and Manley or the communications efforts by associate athletic directors Rick George and Brad Bates and running backs coach Ed Lambert - the only holdover from the DiNardo regime - Charley and Smith knew they were still wanted.

Instead of waiting until Dowhower was announced as coach January 2, George and Bates forged ahead, hoping to lure the kind of players needed to transform the Commodores from perennial SEC weaklings (Vandy was 5-6 in 1994 and hasn't had a winning season since 1982) into a sort of Duke of the gridiron. They used every weapon at their disposal, including current players.

"James and Brian told us not to worry," says Charley, a 5 foot 10, 175-pound defensive back from Birmingham's Wenonah High School. "They said the team was ours, and that we were responsible for what it accomplished. The coaches can coach us, but we have to take it onto the field. When I visited Vanderbilt the players took me under their wing. I felt like I was with my high school team, and we're all like brothers."

During the past three decades, the Vanderbilt football brotherhood has been more like a fraternity touch team than a national contender. Because it is the premier academic school in SEC, Vanderbilt football brotherhood has been more smaller pool than its rivals. Fans actually looked at DiNardo's four-year, 18-26 record as a reason for optimism. Ifs no wonder. Vanderbilt's last bowl appearance came in 1982, and the Commodores have never won an SEC championship.

That's what made this recruiting season all the more important. It was vital to continue the momentum begun under DiNardo. Five players - including Charley, Smith (an offensive lineman), and consensus all-state offensive tackle David Coppeans - had made commitments when DiNardo left.

"Whenever you have a transition, things can stand still until you find a new head coach," says George, who accumulated 12 year's of experience as a recruiting coordinator at Illinois, Colorado and Vanderbilt before moving into administration. "We wanted to recruit and move the process along."

Talk about your recipes for disaster. On the afternoon DiNardo was introduced as LSU's coach, Vanderbilt was scheduled to welcome eight recruits and their families for a campus visit. "We told them this was a great lesson for them," George says. "Don't choose an institution "just for the head coach. Choose it for what it can do for you down the road."

George, Bates and Lambert had a two-fold challenge. Telling the recruits was tough enough. Informing the players already on the team would be more daunting. The eight prospects would be spending a weekend in their company, observing them work through the various emotions - anger, sadness, confusion, uncertainty - evoked by DiNardo's departure. That's not quite the best climate for a sales pitch. Or was it? was it?

By that Sunday, three more recruits had committed to Vanderbilt The coaches had done their job, but the players had really delivered. recruits got to see the players open up," Bates says. "They saw the emotions, heard the discussions and formed some strong bonds. It was probably our best recruiting weekend ever."