HOL anonymous high school coaches feedback

[ShortSideOption]

For those of you that have a Rivals membership, the link to the full article is below. For those that don't, the link to Sharp and Benning where they talk about it is below as well.

Cliffs:
Sean Callahan over at Rivals did an anonymous coaches feedback series on his site where they went through a myriad of things for the high school coaches to give feedback on. The most recent entry is how they think the staff is doing with recruiting in-state. As i've said on here numerous times before, typically when I post my thoughts it is something I believe, that ends up being validated by numerous other people. In the case of our recruiting in-state, Severe and Benning read some responses from the coaches which had a decent mix of average, good, and bad. Feel free to click on the sound cloud link to hear some of the responses from coaches.

However, the common theme i've been echoing on here is relayed by multiple coaches. Follow up, communication, and some lack of organization show their head on the recruiting trail from time to time with this staff. I think with multiple high school coaches now saying it, it pretty much puts the "opinion" part of it away. Benning even goes into how you can start to get rid of some of that miscommunication and some of his own ideas on bettering that part. What I would say is that even though we are going to get blanked on the top 4 in-state for 2022, I don't think Nebraska has a recruiting problem. We still do pretty well there even though I would like us to do better locally. But many of the things that were stated in this article/survey are things that you see on the field during games. Disorganization (10 guys on punt return, penalties, or first play turnovers), miscommunication (attrition and coaches/players not being on the same page) and other issues we can point to over the past 3 years.

While I would prefer that we did better locally, at this point it will take some wins to turn that around in my opinion. Because the 2023 class is what the focus will be on now, and how we do in 2021 is going to be the springboard there.

 

[DuckTownHusker]

I'd wager that the most successful coaches are organization freaks. Ten bucks says that Nick Saban knows what's happening in every practice, every day of the week. He may not know every single brand-new recruiting target the instant that kid hits the market, but I bet he can call up the assistant who does in 8 seconds.

In sales, I've used several different "cadence" softwares, which are basically designed to put all your prospects on a track and make sure they get called. For example, you'll load up your leads and the system will setup a cadence of something like, "Day1 Call. Day2 Text. Day3 Email. Day5 Call Again."

A lot of this can be automated so that you're in constant contact and control of your prospects. You just log in and the system tells you to call Customer 1, 6 and 10 and then email Customer 2 and 37. Massive efficiency gains.

In my last company we went from something like 8 responses out of 100, to more like 25:100. It literally tripled our results in about 2 months of prep/training.

In this day of technology, disorganization is just absurd.

 

[winnerwinner]

In before the lock dissonance rationalization back and forth

 

[N2FL]

I think it's obvious, Rivals has an ax to grind. ONLY explanation here.

 

[Red Reign]

I think it's obvious, Rivals has an ax to grind. ONLY explanation here.

Yeah Callahan and Clouse peeved

 

[speedy44]

I am not sure that we have lost a kid outside of Omaha that we have recruited since Frost has been here. The Omaha schools/coaches have an elitist mentality that they have to be coddled to and if you don't offer every kid they have its an insult. The rest of the state doesn't seem to share the same feeling that the Omaha high schools do. I can say this as an assistant coach at a class A school. These kids from Omaha have a different mentality than the kids in the rest of the state.

Its a different mentality with kids in general than it used to be but the big cities like Omaha kids will transfer to many schools and have no allegiance or loyalty to anyone except themselves

If we won games this would all be a non issue

 

[The Big Red Lebowski]

I am not sure that we have lost a kid outside of Omaha that we have recruited since Frost has been here. The Omaha schools/coaches have an elitist mentality that they have to be coddled to and if you don't offer every kid they have its an insult. The rest of the state doesn't seem to share the same feeling that the Omaha high schools do. I can say this as an assistant coach at a class A school. These kids from Omaha have a different mentality than the kids in the rest of the state.

Its a different mentality with kids in general than it used to be but the big cities like Omaha kids will transfer to many schools and have no allegiance or loyalty to anyone except themselves

If we won games this would all be a non issue

So Omaha kids should be thinking less about their own futures and more about Nebraska's future? Sweet jebus, sometimes I wonder why I follow this stupid sport. Coaches are making generational wealth (literally $10 million plus) even if they fall flat on their faces and the it's the players who are elitist, coddled and selfish?

 

[speedy44]

So Omaha kids should be thinking less about their own futures and more about Nebraska's future? Sweet jebus, sometimes I wonder why I follow this stupid sport. Coaches are making generational wealth (literally $10 million plus) even if they fall flat on their faces and the it's the players who are elitist, coddled and selfish?

No I never said I had an issue with Omaha kids choosing to not come to Nebraska. I just said Omaha has a me first mentality that we dont see across the whole state. In most towns in Nebraska you go to junior high with the same people you go through high school. In Omaha those kids dont have that same experience. I said ' The Omaha schools/coaches have an elitist mentality that they have to be coddled to and if you don't offer every kid they have its an insult.'

I dont think you even read what I wrote I never said anything negative about the kids

 

[ShortSideOption]

I am not sure that we have lost a kid outside of Omaha that we have recruited since Frost has been here. The Omaha schools/coaches have an elitist mentality that they have to be coddled to and if you don't offer every kid they have its an insult. The rest of the state doesn't seem to share the same feeling that the Omaha high schools do. I can say this as an assistant coach at a class A school. These kids from Omaha have a different mentality than the kids in the rest of the state.

Its a different mentality with kids in general than it used to be but the big cities like Omaha kids will transfer to many schools and have no allegiance or loyalty to anyone except themselves

If we won games this would all be a non issue

I've brought this up before, so i'll just repost it:

The Omaha kids have more options. Guys like Haarberg, Carnie, and Gifford are choosing us over Iowa, Boston College, and Oregon State. Even go look at the 2019 class where our staff did a great job keeping guys, the out of Omaha guys were Snodgrass, Nelson, and Piper. The best offer was Iowa for those recruits. Deshawn Woods has LSU and Florida offers, Jackson has Notre Dame and A&M offers, Helms has an Oklahoma offer, Riley got offered from Penn State. Since the 2011 class, there's only been 2 in-state recruits outside of Omaha that had bigger offers than Iowa, and that's Bryson Williams and Jared Bubak. That's pretty staggering to only have two in a decade. So what if more kids outside of Omaha had the offers these Omaha kids did, would we all of a sudden be losing them at the rate we are losing these Omaha kids? I think yes. And that's one of the big issues IMO.

I don't think Huffman, Limongi, Landstrom, or any other coaches have elitist mentalities, I just believe they have exposure to more coaches and recruiting styles than outside of Omaha coaches. I truly don't think Woods, Riley, Helms, or Jackson have us outside their top 5 because of an elitist mentality from them or their coach. They are looking at winning programs where they've been recruited the best.

I do think I have something kind of figured out though... I think our staff is reaching out to the kids quite a bit. Now, the message may not always be what the kid wants, but I do think they are reaching out quite a bit. But where I think we drop the ball which is being illustrated a bit with this survey, is we don't reach out to the coaches as much as we do the kids and we don't reach out to the coaches as much as Iowa State, Mizzou, or Iowa does. So when a kid hears something he just thinks about it on his own, where if the coaches were involved like Miami is doing then the message becomes relayed multiple times and you have someone on your side within the school.

I do understand that creates quite a bit more work for our staff. But to me hearing what the recruits say, and then hearing how the coaches responded to this seems like there's a disconnect.

EDIT: Left Cam Jurgens out of my out of Omaha kids with big time offers for some reason. My bad.

 

[Marcus]

I dont think you even read what I wrote I never said anything negative about the kids

Any time someone quotes you and starts their post with "So..." you can be fairly certain that they did not read what you wrote. True on any social media platform.

 

[speedy44]

I've brought this up before, so i'll just repost it:

The Omaha kids have more options. Guys like Haarberg, Carnie, and Gifford are choosing us over Iowa, Boston College, and Oregon State. Even go look at the 2019 class where our staff did a great job keeping guys, the out of Omaha guys were Snodgrass, Nelson, and Piper. The best offer was Iowa for those recruits. Deshawn Woods has LSU and Florida offers, Jackson has Notre Dame and A&M offers, Helms has an Oklahoma offer, Riley got offered from Penn State. Since the 2011 class, there's only been 2 in-state recruits outside of Omaha that had bigger offers than Iowa, and that's Bryson Williams and Jared Bubak. That's pretty staggering to only have two in a decade. That's one of the big issues IMO.

I don't think Huffman, Limongi, Landstrom, or any other coaches have elitist mentalities, I just believe they have exposure to more coaches and recruiting styles than outside of Omaha coaches. I truly don't think Woods, Riley, Helms, or Jackson have us outside their top 5 because of an elitist mentality from them or their coach. They are looking at winning programs where they've been recruited the best.

I do think I have something kind of figured out though... I think our staff is reaching out to the kids quite a bit. Now, the message may not always be what the kid wants, but I do think they are reaching out quite a bit. But where I think we drop the ball which is being illustrated a bit with this survey, is we don't reach out to the coaches as much as we do the kids and we don't reach out to the coaches as much as Iowa State, Mizzou, or Iowa does. So when a kid hears something he just thinks about it on his own, where if the coaches were involved like Miami is doing then the message becomes relayed multiple times and you have someone on your side within the school.

I do understand that creates quite a bit more work for our staff. But to me hearing what the recruits say, and then hearing how the coaches responded to this seems like there's a disconnect.

Very nice breakdown. I have have never been a fan of half of the staff to begin with so its understandable they have done a poor job recruiting locally. We have been here through Callahan and we dont see a difference between then and now how are local kids are recruited. Bo was an absolute a hole who wouldn't even acknowledge you if you walked right by him. I do believe frost is alot more approachable to the high school coaches

 

[HuSkaBob]

So Gerrod Lambrecht is a non-football guy that came in with staff to organize off-field things. Typically there is a recruiting analyst/coordinator who is a details freak. Are these people missing? I don't want to, but I'm pretty sure I could implement contact management software in the department in the next month and install on everyone's phone with hourly alarms so they have no excuse to not update what's been said to whom when.

I would feel bad if UNL is not using technology for this, since it's dead easy and really just a habit that everyone in the department needs to get into the habit of doing.

 

[ShortSideOption]

Very nice breakdown. I have have never been a fan of half of the staff to begin with so its understandable they have done a poor job recruiting locally. We have been here through Callahan and we dont see a difference between then and now how are local kids are recruited. Bo was an absolute a hole who wouldn't even acknowledge you if you walked right by him. I do believe frost is alot more approachable to the high school coaches

I had heard Bo just expected people to come here. When Riley got here, I remember multiple coaches saying "i've seen and talked to this staff more than the other staff the last 7 years." That said, we would send Hughes up to the State Track Meet to recruit and he lasted a year.

I think this staff is doing ok, but a recruiting analyst told me "the bigger your support staff the more issues that can come up if you aren't organized." I think that rings a true a bit for us.

Win and this all goes away like you said. I'm sure TO wasn't at every high school.

 

[Megatron]

Anyone who has spent time in Arizona knows about Jerry Colangelo. If NU wants to hire someone to change the direction of the Athletic Department and our major sports - they should hire him as a part time consultant. I have attached an article to reference for your enjoyment. But there is one statement from the Arizona Republic that stands out, and even though referencing GCU's basketball coach, I think it applies to any HC that wants to drive success:

"He's doing an amazing job," Colangelo said. "He's as hard working as you can find as a coach. To recruit, you have to work 365 days at it. The recruiting never stops. To watch his development this year and what's taken place with the players, etc., it's over the top."*

* https://www.azcentral.com/story/spo...-vision-once-colangelo-came-board/4721262001/

 

[NeroFakesThePitch]

I've brought this up before, so i'll just repost it:

The Omaha kids have more options. Guys like Haarberg, Carnie, and Gifford are choosing us over Iowa, Boston College, and Oregon State. Even go look at the 2019 class where our staff did a great job keeping guys, the out of Omaha guys were Snodgrass, Nelson, and Piper. The best offer was Iowa for those recruits. Deshawn Woods has LSU and Florida offers, Jackson has Notre Dame and A&M offers, Helms has an Oklahoma offer, Riley got offered from Penn State. Since the 2011 class, there's only been 2 in-state recruits outside of Omaha that had bigger offers than Iowa, and that's Bryson Williams and Jared Bubak. That's pretty staggering to only have two in a decade. So what if more kids outside of Omaha had the offers these Omaha kids did, would we all of a sudden be losing them at the rate we are losing these Omaha kids? I think yes. And that's one of the big issues IMO.

I don't think Huffman, Limongi, Landstrom, or any other coaches have elitist mentalities, I just believe they have exposure to more coaches and recruiting styles than outside of Omaha coaches. I truly don't think Woods, Riley, Helms, or Jackson have us outside their top 5 because of an elitist mentality from them or their coach. They are looking at winning programs where they've been recruited the best.

I do think I have something kind of figured out though... I think our staff is reaching out to the kids quite a bit. Now, the message may not always be what the kid wants, but I do think they are reaching out quite a bit. But where I think we drop the ball which is being illustrated a bit with this survey, is we don't reach out to the coaches as much as we do the kids and we don't reach out to the coaches as much as Iowa State, Mizzou, or Iowa does. So when a kid hears something he just thinks about it on his own, where if the coaches were involved like Miami is doing then the message becomes relayed multiple times and you have someone on your side within the school.

I do understand that creates quite a bit more work for our staff. But to me hearing what the recruits say, and then hearing how the coaches responded to this seems like there's a disconnect.

EDIT: Left Cam Jurgens out of my out of Omaha kids with big time offers for some reason. My bad.

Seems like an easy fix. Just communicate with the hs coaches more. ??