Recruiting Recipe

Wednesday, February 4, a day better known across the country as National Signing Day…at least that’s the case for diehard college football fans. The NFL draft in May garners more attention nationwide, but college recruiting has blossomed into more than the cottage industry it was 10 years ago.

At the University of Texas, Head Coach Charlie Strong received 22 letters of intent from top prep stars on Signing Day. Combine those 22 with 6 early enrollees that already signed with Texas, and Strong has a solid foundation of players. This was Strong’s first full recruiting cycle at the helm of the Longhorn program, so there’s a sense that it is this class of players that will serve as the calling card for his vision for the program.

Strong admitted as much saying, “When you look at the second year, it’s always been a foundation class.”

After receiving signed contracts from those 22 players, Strong met with the media to talk about them, the recruiting process, and the effort involved in signing players that live outside of Texas. Sharing a few anecdotal stories along the way, one of the most insightful things Strong told media was his message to prospective high school players.

Strong said, “I’m very simple. When I go in a house, I talk about our mission.”

Texas’ head coach went on to describe that mission in more depth:

1. “I want to see a young man graduate.”

2. “Go win football games.”

3. “Making them a better person. Make them aware of the core values”

Beyond those three focal points, Strong said he tells young men, “You have a chance to walk into a program that’s the best program in the country. You have a chance to put your handprint on it and watch it change. You’ll be a part of that change.”

Strong mentioned how UT’s academic side as well as athletics were an important aspect of recruiting efforts, adding that, “In life afterwards, you’re going to get a degree that gives you a chance to go out and be successful in life.”

According to Strong, there are two basic types of players: those that know they want to play at UT, and those that need to know, “What’s so great about Texas?”

The second group of players is where Strong sells his recruiting story. When he talks about engaging that group with his mission, Strong gets more animated, and speaks more quickly, saying, “Those players are what makes recruiting fun. Because, now, you gotta go get them. That’s when you see how good of a recruiter you are. Can you go get those players, and get them to change their mind?”

After talking about what he tells recruits, Strong turned the tables and shared what he looks for in recruits. The three primary traits given were: Character, Discipline, and Athletic Ability. Despite what most fans might think, Strong said that a recruit’s athletic ability was the least important of those three characteristics.

“What happens when athletic ability comes first is it’s all about the player [not the individual]. I don’t ever want to make it about the player, because when things go bad, he doesn’t have a strong enough background of foundational character where he can just be a disciplined player for you.”

Furthering the point, Strong added, “If you get a guy that has good character from the beginning, then he’s gonna understand what discipline is all about.”

A simple man with a basic mission telling a story to high school football players. It sounds very basic – with 28 signed letters of intent, it might be elementary.

The truth of the matter is that anyone can cook with a recipe, but it takes a chef to make a meal. Those 28 signed contracts are proof that Charlie Strong is a chef.