Strong's Recruiting "Secrets"

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Per BON:

... Charlie Strong is signing higher-caliber prospects than he could at Louisville, but there are still three-star recruits in the 2016 class who look like potential impact players like those Strong found at his previous stop.

So how does Strong manage to find so many guys passed over by big programs? Former Louisville assistant coach Kenny Carter detailed the evaluation process:

He said the key to the staff identifying underrated prospects was the result of an objective evaluation process that Strong took from his time on Urban Meyer's staff at Florida. In that system, numeric values are assigned to various skills including physicality, hand movement and ball pursuit.​

Each assistant coach watches film independently and provides an assessment without discussing the prospect under consideration as a group. Only prospects with a high enough score would receive a scholarship offer. Strong defers to the evaluations of his assistants rather than outside assessments or measurables.

"All we cared about was our evaluation of the kid," Carter [said]. "We didn't have to worry about what our recruiting class was going to be ranked at the end of the deal."

By removing emotion from the process, Strong ensures that his coaches don't play favorites. By removing outside opinions, Strong eliminates the potential for groupthink.

[Additionally], Strong and his staff often take longer than other schools to evaluate prospects to ensure that players don't peak too early.

"A lot of players have been missed here and at other places over the last five years because of early commitments of guys that didn't pan out," Vance Bedford said.

Not only [that], Bedford understands that the Longhorns can't get afford to be put in a position where coaches want to pull an offer but can't afford to negatively impact relationships at that school.

Not all major programs feel that way, but for Strong, the process of building a comfort level with Texas high school coaches was too difficult to achieve and too valuable to risk.

With Strong's ability to win over parents and earn the loyalty of his players, it makes for a whole that allowed the Texas head coach to send nearly half of his 2011 Louisville class to the NFL.

 

Good stuff. Gotta put in the work.

 

That's how an effective recruiting system works.

 

Like a lot of things, it's not magic. It's just thinking for yourself and doing the work.