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Introduction
During his 17 years as an assistant football coach for the Ohio State Buckeyes, Bill Conley coached tight ends, linebackers, defensive ends and special teams for head coaches Earle Bruce, John Cooper and Jim Tressel. All-American and/or eventual NFL players he coached include Cris Carter, Thomas “Pepper” Johnson, Chris Spielman, Mike Vrabel, Andy Groom, B.J. Sander, Ben Hartsock, Darnell Sanders and Mike Nugent.
Conley coached teams that included the 2002 national champions, and others earning berths in numerous bowl games, including the Rose, Fiesta, Outback, Sugar, Citrus, Holiday, Hall of Fame and Cotton Bowls.
As the Buckeyes’ recruiting coordinator in 1991 and 1992, and then from 1994 to 2004, Conley distinguished himself and gained national acclaim. Recognized by ESPN as the No. 1 college football recruiter in the country, Conley consistently brought high-impact or “franchise” players to Ohio State. A few of those players include Eddie George, Orlando Pace, Terry Glenn, Greg Bellisari, Andy Katzenmoyer, Chris Gamble, Nate Salley and Mike Nugent.
Conley is a graduate of The Ohio State University, where he was a member of three Big Ten championship teams, including the 1968 national championship team, under legendary head coach Woody Hayes. Conley earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Ohio State, and a master’s degree in administration from Wright State University.In the spring of 2004, Conley retired from Ohio State and was named vice president at MAX Sports Center, a sports medicine and athletic performance institute in Columbus, Ohio. Today, he works to improve the skills of the nation’s top athletes, while keeping his ears to the ground for coaches looking for that next franchise player. Along with being one of the nation’s top motivational speakers, Conley is also a radio sports analyst for 610 WTVN in Columbus, Ohio.
Prologue
Imagine never going to the grocery store again, and not because you don’t want to, but because you don’t have to go. Instead, farmers and/or their representatives come directly to you, bringing with them not only the freshest, highest-quality products from which to choose, but the statistical data to support their claims to the superiority of a particular harvest. Such data in this instance would include levels of annual rainfall verses sunlight, mean air and soil temperatures, soil moisture and erosion charts, nutrients and additives, and information about pest infestations, to name a few.
Now imagine those same farmers hawking their crops to dozens of other potential customers like you, spawning a fierce and sometimes bitter competition among buyers. Imagine these efforts transcending growing seasons and becoming a perpetual process. This means if you let your guard down or divert your attention for just a moment, you stand the chance of losing a crop that is the envy of your family, your peers and your profession. Farmers commonly refer to exceptional harvests as “bumper crops.”
That anecdote is an apt metaphor for the process of recruiting football players at the NCAA Division I level. It is a world where I made a living for nearly 20 years as an assistant coach at The Ohio State University under respected head coaches Earle Bruce, John Cooper and Jim Tressel. The farmers in this scenario are the parents, legal guardians, coaches, pastors or high school representatives of the nation’s top recruits; the consumers are the hundreds of Division I football programs across the United States.
The average person hears about recruiting once a year, in early February when media and industry pundits chronicle, critique and classify how each of the nation’s major universities — particularly those from well-known football schools, such as Ohio State—fared in a given year. Everyone seems to want to know whether a particular harvest (class of recruits, to continue our metaphor) will bear the sweet fruit that leads to a league championship or highly coveted national championship. The only other time most people hear about recruiting is when there are violations of the rules of conduct prescribed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the governing body of college athletics.
This book, however, is not about rankings of recruiting classes, nor is it about the rule makers or breakers, or the seemingly bottomless pit of enablers, scoundrels and bloodsuckers that seem to plague college sports. This book isn’t about the NCAA, although I will examine several key policies that have altered and evolved the state of recruiting. This book is about how recruiting is both an art and science, how it is part Picasso and part Freud, if you will. Ultimately, recruiting is about understanding human nature, and what it is that drives coaches and athletes to be part of and contribute to something greater than themselves.
To fully comprehend my approach to recruiting you must first understand me. I am a teacher at heart, which is what I firmly believe a majority of coaches are at their core. My first job out of college was teaching middle school social studies in London, Ohio. I care deeply about people and their personal and professional development; I enjoy helping others succeed. My focus for 30 years has been on the development of football players as athletes and individuals. I am no different than other teachers, except that my classroom is the gridiron and my medium is Division I football, which is arguably one of the most exciting sporting and social phenomenon in North America.
Though the process of recruiting is important to understand, it’s also important to point out that successful recruiters have their own approach, philosophy and skills they apply to their trade. It may be a stale remark, but what works for one doesn’t necessarily work for another. Understanding an individual’s inner motivations is vital to the process. So, too, is finding out who else is pivotal in his decision-making process and what will make him pull the trigger and attend your school. Each recruit I’ve ever encountered—and it probably numbers in the thousands—has a special story to tell . . . and what stories they are! How is it that this person rose above his contemporaries to reach a level of athletic achievement others only daydream about? Some experts would say it is a combination of genetics, hard work and a burning desire to excel that results in the creature called the Division I college football player. All I know is that the stories behind the young men I recruited to play at Ohio State are as different and unique as each individual, and I would be hard-pressed to categorize any of the young men I’ve coached.
Recruiting is evolutionary, although it was a lower-profile, one-on-one endeavor prior to the mid-1980s. Before then, universities like Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alabama and USC were a lock to lure and hook a majority of the nation’s top football talent. That was before the age of big-money sponsorships and television rights, and high-profile players leveraging their college experience to leave early for million-dollar paydays in professional football. One-time, lesser-profile university football programs, such as Kansas State and Marshall, gained notoriety and prestige giving so-called second-tier players a chance to shine early and bolster their worth with professional scouts. Changes in the recruiting process also heightened competition among college recruiters as programs lost the luxury and routine of re-building programs by red-shirting players in key positions.
Recruiting is now a never-ending season, a high-stakes contest measured not only in wins and losses, but also the professional and personal fates of players and coaches alike. The pool of potential players hasn’t changed drastically over the past 20 years; still only a tiny percent of all high school football players will play at the Division I level, and a small percentage of those will play at the professional level. What has changed is the process of recruiting. There literally has been an explosion of recruiting services and systems to track and rate top prospects, including recruiting magazines and the Internet. For example, Nike sponsors a series of annual Combines, where high school stars demonstrate their speed, agility, strength and football skills. Nike then posts national rankings of these players on its Web site. Talk about your cross-promotions! I’d like to have one-quarter of one percent of what those events must ultimately contribute to the company’s bottom line.
Success in recruiting boils down to selling the merits of a particular program, that program’s ability to perform as sold, and its value and track record of getting star athletes to the next level if they have the skill and desire. (Remember, only a small percentage of all Division I college football players will get a chance to play professionally, so the odds against most star athletes increase exponentially.) Watching these boiling points is the primary responsibility of the recruiting coordinator, whose greatest joy is that rare connection that brings mutual success for the athlete and the university’s football program.
There is no greater feeling for a recruiting coordinator or recruiting coach than to land the ideal player for the most important position need. That perfect match is a great recruiting high. I know what academicians are groaning: “Isn’t getting a college education and earning a degree more important than winning football games?” Let me say for the record that, yes, it is. I can only speak for Ohio State, which during my tenure gave its athletes every opportunity for success on and off the field. I know this from the perspective as a coach, and as a former player—a walk-on who earned a scholarship and completed not only his bachelor’s degree, but also a master’s degree. I know this practice was embraced, communicated and reiterated by all three coaches I was associated with during my time as a Buckeye assistant coach and recruiter. I also know that Woody Hayes, for whom I had the honor of playing, embraced and preached these tenets as well. A vast majority of coaches I know take personal pride in preparing their players not only for the battles they’ll encounter on the football field, but conflicts they will encounter in life. As coaches, we believe that football lessons are life lessons, but we’ll leave this debate for another arena as well.
Again, this book is about my experiences recruiting the cream of the national football crop, and trying to convince them to become Ohio State Buckeyes. Most were high-profile, highly acclaimed, nationally ranked players in high school that were aggressively pursued by the best collegiate programs. They could have played anywhere in the country. Ironically, several — including one Heisman Trophy winner—barely registered on the national recruiting radar and were initially overlooked by so-called recruiting experts, sophisticated recruiting services, scouts and those like me who made a living identifying real talent. Many of those athletes, however, possessed not only raw physical talent, but also a rare mental and emotional tenacity to become not only top collegiate athletes but franchise professional players as well.
I’ll also try to explain the fickle, even schizophrenic nature of a business where I’ve spent my professional life. To that end and to help others, I’ve developed 11 fundamental rules of recruiting that I’m calling, “Conley’s Recruiting Commandments.” Explanations of these “Commandments” (listed at the end of this Prologue) will lead various chapters examining my personal experiences, and include vignettes of a few remarkable recruits I helped convince to play for Ohio State. Why 11 commandments, you may be asking. Well, the way I see it, if God were a coach in the Big Ten he/she would have given Moses 11 commandments. Seriously, my hope is that these observations, tips and stories will be compelling to fans and observers of both football and human nature, and a valuable resource to recruiters and the recruited by providing insight and guidance into the nuances of an interesting but frequently misunderstood process.
Ultimately, this book is about the young men who were given a chance to display their athletic skills on one of the most high-profile, and physically, emotionally and mentally demanding stages in collegiate sports—arguably in all of athletics—at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. What counts most is the fact that not only were these young men successful athletes, but their experiences have made most of them successful and respected citizens in their respective communities. The greatest fulfillment for any coach, including myself, is the belief that you have been a part of helping a young man mature. With that in mind, it is to all the young men that I have had the pleasure to recruit and coach that I dedicate this book. The emotional charge a coach gets from seeing the look in the face of one of his athletes after a big play, winning a league championship, capturing a national title or receiving a diploma is precious. I have been fortunate to experience many great moments in football, and to the young men who made it possible, all I can say is, “Thank you.”
—Bill Conley
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Summary