Tech assistant coach Mike Pelton’s recruiting strategy

[awbuzz]

Link

Coach specifically states "“A lot of places you don’t have to worry about the transcript,” Pelton said. “But here, you know, Hey, (if a player is) good enough on the field, next thing you want to know is, Hey, what’s his transcript like?”

Bottom line is that the coach knoew that GT has a smaller pool to fish.

 

[Milwaukee]

Good stuff.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Good read. It helps underscore the difficulty with just saying, "we need to recruit nationally." Sure would be nice to have 40 coaches with contacts all over the country. Pelton has a history in Alabama that he draws from extensively. Without that history, he's floundering. You can't just go recruit nationally. Stanford and ND can because they have the kids knocking down their doors.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Helpful article for understanding recruiting at Tech.

 

[Milwaukee]

Staff - "We can't target everyone that Georgia and FSU can."

PJ - "Thank you, captain obvious. That's why we need to get better and more creative."

Dead horse.

 

[PBR549]

It is what it is and our staff is doing as well as anybody could with the limitations. That's why I say consistency of staff and a scheme that allows us to take lesser athletes are the most important factors for us. We have some great recruiters in Roof and McCollum who completely understand the recruiting landscape at Tech. We get kids we shouldn't get thanks to them and others.

 

[Eastman]

Link

Coach specifically states "“A lot of places you don’t have to worry about the transcript,” Pelton said. “But here, you know, Hey, (if a player is) good enough on the field, next thing you want to know is, Hey, what’s his transcript like?”

Bottom line is that the coach know that GT has a smaller pool to fish.

It certainly be interesting to me to have a rough idea of how much smaller the "smaller pool to fish" actually is. Maybe that work has been done and I am simply unaware, but if not you would think that the coaches already have a rough idea of what % of D1 prospects typically would fit TECH's requirements. If, for example, only ~20% of the state of Georgia's prospects typically would meet TECH's requirements then it really puts an exclamation mark to the need to cast a wider net.

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

How many do we sign that we offer vs those we do not sign that we offer? Perhaps rankings of those individuals as well.

 

[g0lftime]

Enlarging the recruiting range makes sense for a school like GT. I recently met with some of our Alumni Staff and they stated that second largest student population at GT comes from California. GT is a national brand due to our successful alumni and ranking as a technical university. The state of Georgia just does not have the school system that can produce enough top athletes to be really good football players and be good students at Tech. Being a good student does not always translate into being a good STEM student either. PJ is doing a good job with the kids he recruits in the classroom but let's face it, we don't have enough top athletes needed and we are not able to compete at the top levels of our conference year in and year out against the schools that will take minimum qualifiers (like UNC, FSU, Clemson). We have a chance to have a really good year when we get the right mix of RS freshmen and upper classmen but it is cyclical. Very disappointed in last year as we should not lose that many games in my opinion. We were just a blocked field goal with an amazing run at the end of the FSU game to have only won 2 games last year. Can PJ make changes (recruiting, position coaching, play calling, offensive innovation, etc) that can make him more successful in the coming years.

 

[iceeater1969]

It certainly be interesting to me to have a rough idea of how much smaller the "smaller pool to fish" actually is. Maybe that work has been done and I am simply unaware, but if not you would think that the coaches already have a rough idea of what % of D1 prospects typically would fit TECH's requirements. If, for example, only ~20% of the state of Georgia's prospects typically would meet TECH's requirements then it really puts an exclamation mark to the need to cast a wider net.

I did a little internet searching on the high school academic ratings for 3 recent ol/dl 2017 offers. The Oregon ol kid's school has 80 percent profiency in math and 87 for writing. He has offers from local pac 12 schools and will be a long shot for us

The two dl are from large schools in miami these school were rated at 40 percent. The miami are kids have offers from every top 30 factory school .

"We sent coach West to personally offer the Oregon kid. "
Maybe just maybe this means we are going to spend a few more bucks making visits to offer and meet coaches for kids outside of traditional recruiting areas.

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

Enlarging the recruiting range makes sense for a school like GT. I recently met with some of our Alumni Staff and they stated that second largest student population at GT comes from California. GT is a national brand due to our successful alumni and ranking as a technical university. The state of Georgia just does not have the school system that can produce enough top athletes to be really good football players and be good students at Tech. Being a good student does not always translate into being a good STEM student either. PJ is doing a good job with the kids he recruits in the classroom but let's face it, we don't have enough top athletes needed and we are not able to compete at the top levels of our conference year in and year out against the schools that will take minimum qualifiers (like UNC, FSU, Clemson). We have a chance to have a really good year when we get the right mix of RS freshmen and upper classmen but it is cyclical. Very disappointed in last year as we should not lose that many games in my opinion. We were just a blocked field goal with an amazing run at the end of the FSU game to have only won 2 games last year. Can PJ make changes (recruiting, position coaching, play calling, offensive innovation, etc) that can make him more successful in the coming years.

The "enlarging the recruiting area" philosophy was first mentioned in the late 1960's, due in no small part of having bestwick & Carson from Pa. It is what it is.

I at one time really did a lot of roster comparing, etc. There were several years, if I remember correct, in the 70's when we had more kids from Ga than ugag did. Yes, we have to sign the best we can get no matter where they are from. Hell, look how excited ugag is about a recruit from wash. state!

But I think a majority of our guys are still from Ga. We have to do a good job of getting better ones. If there is a great S/A FB player in Ohio, as an example, who really has a better chance at him?

 

[33jacket]

Good read. It helps underscore the difficulty with just saying, "we need to recruit nationally." Sure would be nice to have 40 coaches with contacts all over the country. Pelton has a history in Alabama that he draws from extensively. Without that history, he's floundering. You can't just go recruit nationally. Stanford and ND can because they have the kids knocking down their doors.

If we have 6-9 recruiting personnel not on the coaching staff it becomes alot easier. I think we have 3 now. There are things we can do to help. Does it solve the problem? No. Does it help. Yes.

 

[Techster]

What's the policy on using students as volunteers to help with the football staff? Obviously they can't make contact with the recruits, but they can help with the marketing, digital editing of promotional materials, preliminary data mining for recruits, etc.

Seriously, if the staff and AA are not actively recruiting our students and using some of the smartest students in all of college, then it's a serious disregard of resources.

 

[alagold]

What's the policy on using students as volunteers to help with the football staff? Obviously they can't make contact with the recruits, but they can help with the marketing, digital editing of promotional materials, preliminary data mining for recruits, etc.

Seriously, if the staff and AA are not actively recruiting our students and using some of the smartest students in all of college, then it's a serious disregard of resources.

Not only students but also alumni who want to donate some time. for ex-Assign a recruit to an interested alumni and have him cover him up with messages --all in a coach's name.(nothing illegal of course)

heck, I wonder if we do a computer analysis of EVERY opponents play and situation( down and distance,field location,etc),to get percentage tendencies?.This is the kind of grunt work, dedicated folks can help out with.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

If we have 6-9 recruiting personnel not on the coaching staff it becomes alot easier. I think we have 3 now. There are things we can do to help. Does it solve the problem? No. Does it help. Yes.

Yes it helps. So why don't we hire some dudes?

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Not only students but also alumni who want to donate some time. for ex-Assign a recruit to an interested alumni and have him cover him up with messages --all in a coach's name.(nothing illegal of course)

heck, I wonder if we do a computer analysis of EVERY opponents play and situation( down and distance,field location,etc),to get percentage tendencies?.This is the kind of grunt work, dedicated folks can help out with.

I can see local retired alums and fans lending a hand, however, recruit interaction is a very slippery slope. I'd stay far and away from that business.

 

[InsideLB]

Yes it helps. So why don't we hire some dudes?

Gotta be $$$$ and/or lack of institutional (pun intended) backing.

Johnson had been asking for the three dudes we got for a long time. I am sure he is asking for more.

Maybe donors need to make conditional donations to this specific area. Beyond that it's convincing the GT administration to take a look at other schools like ND or Stanford where the whole university is behind the program and sees it as a way to advance their school's mission, brand, and finances.

 

[33jacket]

Yes it helps. So why don't we hire some dudes?

Well we are all trained as part of GT to say a few things; and IMO alot is unfounded or propaganda may be the better word

- We don't have the money
- GT is too hard to get into to ever be competitive
- blah blah blah

I complained about BBall asst coaches quality and salary as one of Gregory tenure issue. We hire pastner, jack his salary up and hire asst and jack their salaries up.

Don't believe everything you hear.

So what is my point? We can EASILY hire 3-4 dudes to unlimited text recruits and cast a wide net. EASILY. These guys make between 75-90k a year. Fully burdened with benefits etc, that comes out to around 100-125k a year per head. That is basically 300k extra a year to bump up our recruiting. This is why bama has 11 of these guys and 3-4 quality control people. 1.3 million extra a year is nothing for them. WAY too much for GT sure, but 300k is not.

Now, every tells me how big the ACC money is from the NCAA tournament etc. So now I tell you back, GT has it....GT purposely breaks even in the AA almost every year. They purposely report numbers the way they do. Are we full of riches. NFW. But we have 300k; yes sir we do.

signing off for now.

 

[33jacket]

Gotta be $$$$ and/or lack of institutional (pun intended) backing.

Johnson had been asking for the three dudes we got for a long time. I am sure he is asking for more.

Maybe donors need to make conditional donations to this specific area. Beyond that it's convincing the GT administration to take a look at other schools like ND or Stanford where the whole university is behind the program and sees it as a way to advance their school's mission, brand, and finances.

all it has to do with is lack of institutional IMO

look at our athletics board 3/4 are professors. THAT IS A F--IN JOKE AND A TRAGEDY

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Well we are all trained as part of GT to say a few things; and IMO alot is unfounded or propaganda may be the better word

- blah blah blah

I did not know people who went to Tech were trained to say, "blah, blah, blah."

look at our athletics board 3/4 are professors. THAT IS A F--IN JOKE AND A TRAGEDY

I would hope that having professors on the athletic board would not be a joke. It does not have to hold Tech back, if you get the right professors. But it also insures that Tech does not start down the slippery slope of factory-worship.

Comparisons with Alabama only get us so far. Alabama has 32 people directly related to the coaching staff and 89 people giving direct or indirect support. These are all people with offices and phones. This does not count student support.