Jabbering JAG 129.1 (The Dance)

Where does one draw the line? That is a question that comes up for all of us in DIAA. Where is "too low" to draw the line and where is "too high." Recruiting in Wilkinson has turned into a sort of... dance. With so many coaches around each other and with DIA and DIAA filling up, the game is getting more and more difficult. The chatroom the other night got me thinking about recruiting in Wilkinson.

New coaches come in and they want all of the answers in Wilkinson because in all of the other worlds they have been able to achieve success pretty rapidly. In Wilkinson, that isn't necessarily the case. So when a "newbie" asks you how you approach recruiting, you can tell them bits of your own strategy or things you have discovered work well and things that don't work well. You can recruit for potential, or you can recruit studs who are close and go find potential on those further from home recruits. Coaches might suggest you go all out right out of the gate and hope you can hold stud players, others might say just scout players initially and wait a bit before diving in and yet others might take a middle ground approach. Is there a right answer to these questions?

I don't think there is a correct answer in Wilkinson recruiting. I think many coaches would agree that potential is pretty much a must have. With a limited number of decent to solid recruits who have above average or that rare, sky's the limit potential, will force a lot of battles. Do you then search farther from campus and risk getting jumped by someone who is closer to a recruit? Do you sacrifice potential and get a permanent backup player who will just be there for decent depth? Do you go find a lower talented player to with potential? Or do you just keep grinding it out and hope you can outlast someone and win a battle? Then even after you make that decision what do you do when a DIA mid-major or even... dare I say... a BCS school jumps in on your recruit? Let's be honest it is getting extremely difficult to avoid battles at all costs. Yet battles can be minimized with the correct approach for your team and your area.

Even still there is the ever controversial option of booster gifts that some brazen coaches might use. It will be interesting to see if investigations become a more prominent thing as the world fills up.

This dance that those of us in DIAA have to do season in and season out is a very difficult one to master. You have so many obstacles to worry about. Sandwiched between your geography, talent around your campus, DIAA opponents near you, mid-major opponents near you and now in Wilkinson we are frequently seeing BCS schools. This dance is why it is taking so long for people to turn teams around in Wilkinson. You have to be able to learn the area that you recruit in and the strategy of those around you. Be patient and be intelligent about your strategy and most of all DO NOT let your ego get in the way of you succeeding.