Volume 6, No. 2

EARNING THEIR PAY College coaches know exactly what they're in for with the inexact science of recruiting By Homer Jacobs

Why do college football coaches demand salaries these days in the seven-figure range? Is it the pressure of dealing with armchair alumni? Is it having to answer stupid questions from the media every week? Is it glad-handing in the summer or the back-stabbing of the Internet?

Well, all those aspects of coaching add up to about half a salary. The other half is dispersed because no grown man should have to spend their winters with cauliflower ears and extended stays at the Holiday Inn Express.

Don’t get me wrong, recruiting intrigues me. It’s so important to the health of a program, that you have to pay attention to it. But I’m not the one on the road, on the phone and on the hotseat to sign 20 or so bluechip players every February.

No wonder coaches’ eyes light up when the NFL calls... no more recruiting.

Actually, most college coaches tolerate recruiting, including A&M coach R.C. Slocum. He even welcomes it, having hit the road for the better part of three decades.

But the real workers are the assistants, who don’t command the biggest money, but have to supply the honey for the queen bee.

Assistant coaches spend the spring on the road just scouting players, then do the follow-up work in December, January and February. That’s when they make the calls, make the on-campus and in-homes visits. It’s when they have to go crazy.

"There is definitely no science to it, that’s the whole thing," said A&M ace recruiter Alan Weddell. "Every case is a different case. Some kids are doing it for the education, some are playing for the big lights, and there are some who don’t know what they are looking for. It’s a selling process, and the nice thing about A&M is that we’ve got so many great things to sell from so many different viewpoints."

Weddell helped land several key recruits for the Aggies this Signing Day, including the Bay City bombers, wide receiver John Roberson and cornerback Byron Jones, and Friendswood do-it-all Jaxson Appel.

During the recruiting season, Weddell put about 1,500 miles on his car a week, hitting the road four nights a week during January. Along the way, he encountered the familiar ups and downs of recruiting, not to mention the weird and wacky.

A&M assistant coach Alan Weddell helped land Bay City stars John Roberson and Byron Jones.

Case in point was his visit to Appel’s house with fellow Aggie assistant Shawn Slocum. Not only did the Appel family greet the two, but so did a slimy creature only Joan Embry would appreciate.

"Jaxson Appel and his eight-foot python, that was an experience," Weddell said with a laugh. "Shawn and I were in there visiting, and we hear this big noise from up above. We looked at each other and we ask Jaxson, what’s that? He says it’s the snakes.

"About that time, the cat goes out the window, and Jaxson goes upstairs and brings this massive python down. Shawn and I both have a real low threshold for snakes, so we both just kind of stepped back."

Weddell’s next stop in the animal kingdom took place in Skidmore, as he was recruiting defensive lineman Thomas Carriger. The Aggie-bred Carriger apparently is a big fan of wild hog hunting, only he uses dogs and a knife to achieve the kill. Obviously, Carriger is known for a quick first step.

And while there are the humorous moments of recruiting, there are also the demeaning and disheartening times, as well. Weddell clearly remembers last year when he had cultivated a solid relationship with an offensive line recruit and just when he thought A&M was going to land him, Florida State swooped in like a renegade osprey during the salmon spawn.

Weddell was left to pick up another carcass along the recruiting trail.

And even this recruiting season, the A&M coaches were doing back-flips in early December, hopeful of signing one of those rare, monster classes. Then a month-long lull hit, and the Aggies had to close strong to secure a Top 25 class.

"You don’t get real up (after a commitment) because there are going to be lows," Weddell said. "You’ve got to be even keel. You’ve got to enjoy every win the same way... big win or little win. Don’t get those mountains. You can afford hills and a few valleys, but otherwise if you get mountains, you’re going to have canyons.

"The biggest difference in recruiting probably is the dadgum Internet. There is where you get your highs in lows. So-and-so said so-and-so about this. Well, you don’t know if it’s true or false, and your limited in the number of times you can talk to kids and where the source came from. You’re forming ups and downs based on what someone put on the Internet. That’s where you really have to step back and say, wait a minute, this is crazy."

Weddell said A&M graduate assistants are in charge of perusing the Internet each day to gather all possible leads – or misleads – in recruiting. The assistant coaches then have to follow up on most of them, putting out fires when the embers are electronically created.

"Yeah, 90 percent of the leads are false leads," Weddell added. "They are not nearly what people set them up to be. But we’re going to check out all these different angles to see where we stand."

With all that is involved in scouring the country for Division I prospects, you wonder how coaches from less populated states like Nebraska or Oregon have the resources and time to sign a full recruiting class.

That’s where the Texas schools and their assistants have the advantage: Coaches like Weddell know where Skidmore is and know that hog hunting in South Texas is a favorite pastime.

While some schools recruit primarily on their national acclaim – Nebraska and Michigan – schools like A&M look for inside tracks with legacies or that maroon bond that can be so deep in this state.

"Roberson’s dad happened to work with people that I coached when I was in Lake Jackson," Weddell said. "He worked at Dow Chemical where my dad worked for 35 years. It’s a small world."

And in the world of recruiting, it’s a never-ending, grinding process.

Just 15 minutes after Slocum’s press conference to announce the 2001 class, Weddell sat in his office staring at a note pinned to his computer monitor: Two prominent Aggies had given him a tip on a prospect for 2002.

Which naturally forced me to ask: "How many linebackers do you have your eye on for next year?"

"I’ve got six right now," he said.

So, what are you waiting for?

Table of Contents