Coaching Changes & Recruiting Implications

Let the coaching merry-go-round begin, as this season's carousel has begun with some major coaching changes at some major college football programs. How does this effect recruiting in Tuscaloosa, Coral Gables, East Lansing, the state of North Carolina, Ames, Cincinnati and Tempe?

Wow. What a wild few days in terms of the coaching carousel in college football. It always seems at this time of the year coaches are given the pink slip. This season is no different. Gone now are Mike Shula (Alabama), Larry Coker (Miami), Dirk Koetter (Arizona State), Chuck Amato (N.C. State), John Bunting (North Carolina) and John L. Smith (Michigan State).

Each coaching change will have recruiting implications at their respective schools with both the prospects that have already made decisions to the prospects on the fence. Each new coaching position filled will have to work with a short recruiting window of when they actually get the job to National Signing Day. That’s a mere 72 days away and these teams need to keep the prospects who are committed committed and go sign the rest of their class. This is always tough to do for all coaches in the first few weeks on the new job because recruiting is about building relationships. In addition, these new coaches will have to evaluate their new team and program and identify and hire a coaching staff.

For programs in coaching transitions most of their committed players will take a wait and see approach. But don’t be surprised as well if some of these same committed players open things up, take some visits and explore some options. There is nothing wrong with that in this situation.

With that being said there are also some power house programs in a coaching transition right now, with Alabama and Miami leading the coaching carousel. Let’s take a closer look at what lies ahead with some of these schools and some recruiting interests of note to each.

Alabama
Mike Shula did a commendable job with the Crimson Tide, especially taken over his alma mater under difficult circumstances. Still, he ran a loose ship and Alabama didn’t beat Auburn in his four years in Tuscaloosa. Alabama is one of those jobs. It has to be one of the top seven to ten coaching jobs in the country and the Crimson Tide should be able to lure a top notch coach and staff. Alabama certainly has the pieces already in place in Tuscaloosa to make some loud noise in the SEC West next season. The pressure is on because Auburn has been rolling, Arkansas is finally playing up to expectations, LSU has arguably the most talent in the league and Ole Miss and Mississippi State are on their way up. And we have not even talked about the SEC East.

The fact remains that Alabama has as good a shot at winning the West as anyone next season and beyond. Coming into the month of December the Crimson Tide are only really waiting on five or six prospects. They have sitting on 15 commitments and the new coach and staff will desperately try to hang on to them and close with guys like lineman Kerry Murphy (Hoover, Ala) and wide receiver Brandon Gibson (Mobile, Ala.). So in essence, Shula’s replacement must recruit the players already headed to Tuscaloosa and then finish off the class with the half a dozen or so prospects they are after.

Arizona State
40-33. That was Dirk Koetter’s record while he was the head coach at ASU. Apparently that wasn’t good enough despite the fact the Pac 10 is a league dominated by one team, USC. It also means that Arizona State was pretty average in a conference where they continued to not live up to expectations. Koetter’s fate was sealed long before this year’s 7-5 campaign. He blundered his quarterback situation, going with sophomore Rudy Carpenter over senior Sam Keller (now at Nebraska) and the rest is history and so is Koetter. Don’t get me wrong, this is a good job with a ton of potential. The state of Arizona is blessed with some good talent but not enough to feed to major D-1 schools at the highest level. Therefore, the Sun Devils must attack recruiting like that of University of Arizona. The Wildcats hit California and Texas exceptionally hard and Arizona State needs to follow suit.

Iowa State
What a coup Iowa State Jamie Pollard pulled with the hire of Texas Defensive Coordinator Gene Chizik. No offense to the Cyclones but you would have thought that one of the game’s premier coordinators would have landed a job with a higher profile. Iowa State didn’t waste anytime in replacing Dan McCarney and Chizik is already in Ames and ready to go. Chizik was the Texas Defensive Coordinator for Mack Brown. Brown will have little trouble in finding a replacement for Chizik although Chizik did a masterful job in Austin, just like he did at Auburn for Tommy Tuberville. In one two plus years stretch, Chizik’s teams at Auburn and Texas won 28 straight games.

So what does the Chizik hire mean for the Cyclones? First, they nailed one of the hottest young coaches in college football. Chizik will have to work extra hard in recruiting and he has had the opportunity to work with a couple of pros in that area like Brown and Tuberville. The state of Iowa does have some talent but nothing like some of the other states in the Big 12. In addition, the Hawkeyes have pretty much dominated recruiting in that state. So like Michigan State and their new regime, Chizik and his staff have to beat Iowa on some kids and they must recruit Texas and find other strong areas to pull prospects. That could be South Florida or perhaps some other areas where his future staff members have some recruiting ties.

Miami
How quickly the mighty have fallen. The Hurricanes were once the major recruiting power and who ever becomes their next head coach inherits a great job, at least on the surface. Think of it like this, you are the chosen one, the next coach at Miami. You have the single best backyard to recruit from within the cities of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and the surrounding areas. Granted everyone else is trying to sign prospects from those counties but they are not U-M. Miami garners the recruiting power both in the state of Florida and throughout the country. They have the second most NFL alumni currently playing in the NFL, they play in Coral Gables, close to South Beach, and they are a private institution. It also helps that the Hurricanes are part of the ACC. Who ever is blessed to get this job will have the easiest road to success, at least on the recruiting front, of all the schools going through coaching changes. The recruiting formula for success is simple, recruit Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties and spot recruit certain areas of the country. It has worked well for Miami in the past and it will work well for the ‘Canes in the future. By the way, the class of 2008, especially in South Florida, looks unreal and Miami should have the inside track on most of those prospects.

Michigan State
The Big 10 used to be a league about defense and for Michigan State to get back in the thick of things they needed to bring in a defensive minded coach. That’s exactly what they got in Mark Dantonio. In his short stay at Cincinnati he did a great job and the Bears were slowly building and they were a program on the rise.

Let’s face the facts, the Spartans already know how to score points. They just need help on the other side of the ball. Dantonio knows the conference, as he was a former assistant at Michigan State and the Defensive Coordinator for Ohio State when they won the 2002 National Championship. So he knows the league and Dantonio knows the region and how to recruit the area. It also helps, especially this recruiting season that Dantonio is already hired, giving the Spartans a solid ten weeks or so of recruiting and that his home base of Michigan may be blessed with the deepest talent of prospects in years, perhaps ever. One thing Dantonio and his staff must do is take back the state. In other words, the Spartans can not let the Wolverines control the recruiting in the state of Michigan. Michigan State must hold their own. On the commitment front the Spartans were doing pretty well under Coach Smith. Dantanio must hold on to this group, in particular quarterback Keith Nichol (Lowell, Mi.). In terms of prospects still on the board perhaps the Dantonio hire will help the Spartans with prospects like cornerback Ronald Johnson (Muskegen, Mi.), defensive tackle Antonio Jeremiah (Hillard, Ohio), safety C.J. Peake (Trotwood, Ohio), and others.

N.C. State
Poor Chuck Amato. He had the Wolfpack on the right track. Amato’s very first recruit was quarterback Philip Rivers. Rivers, Amato and N.C. State were destined to challenge for ACC supremacy but it never happened. Rivers should have been a great recruiting tool but Amato and his staff never could land the next great one. Sure they signed some good quarterbacks and some good players, but they were not Philip Rivers. The ‘Pack played defense and struggled on offense and the rest is history. Amato did have a formula for recruiting that seemed to be working, recruit the state, hit Florida hard and sign some players from up north. But he could never get it going and his teams underachieved. The big question for the new coach in Raleigh is what will be his recruiting philosophy? Everyone is different and where will he try and recruit? First you have to be the big dog in-state. Despite a coaching change in Chapel Hill, Bunting and his staff did a better job in-state than the Wolfpack. This hire should be interesting, especially in the ultra competitive ACC coaching fraternity. Plus, the Pack will want to one up rival UNC but that will be hard to do with Butch Davis headed to North Carolina.

In terms of recruiting the next head coach in Raleigh is in for a battle, at least short term. First, UNC is ahead of them in naming a coach and Davis will likely have a jump start over the Wolfpack to close out this recruiting campaign. Two, how will Wake Forest do in recruiting? The Demon Deacons surprised the college football world and the ACC, as they won the Atlantic Division and will play Georgia Tech in Jacksonville this weekend for the conference title. Certainly their great season will help them in recruiting and that is something the new staff at N.C. State will have to deal with.

North Carolina
The power brokers at UNC were smart. Go after the big gun early before everyone else begins searching for their next coach. The got the early verbal from Butch Davis and that should mean big things for the Tar Heels. Former head coach John Bunting and his staff actually did a very nice job recruiting, despite another disastrous season. The Tar Heels are going to have to fend off a lot of schools for the committed players but they should land most, if not all of them in the end. Much of that depends on who coach Davis surrounds himself with from a coaching standpoint and what schemes they try and employ. The key is quarterback Mike Paulus. UNC has to sign a big timer at this position and he is their man. In the end, North Carolina should retain most, if not all of their committed players. That will be huge for Coach Davis and his first class and he should thank coach Bunting for a job well done on the recruiting front.

The bottom line with all of these coaching changes is that it does affect the recruiting game because recruiting is about relationships. Each coach and each staff must capture early recruiting momentum, keep the committed prospects committed and hit the ground running in fifth gear for the next ten weeks to close out their classes and lay some ground work for the Class of 2008. It's a tough chore but it must be done.

Recruiting is about bringing in new blood and so are these coaching changes. From Tempe to Ames to Coral Gables, fans, coaches, alumni and administators all alike should be excited about a new beginning at all of these schools.