Funny. Read this article about how Auburn is about to copy saban and recognize the evil genius that is saban. He's really elevating the game and after we copy his success, every school with $ will too:
AUBURN -- If you loathe that program up north so much that you can't momentarily suspend your disbelief about its mere mention here at AuburnSports.com, you won't like this column.
In fact, I'd probably suggest that you stop reading now.
Gus Malzahn is dedicated to creating an organization that can adapt to change within the world of college recruiting.
So why would I dedicate words here to a crimson-clad football team? It started with a simple post inside the Bunker this morning, which had folks discussing Auburn's chances to land coveted Class of 2014 linebacker Tre Williams of St. Paul's Episcopal this time next year.
Accomplishing that goal likely will require outfoxing Alabama. The task requires a solution far more complicated than asking Dameyune Craig to work his Mobile County magic.
The issue runs much deeper. Alabama wins championships because it recruits well and develops those recruits into better players. Regardless of an Auburn fan's feelings about their arch rival, simply ignoring the arch rival's (successful) methods is, well, ignorant.
Gus Malzahn isn't ignorant. He's rooted in reality.
Let's start here: Auburn no longer is standing pat and going about business using the recruiting methods of yesteryear. Gene Chizik, in particular, felt that assembling a dream team of recruiters and coaches, those nine accountable assistants and the standard off-the-field guys, would be enough.
In some ways, they were enough. Auburn signed some outstanding players during Chizik's tenure, which includes perhaps the single most dominant quarterback ever to play the college game. The 2010 team was truly outstanding. Some great things occurred under Chizik's watch.
Yet there were some long-term obstacles that limited what Auburn could achieve on the recruiting trail. Malzahn learned about them first hand and now is taking active steps to strengthen the Tigers' chances.
Before we get into those steps, though, you need to understand how Nick Saban built what he has right now.
He arrived in 2007 and created his college operation in the image of an NFL program. That was new thinking at this level. Of course he hired good assistants - specifically the nine guys who are given those titles. He also turned G.A.s into real coaches who were given real responsibilities. Again, that was new-ish thinking at the time.
Over a period of five seasons, Saban hired a bunch of valuable people in more low-profile roles who assisted the program in ancillary yet important ways. They're most closely associated with what you'd call a "quality control guy" or even an unpaid assistant. Every program had a few of these guys around, Auburn included.
See, programs can hire to their hearts' content when it comes to off-the-field positions that involve no player supervision or recruiting contact. Once he began winning big, Saban asked for his coaching budget to be enhanced and he used a portion of that money to hire even more of these low-profile folks. By the time 2012 rolled around, Alabama had on its payroll an entire second staff of football people.
He currently employs nine men who are "analysts" (five on offense, three on defense, one for special teams) and they handle different kinds of responsibilities. They're primarily football strategists who break down film of opponents, Alabama, other teams obsessively and catalog tendencies into a database.
The Tigers must build their recruiting network to ensure they continue to sign top-shelf prospects like Carl Lawson every year.
They also assist in other ways. Some of them act as liaisons who are given specific high schools, coaches, staffs to manage. Their job is to build a strong bridge to these high-school programs -- even schools that don't have sophomore, junior or senior prospects. These liaisons physically journeyed out and let those people know that Alabama, up to and including Saban himself, were available to assist them. It's not just talk; these guys check in with the schools and coaches frequently.
If a high school hired a new coach, Alabama's mission was to have one of its representatives shake that guy's hand as soon as possible after being hired. Certainly within 24 hours. Those kinds of relationships yield information that can be relayed back to the recruiting office for future use. Or not. Building the network is the goal.
How can college programs help these people? Perhaps the most significant is via coaching assistance -- answering questions about offense, defense, techniques, training regimens, things that help high-school coaches get better. These coaches want to get better and they know Alabama's ideas work.
(As a bonus, coaches that implement Alabama's ideas mold players who are tailor-made for the Tide's system. Sharp.)
These liaisons are qualified to dole out that kind of advice because they're not pimple-faced teenagers; they're grown men. Some of them have significant college coaching experience. They know how to work, what to ask, what to identify, how to talk with people. And they never come in contact with a recruit -- it's all about the coaches and the programs. It gives Alabama a huge advantage in terms of building its network.
The program then is able to lean on that network throughout the state (and beyond) to get players. It matters. It absolutely matters.
Does Auburn have people working behind the scenes? That number, simply put, hasn't been comparable. Yes, Phillip Lolley (previously) and now Al Pogue work directly with high-school coaches. But that's one guy for every coach out there. That job, for reasons outside of Pogue's and Lolley's control, became more about making sure coaches know about camps and helping coaches on an as-needed basis.
Malzahn knows that's not enough.
Auburn is in the process of creating that second staff. Malzahn has been given a new pool of money, a pool approaching seven figures per year, to build an auxiliary staff that will help make the Tigers fully competitive on the recruiting circuit.
People have been hired. More hires will be be made.
Al Pogue, the Tigers' director of high school relations, is getting more help than ever these days.
The system fully will be in place once Class of 2014 recruiting picks up pace in March. That will give Auburn a chance to build a next-level network of its own, which eventually will begin creating meaningful relationships on the widest scale in the program's history.
This move couldn't come at a better time for Auburn. The NCAA earlier this month approved several pieces of legislation that streamlined how programs recruit prospects.
Specifically, Proposal 11-2 created the ability for certain people other than the head coach or assistant coaches to begin evaluating and directly communicating (via telephone) with football prospects.
Auburn's auxiliary staff will be permitted to contact recruits directly beginning Aug. 1. While relationships with coaches will remain the most important bonds for recruits, the Tigers will be in position to keep lines of communication open with a full-time staff dedicated to making that happen.
Will the bigger auxiliary staff yield dividends overnight? No. It will take time to refine protocols, design effective territories, create methods of getting information to the assistant coaches who interact with recruits.
Still, Malzahn is putting Auburn in position to win battles that were more or less conceded before. And the Tigers are adapting thoughtfully to changing conditions.
It's a subtle yet hugely important step in the right direction -- and one that could help the Tigers land difference-makers like Tre Williams one year from now.
AUBURN -- If you loathe that program up north so much that you can't momentarily suspend your disbelief about its mere mention here at AuburnSports.com, you won't like this column.
In fact, I'd probably suggest that you stop reading now.
Gus Malzahn is dedicated to creating an organization that can adapt to change within the world of college recruiting.
So why would I dedicate words here to a crimson-clad football team? It started with a simple post inside the Bunker this morning, which had folks discussing Auburn's chances to land coveted Class of 2014 linebacker Tre Williams of St. Paul's Episcopal this time next year.
Accomplishing that goal likely will require outfoxing Alabama. The task requires a solution far more complicated than asking Dameyune Craig to work his Mobile County magic.
The issue runs much deeper. Alabama wins championships because it recruits well and develops those recruits into better players. Regardless of an Auburn fan's feelings about their arch rival, simply ignoring the arch rival's (successful) methods is, well, ignorant.
Gus Malzahn isn't ignorant. He's rooted in reality.
Let's start here: Auburn no longer is standing pat and going about business using the recruiting methods of yesteryear. Gene Chizik, in particular, felt that assembling a dream team of recruiters and coaches, those nine accountable assistants and the standard off-the-field guys, would be enough.
In some ways, they were enough. Auburn signed some outstanding players during Chizik's tenure, which includes perhaps the single most dominant quarterback ever to play the college game. The 2010 team was truly outstanding. Some great things occurred under Chizik's watch.
Yet there were some long-term obstacles that limited what Auburn could achieve on the recruiting trail. Malzahn learned about them first hand and now is taking active steps to strengthen the Tigers' chances.
Before we get into those steps, though, you need to understand how Nick Saban built what he has right now.
He arrived in 2007 and created his college operation in the image of an NFL program. That was new thinking at this level. Of course he hired good assistants - specifically the nine guys who are given those titles. He also turned G.A.s into real coaches who were given real responsibilities. Again, that was new-ish thinking at the time.
Over a period of five seasons, Saban hired a bunch of valuable people in more low-profile roles who assisted the program in ancillary yet important ways. They're most closely associated with what you'd call a "quality control guy" or even an unpaid assistant. Every program had a few of these guys around, Auburn included.
See, programs can hire to their hearts' content when it comes to off-the-field positions that involve no player supervision or recruiting contact. Once he began winning big, Saban asked for his coaching budget to be enhanced and he used a portion of that money to hire even more of these low-profile folks. By the time 2012 rolled around, Alabama had on its payroll an entire second staff of football people.
He currently employs nine men who are "analysts" (five on offense, three on defense, one for special teams) and they handle different kinds of responsibilities. They're primarily football strategists who break down film of opponents, Alabama, other teams obsessively and catalog tendencies into a database.
The Tigers must build their recruiting network to ensure they continue to sign top-shelf prospects like Carl Lawson every year.
They also assist in other ways. Some of them act as liaisons who are given specific high schools, coaches, staffs to manage. Their job is to build a strong bridge to these high-school programs -- even schools that don't have sophomore, junior or senior prospects. These liaisons physically journeyed out and let those people know that Alabama, up to and including Saban himself, were available to assist them. It's not just talk; these guys check in with the schools and coaches frequently.
If a high school hired a new coach, Alabama's mission was to have one of its representatives shake that guy's hand as soon as possible after being hired. Certainly within 24 hours. Those kinds of relationships yield information that can be relayed back to the recruiting office for future use. Or not. Building the network is the goal.
How can college programs help these people? Perhaps the most significant is via coaching assistance -- answering questions about offense, defense, techniques, training regimens, things that help high-school coaches get better. These coaches want to get better and they know Alabama's ideas work.
(As a bonus, coaches that implement Alabama's ideas mold players who are tailor-made for the Tide's system. Sharp.)
These liaisons are qualified to dole out that kind of advice because they're not pimple-faced teenagers; they're grown men. Some of them have significant college coaching experience. They know how to work, what to ask, what to identify, how to talk with people. And they never come in contact with a recruit -- it's all about the coaches and the programs. It gives Alabama a huge advantage in terms of building its network.
The program then is able to lean on that network throughout the state (and beyond) to get players. It matters. It absolutely matters.
Does Auburn have people working behind the scenes? That number, simply put, hasn't been comparable. Yes, Phillip Lolley (previously) and now Al Pogue work directly with high-school coaches. But that's one guy for every coach out there. That job, for reasons outside of Pogue's and Lolley's control, became more about making sure coaches know about camps and helping coaches on an as-needed basis.
Malzahn knows that's not enough.
Auburn is in the process of creating that second staff. Malzahn has been given a new pool of money, a pool approaching seven figures per year, to build an auxiliary staff that will help make the Tigers fully competitive on the recruiting circuit.
People have been hired. More hires will be be made.
Al Pogue, the Tigers' director of high school relations, is getting more help than ever these days.
The system fully will be in place once Class of 2014 recruiting picks up pace in March. That will give Auburn a chance to build a next-level network of its own, which eventually will begin creating meaningful relationships on the widest scale in the program's history.
This move couldn't come at a better time for Auburn. The NCAA earlier this month approved several pieces of legislation that streamlined how programs recruit prospects.
Specifically, Proposal 11-2 created the ability for certain people other than the head coach or assistant coaches to begin evaluating and directly communicating (via telephone) with football prospects.
Auburn's auxiliary staff will be permitted to contact recruits directly beginning Aug. 1. While relationships with coaches will remain the most important bonds for recruits, the Tigers will be in position to keep lines of communication open with a full-time staff dedicated to making that happen.
Will the bigger auxiliary staff yield dividends overnight? No. It will take time to refine protocols, design effective territories, create methods of getting information to the assistant coaches who interact with recruits.
Still, Malzahn is putting Auburn in position to win battles that were more or less conceded before. And the Tigers are adapting thoughtfully to changing conditions.
It's a subtle yet hugely important step in the right direction -- and one that could help the Tigers land difference-makers like Tre Williams one year from now.