Recruiting 101: selling a program

Editor's note: This is the third in a four-part series leading up to Wednesday's National Letter of Intent Day.

First the letters start pouring in, then come the texts, e-mails and phone calls. By the time a coach actually sits in front of an athlete for a recruiting visit, plenty of work has already been done.

"First of all, you try to find out all the info on the young man," said the University of Utah safeties coach and recruiting coordinator Morgan Scalley. "You want prospects that fit your program, both athletically and character wise. When you find one you like, it is all about selling the program. It's like any sales job. Find out if they are your target audience and then try to close the deal."

With National Letter of Intent Day tomorrow, football coaches around the state hope they have done a good enough job selling their respective programs to actually get that piece of paper with a student's signature on it. Until then — as was found out last week when Hawaiian defensive end Kona Schwenke had his scholarship offer rescinded from BYU following a recruiting visit to Notre Dame after verbally committing to the Cougars earlier in the recruiting process — it is a nonbinding agreement between the school and athlete that a scholarship will be agreed upon.

So what is it about the schools that makes an athlete decide where he wants to live, play football and go to school for the next four or five years? What are the selling points coaches offer?

"Academically we feel we offer some great opportunities," said Scalley about Utah. "Whether it's medical school or business, we have top 20 programs in the West, and only seven schools have had more academic All-Americans than we have since the turn of the century.

"And then our results on the field speak for themselves," added Scalley. "There are only six schools that have more BCS wins than we do, and we have won conference championships and nine straight bowl games, which is second all-time."

Besides success on the field — the Cougars are 43-9 over the last four seasons — BYU offers something unique in that it is a private school with an obvious religious affiliation. Some might argue that is a negative, but the coaches know what they are offering appeals to certain athletes, and while that may narrow the number that would fit the criteria, it also helps that there is not as much of a sell-job necessary to close the deal.