Mailbag question: High School Coaches and the College Coaches relationships
Posted at 8:00am — 3/7/2011
Mailbag question: High School Coaches and the College Coaches relationships
Good afternoon,
I have a question related to in-state recruiting and relationships with high school coaches.
I’m a former Michigan resident and die-hard UM fan now living in Austin, Texas (yeah, it’s been rough the last few years). But, as everyone knows, Texas OWNS the state of Texas for high school recruits. I’ve always wondered how they locked it down so successfully and heard something on the radio this morning that made me take pause.
Every year (I think it’s today), Texas “hosts” high school coaches from all over the state for a coach’s clinic. This allows them to spend the entire day on-campus to meet the Texas coaching staff, see how they construct workouts and be involved in how the program operates, and also to see all the facilities and meet the players. Apparently, within about 7 days after this happening they get about a dozen verbals from all over the state. I don’t think Mack Brown has to take his feet off the desk to go recruit!
I should think this is a HUGE thing to the H.S. players to see this happening and have their coaches come back from a major college campus with all sorts of recruiting propaganda. I like the idea, as it seems like a great way to maintain in-state loyalty of high school players. Now, this may be common practice but I’ve not really heard too much about this kind of thing in the past (or I’ve had my head in the sand).
So, here’s the question: Does UM have this sort of program in place for Michigan H.S. Coaches? If not, why?
Love the website, keep up the great work.
Go Blue!
Pat V.
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GBMWolverine Response:
There is a difference between High School State Clinics and the individual schools coaching clinic.
Ohio and Michigan both have a State Coach’s clinic held by the High School Association.
If you remember, just a week or two after Coach Hoke was hired, the state of Michigan had its clinic where both Michigan’s new coach and Michigan State’s coach spoke at the event. Most high school coaches who attended the event stated Coach Hoke was very impressive and perception was he purposely started to heal/repair the fractures that seemed to be created while RR was the head coach at Michigan.
The OHSAA clinic is held in Columbus, but not on the Ohio State campus. It was held on campus for years, but moved when Coach Cooper was head coach at Ohio State.
Ohio State and Michigan have coaching clinics of their own that many high school coaches attend.
This is one-way college coaches have of trying to share knowledge they have learned throughout the years, and also is a way of creating goodwill between the local area high school coaches and the college football staff.
We have seen throughout the past several years how important such efforts are and the effect the area coaches might have on recruiting for the UM program. If high school coaches do not feel comfortable with the college football staff, they simply will not act as salesmen.
RR lost a lot of high school coaches with a first impression of himself and the type of program he was running at Michigan. Some did not like how he was running practices and never returned after the first day of the coaches’ clinic. The numbers attending the clinic each year diminished as well in the three years of the Rodriguez tenure.
Written by GBMWolverine Staff
Go Blue — Wear Maize!
