Randy Edsall Q&A: Recruiting has 'gotten out of hand' - Dave Curtis - College Football - Sporting News
7/16 CON coach Randy Edsall did an interview with Dave Curtis of The Sporting News. The Q&A covers several issues, changes to the football team, recruiting, and playing ND so I'm splitting it to fit with various discussion forums:
A: No. We've got to expand and go to where we're at in Georgia and Florida and some other places. That's the one thing. Do I wish we were in a state like Florida that had that many D-I players? Not really. There's just not an overabundance of talent here in the New England states. And when you get one that's really good, you've got everyone in the country coming in here. The Internet has really changed the state of recruiting, which, to me, is a detriment to the kids in terms of some of the things that go on.
Q: What do you mean?
A: I really believe that recruiting has gotten to the point where it's gotten out of hand, and unless the NCAA does something, you're going to ruin a lot of kids. I mean, we're getting commitments from a 13-year-old? Come on. What are we doing? If the NCAA really wants to practice what it preaches with all this academic stuff, why do they let people offer scholarships to kids before you have all the information to know where they are academically after their junior year? People are offering scholarships to kids that aren't close to getting into school or qualifying. They talk about the APR and all this stuff, and then they don't do anything to back up what they're out there promoting.
I don't think anybody should be able to offer a kid a scholarship, in any sport, until Sept. 1 of that kid's senior year, because then you have all the academic info. The kids have been able to go to camps. You can do all your evaluations and make decisions. These 16-year-olds, freshmen and sophomores, they're not ready for all this stuff. These kids can't handle it. Until the NCAA does something about this stuff, and until the universities say something and get the power to make decision about who gets into their schools, you're always going to have issues and problems. And the problems are going to escalate rather than reduce themselves.
Q: You sound pretty frustrated. Has all this soured you on coaching?
A: It hasn't soured me. It's just disheartening to see what we're doing to 15-, 16-, 17-year-old people. I can't believe we can't get a group together to say, 'Hey this is what's best for schools and for student-athletes.' One friend of mine, he has a daughter who's getting recruited. She's a sophomore now, and he said it's ridiculous the pressure being put on these kids at a certain age.
Now, from a football standpoint, we have a pretty good model in terms of what we do. We have a signing date, then evaluations in the spring, April 15 through the end of May. Then camps. If you have a rule that says you can't offer anybody until Sept. 1, or even Aug. 1, you'll have been able to talk to people in April and May. Then kids come to the camps. You have the final junior year transcript, get the SATs back the kids take in June. So now, you have all that information to sit there and make a decision as to whether or not this person has the ability to come to your school and graduate and fit into what we're doing.
We don't have that right now, and what we are teaching kids is that our word doesn't mean anything. A kid commits and de-commits, and people go back at them, and you say, 'Well, that's the way it is.' What kind of values are we teaching young people? If you don't start this process until they're seniors, and they don't have offers, kids can take official visits. You wouldn't need a December signing period. I've brought it up, and I'm trying to get things talked about. People have to balance what's best for them with what's best for the sport and the kids.
Q: Do you feel like you're in the minority with these thoughts? If you went into an SEC coaches meeting and said this stuff, you might not make a lot of friends.
A: I don't know. I think some people feel that way. I tell you what, how do we sit here, and we all do it because that's the way it is, even though we don't think it's the right way. But how do we sit here and tell kids they got a scholarship, and you don't have end-of-the-year grades, you don't have SAT scores? So you offer a scholarship, and they think they're doing great. I know the high school coaches don't like all this because one of their kids commits, and then they can't coach their kids anymore. The kids think they're done. Some kids shut it down and don't play as hard their senior year, and that's part of the recruiting process. You want to find those kids with character that don't do that. Some kids, you tell them they've got a scholarship, they don't work as hard, and they don't develop into the player you thought they'd be. And you know, I mean, to say these kids are this good at that early age, who knows?
I know people are making money off it, but it's a disservice; it's hard enough for people to evaluate kids coming out of college—those people can't get it right. Now we're doing it with 15-, 16-, 17-year-olds? Something has to change, or it's going to get worse, and the problems are going to get more complicated.
Q: With all this happening, how much more attractive is a coaching career in the NFL, where you don't worry about this kind of recruiting?
A: I don't know. The NFL, there are always pluses and minuses. All I'll say is I'm very content and happy, and as long as I'm here, I'm going to keep trying to work on things like this. I have a passion for what's best for kids, and I think people are starting to lose sight of what's important for institutions and what's important for high school athletes and for coaches. It's a shame that high school coaches, at least we've got them back into the picture a little more. Before, with combines and everything else, it took away a valuable piece of information from the equation.
Q: That's an interesting point. As we see more and more travel teams, how important is the high school coach? Or is basketball's AAU culture coming to college football?
A: It is, and that's the one thing we're dreading as coaches, if you're going to have to start going through a third party. Everybody sees what's happening in basketball, and that's hurt basketball in my opinion. It's just a person now you have to go through that maybe doesn't have the best interest of that kid at heart. And it all comes down to someone is getting some money from somewhere. People paying money to play on AAU teams or whatever. It's gotten out of hand, and as football coaches, we don't want it to bring in the AAU stuff.
Q: So the best answer is that Sept. 1 offer date you mentioned.
A: I think so. And here's another thing: The NCAA isn't as stringent as it used to be. Take a look at some of the schools committing secondary violations. Some schools are saying, we're going to commit these secondary violations because they don't hurt us, and they get us publicity and get us out there with the kids. What are we doing here? If you take a look, when you had a lot of stuff going on before, the NCAA has a lot stiffer penalties.
It makes you wonder, is the NCAA more worried about making money or enforcing these rules? It seems like with secondary violations, when people commit them, it never stops anybody in recruiting. If the NCAA went and said, if you commit a violation recruiting a kid, then you're not allowed to recruit that kid anymore, that's going to make the number of violations drop.
Q: How much does all that stuff put you at a competitive disadvantage in recruiting?
A: It does, but that doesn't bother me. We're going to do it the right way. It's like the NCAA with people having these Nike camps on their campuses. To me, they should outlaw these things because it's a competitive advantage. It's another opportunity to have a kid on campus. There's got to be some legislation with that. It's an unfair advantage to certain schools. Here, we're going to do things the right way, not going to compromise. We haven't done it and won't do it.
7/16 CON coach Randy Edsall did an interview with Dave Curtis of The Sporting News. The Q&A covers several issues, changes to the football team, recruiting, and playing ND so I'm splitting it to fit with various discussion forums:
- The football team Q&A appears in "Connecticut After Donald Brown"
- Recruiting Q&A appears below.
- Playing ND Q&A in the Lunn article thread, "ND Puts Checkbook To CONs Head".
A: No. We've got to expand and go to where we're at in Georgia and Florida and some other places. That's the one thing. Do I wish we were in a state like Florida that had that many D-I players? Not really. There's just not an overabundance of talent here in the New England states. And when you get one that's really good, you've got everyone in the country coming in here. The Internet has really changed the state of recruiting, which, to me, is a detriment to the kids in terms of some of the things that go on.
Q: What do you mean?
A: I really believe that recruiting has gotten to the point where it's gotten out of hand, and unless the NCAA does something, you're going to ruin a lot of kids. I mean, we're getting commitments from a 13-year-old? Come on. What are we doing? If the NCAA really wants to practice what it preaches with all this academic stuff, why do they let people offer scholarships to kids before you have all the information to know where they are academically after their junior year? People are offering scholarships to kids that aren't close to getting into school or qualifying. They talk about the APR and all this stuff, and then they don't do anything to back up what they're out there promoting.
I don't think anybody should be able to offer a kid a scholarship, in any sport, until Sept. 1 of that kid's senior year, because then you have all the academic info. The kids have been able to go to camps. You can do all your evaluations and make decisions. These 16-year-olds, freshmen and sophomores, they're not ready for all this stuff. These kids can't handle it. Until the NCAA does something about this stuff, and until the universities say something and get the power to make decision about who gets into their schools, you're always going to have issues and problems. And the problems are going to escalate rather than reduce themselves.
Q: You sound pretty frustrated. Has all this soured you on coaching?
A: It hasn't soured me. It's just disheartening to see what we're doing to 15-, 16-, 17-year-old people. I can't believe we can't get a group together to say, 'Hey this is what's best for schools and for student-athletes.' One friend of mine, he has a daughter who's getting recruited. She's a sophomore now, and he said it's ridiculous the pressure being put on these kids at a certain age.
Now, from a football standpoint, we have a pretty good model in terms of what we do. We have a signing date, then evaluations in the spring, April 15 through the end of May. Then camps. If you have a rule that says you can't offer anybody until Sept. 1, or even Aug. 1, you'll have been able to talk to people in April and May. Then kids come to the camps. You have the final junior year transcript, get the SATs back the kids take in June. So now, you have all that information to sit there and make a decision as to whether or not this person has the ability to come to your school and graduate and fit into what we're doing.
We don't have that right now, and what we are teaching kids is that our word doesn't mean anything. A kid commits and de-commits, and people go back at them, and you say, 'Well, that's the way it is.' What kind of values are we teaching young people? If you don't start this process until they're seniors, and they don't have offers, kids can take official visits. You wouldn't need a December signing period. I've brought it up, and I'm trying to get things talked about. People have to balance what's best for them with what's best for the sport and the kids.
Q: Do you feel like you're in the minority with these thoughts? If you went into an SEC coaches meeting and said this stuff, you might not make a lot of friends.
A: I don't know. I think some people feel that way. I tell you what, how do we sit here, and we all do it because that's the way it is, even though we don't think it's the right way. But how do we sit here and tell kids they got a scholarship, and you don't have end-of-the-year grades, you don't have SAT scores? So you offer a scholarship, and they think they're doing great. I know the high school coaches don't like all this because one of their kids commits, and then they can't coach their kids anymore. The kids think they're done. Some kids shut it down and don't play as hard their senior year, and that's part of the recruiting process. You want to find those kids with character that don't do that. Some kids, you tell them they've got a scholarship, they don't work as hard, and they don't develop into the player you thought they'd be. And you know, I mean, to say these kids are this good at that early age, who knows?
I know people are making money off it, but it's a disservice; it's hard enough for people to evaluate kids coming out of college—those people can't get it right. Now we're doing it with 15-, 16-, 17-year-olds? Something has to change, or it's going to get worse, and the problems are going to get more complicated.
Q: With all this happening, how much more attractive is a coaching career in the NFL, where you don't worry about this kind of recruiting?
A: I don't know. The NFL, there are always pluses and minuses. All I'll say is I'm very content and happy, and as long as I'm here, I'm going to keep trying to work on things like this. I have a passion for what's best for kids, and I think people are starting to lose sight of what's important for institutions and what's important for high school athletes and for coaches. It's a shame that high school coaches, at least we've got them back into the picture a little more. Before, with combines and everything else, it took away a valuable piece of information from the equation.
Q: That's an interesting point. As we see more and more travel teams, how important is the high school coach? Or is basketball's AAU culture coming to college football?
A: It is, and that's the one thing we're dreading as coaches, if you're going to have to start going through a third party. Everybody sees what's happening in basketball, and that's hurt basketball in my opinion. It's just a person now you have to go through that maybe doesn't have the best interest of that kid at heart. And it all comes down to someone is getting some money from somewhere. People paying money to play on AAU teams or whatever. It's gotten out of hand, and as football coaches, we don't want it to bring in the AAU stuff.
Q: So the best answer is that Sept. 1 offer date you mentioned.
A: I think so. And here's another thing: The NCAA isn't as stringent as it used to be. Take a look at some of the schools committing secondary violations. Some schools are saying, we're going to commit these secondary violations because they don't hurt us, and they get us publicity and get us out there with the kids. What are we doing here? If you take a look, when you had a lot of stuff going on before, the NCAA has a lot stiffer penalties.
It makes you wonder, is the NCAA more worried about making money or enforcing these rules? It seems like with secondary violations, when people commit them, it never stops anybody in recruiting. If the NCAA went and said, if you commit a violation recruiting a kid, then you're not allowed to recruit that kid anymore, that's going to make the number of violations drop.
Q: How much does all that stuff put you at a competitive disadvantage in recruiting?
A: It does, but that doesn't bother me. We're going to do it the right way. It's like the NCAA with people having these Nike camps on their campuses. To me, they should outlaw these things because it's a competitive advantage. It's another opportunity to have a kid on campus. There's got to be some legislation with that. It's an unfair advantage to certain schools. Here, we're going to do things the right way, not going to compromise. We haven't done it and won't do it.
