Tougher Recruiting Rules Give Hope to Non-Tradional Powers

Back in the 1970s, when there was no limit on the number of prospects a college football program could sign each season, coaches such as Pittsburgh’s Johnny Majors and Southern California’s John McKay used to add upwards of 100 high school graduates to their traditionally strong programs every year. Some were signed to help their teams win. Others were signed to prevent someone else from winning. And more still were offered scholarships just in case they blossomed into stars. It was an inexact science, but it sure served the established programs well.

In some ways, nothing has changed. The rankings of the top 10 recruiting classes accompanying this story is filled with many of the names that have occupied the upper reaches of the wire-service polls for decades. The big guys still get their fill.

But they can’t get everybody. NCAA rules allow teams to sign only 25 players a year to scholarships and have no more than 85 on scholarship at one time. A 1994 rule limiting to 55 the number of players allowed to make paid campus visits further restricts teams. Recruiting, once a haphazard process that favored the rich, has become a disciplined operation that facilitates parity among Division I-A programs.

Bluechip Illustrated Publisher Jeff Duva says that the rest of the top 10 after Notre Dame was extremely hard to pick and that filling out the next best 10 was like “picking names out of a hat.” The big names may not be happy with the new restrictions, but the rest of the college football world is.

“You have to have a strategy if you want to succeed,” Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden says. “We used to go out and sign the best players we could and just keep on signing ‘em. Now, you have to have more structure.”

The fertile Florida recruiting fields reinforce Bowden’s point. Even if his Seminoles and in-state rivals Florida and Miami spend all 75 of their available scholarships on homegrown talent, there could be the same number of strong I-A candidates available for the rest of the country. And because teams have to recruit for need, not just the “best available athlete,” or risk a roster heavy in one position and too thin in another, many future stars will be left over.

Although Bowden grabbed 17 Florida players this season, he couldn’t get everybody. Neither could Florida Coach Steve Spurrier or new Miami Coach Butch Davis. That allowed outsiders such as second-year South Carolina Coach Brad Scott -- Bowden’s former offensive coordinator -- to get some Sunshine State standouts.

South Carolina (ranked No. 19 by Bluechip overall) wasn’t the only school to benefit from the increased parity. Bluechip ranks the recruiting classes of Georgia, Louisiana State and Illinois in the top 20, and Duva reports that teams rated as far down as 35th still had highly productive years.

A byproduct of the restrictions is added pressure on the recruits themselves. Because schools can’t sign five running backs to get one star, they need early answers from the top prospects on their list to know whether they have to move on. Bowden says he and his staff have offered a player a scholarship one week and rescinded the invitation the next because he didn’t commit quickly enough.

There’s always somewhere else to go.

Parity isn’t the only important topic of this recruiting season. Here are answers to five other pertinent questions.

What About Those Gamecocks?

South Carolina, which last season won a postseason game for the first time in school history, is a long way from a No. 1 ranking or even the Southeastern Conference title game. But under Scott, the Gamecocks appear to be on the road to rapid improvement and future contention. His recruiting recipe called for signing junior-college players to fortify the offensive and defensive lines, with defensive tackle Michael Maddox of Holmes (Miss.) JC leading the way, and the accumulation of speedy skill players to fuel his shotgun, no-huddle offense. Running back Cory Atkins of Greenville, S.C., and quarterback Chad Barnhardt of Lake Wales, Fla., head that contingent.

Perhaps the biggest recruit Scott landed was assistant coach John Reaves, who was imported from Florida to run the passing attack and team with John Eason in a two-headed offensive coordinator configuration. They’ll work with senior quarterback Steve Taneyhill and several other returning starters in what should be a potent attack.

How did Notre Dame recruit after a disappointing season?

Although Lou Holtz haters had a great time watching the Fighting Irish fall to 6-5-1 last season, they won’t be too happy to learn about Notre Dame’s recruiting class, which is the most talented in five years. Holtz and his staff filled every major need, from kicking to team speed to offensive line to defense, with a class so strong many of its members will see playing time this season. Even the normally reticent Holtz is impressed.

“I don’t think I’ve had a more impressive list of people coming in,” Holtz says. “The last couple of years have not been as impressive as we would have liked. You’re lucky if you bat 50 percent (with your top prospects), but we never had to go to our secondary list. We got a much higher percentage of our top guys this year than in the past.”

Several factors contributed to the outstanding class. One remains the Notre Dame mystique and the institution itself. Linebacker Kory Minor of La Puente, Calif., Bluechip Illustrated’s Defensive Player of the Year, admits to having “fallen in love with” Holtz during his campus visit. Standout offensive lineman Mike Rosenthal of Mishawaka, Ind., who grew up 15 minutes from the Notre Dame campus but was never a Fighting Irish fan, cited Holtz, the campus and the current Notre Dame players as the reasons he chose the school over Michigan.

Much of the credit for the class, however, goes to Holtz’s staff. New defensive coordinator Bob Davie and assistant offensive line coach/recruiting coordinator Bob Chmiel -- who joined Holtz’s staff October 1 after a falling out with Michigan Coach Gary Moeller -- reorganized the Irish recruiting effort.

The results were a substantial presence in the South (14 of the 25 signees), thanks in part to the Texas ties of Davie and outside linebackers coach Kirk Doll (both former Texas A&M; staff members) and the Southern contacts of new offensive coordinator Dave Roberts, the former head coach at Northeast Louisiana.

The class is strong throughout, and there are a few undeniable stars, starting with Minor and Rosenthal. Other standouts include 6-foot-5 wide receiver Randy Moss of Belle, W.V., a huge target with 4.45 speed, offensive lineman Tim Ridder of Omaha, Neb., defensive lineman Jerry Wisne from Jenks, Okla., whose father played on Notre Dame’s 1966 national title team, and defensive end Jimmy Friday of Missouri City, Tex.

Perhaps the most notable signees were two young men who should definitely start next year, punter Hunter Smith of Sherman, Texas, and kicker Kevin Kopka of Hollywood Hills, Fla., who will be called upon to shore up the awful kicking game.

In summary, don’t expect more six-victory seasons.

Did Bobby Bowden steal Dan Kendra from Joe Paterno?

Every recruiting season has its share of controversies, and Kendra’s Penn State/Florida State flip-flop tops the 1995 list. Kendra, a multi-talented 6-2 quarterback from Bethlehem, Pa., originally gave an oral commitment to Penn State but reneged in early January and announced that he would attend Florida State. Although Nittany Lions fans accused Seminoles Coach Bobby Bowden of all sorts of cloak-and-dagger chicanery, the affable Bowden claims complete innocence. After looking at the evidence, it’s tough to doubt him.

Some might say Bowden started recruiting Kendra from birth. At the time, Bowden was coaching at West Virginia, and Kendra’s father, Dan Jr., was quarterbacking the Mountaineers. When Dan III was born, Bowden’s wife sent a letter to the proud parents welcoming the new quarterback to the world. “He still has that note,” Bowden says of the elder Kendra.

Bowden says it took him two weeks to get over losing Kendra to Penn State, but he finally sent a letter to the quarterback congratulating him on his decision. On January 7, while Bowden was in bed with the flu, Kendra called to report that he had changed his mind. In the end, Kendra’s decision made sense. He’s an excellent runner, and the Seminoles’ fastbreak, shotgun offense will give him ample opportunity to showcase his legs and strong arm. And by committing early to Penn State, Kendra bought himself some solitude to analyze his decision away from the pushy Nittany Lions supporters in northeast Pennsylvania.

Kendra’s change of heart made him the centerpiece of another deep, fast, talented Florida State class filled with blazing backs and ends. Leading the way are fullback Khalid Abdullah of Davie, Fla., back/end Marcus Bullock of Pensacola, Fla., wideout Peter Warrick of Bradenton, Fla., junior-college linebacker Vernon Crawford and defensive lineman Jerry Johnson from Ft. Pierce, Fla.

Can Howard Schnellenberger re-energize Oklahoma?

Schnellenberger spent his first month as Sooners coach traveling across the country, waving his 1983 national championship ring and promising that he’d have another one pretty soon. “I certainly didn’t come in here just to win the Big Eight title,” Schnellenberger says in his deep drawl.

Almost as soon as Schnellenberger took over for Gary Gibbs, following the Sooners’ embarrassing 31-6 loss to Brigham Young in the Copper Bowl, he began receiving advice on how to attract players to Norman. Everybody, from the local talk-radio folks to former Sooners Coach Barry Switzer, told him to cross the Red River and concentrate on Texas. After grousing that he already knew how to recruit, Schnellenberger devised his own plan, which he claims came to him while he was trying to fall asleep one night.

He would mine the Lone Star State, particularly its eastern regions, but he would saturate Oklahoma first and then use his staff’s far-flung contacts to move into other parts of the country.

All nine Sooners assistants were given recruiting responsibilities in state, as well as Schnellenberger, who was particularly visible in Tulsa and Oklahoma City in January. Then, they fanned out. Assistants Crist Vagotis, Craig Swabek and Danny Hope -- all assistants under Schnellenberger at Miami -- worked Florida and the Rust Belt, while the rest of the coaches filled in throughout the mid-South and in Kansas and Nebraska. It’s a departure from traditional Oklahoma recruiting strategy (last year’s class of 25 included 20 players from Texas and Oklahoma), but it’s a plan Schnellenberger believes must be implemented to rescue the Sooners from what he calls “the lowest point in Oklahoma football since World War II.”

The results were encouraging, if not spectacular. This year’s 22-man class includes nine Oklahomans and five Texans but four players from Florida. In state, the Sooners grabbed highly regarded dropback passer Justin Fuente from Tulsa and star running back Bennet Butler of Del City but lost Robert McQuarters, one of the nation’s top defensive backs, to Oklahoma State. Wide receiver Jarrail Jackson (Houston) leads an average contingent of Texas signees, while linebacker Marquis Gibson (Apopka), defensive back Gana Joseph (Miami) and lineman Cornelius Jackson (Miami) are Florida standouts.