With the global pandemic of COVID-19 wreaking havoc across the country in more ways than just causing mass sickness and hysteria, it has continued to impact our everyday lives including the world of sport.
As discussed in my last blog, this pandemic has impacted the college football world in more ways than just cancelling spring practices and games. It has led to discussions of playing games with no fans or just cancelling the season all together.
Yet coaches and organizations continue to march on with recruiting. While coaches have been restricted to not being allowed to interact physically with potential recruits and give their best recruiting pitches, it has not stopped the recruiting cycle to halt.
Coaches continue to be pulling in recruits in what seems to be like record numbers for some schools. Ohio State in particular.
After the behemoth Urban Meyer grew at the university of seven seasons, his successor Ryan Day has seemed to one-up him at every turn. Granted he had the foundation Meyer left, but he has taken full advantage of it.
During a time when many in the media and in fanbases thought COVID-19 would become a detriment to their team’s futures, the Ohio State coaching staff have showcased how to successfully counteract the virus and become the most successful recruiting team for this coming cycle.
As seen by the premier recruiting resource, 247 Recruiting, Ohio State currently has five of the top eight recruiters in the nation and the top two with Brian Hartline and Tony Alford. Those two alone have pulled in five stars after five stars at positions that are typically hard to garner numerous star players in a single year.
Their work during this tumultuous time may have opened a new door for other programs to take note of and utilize in their own recruiting and could shift the way we view recruiting and how it is accomplished in the future.
These innovations and ideas are important to keep track of as we move forward in a time where we are unsure of what the future holds.
3 replies on “Recruiting During A Global Pandemic”
Jackson, great read. It’s interesting to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic has effected this recruiting cycle especially considering the plethora of talent available. It’ll be interesting to see how long this goes and if this delays signing day.
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Jackson,
I think this is definitely an unprecedented time in college football recruiting. With all of the rules in place, I think it could be very easy for a school to accidentally or intentionally break those rules simply because this situation is so far from the norm. There are some schools who will surely benefit from a situation like this, seemingly Ohio State is one of them, and some who will struggle, especially if they have lots of recruits that are on the fence and needed that constant contact.
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Recruiting has taken a major hit in all collegiate sports and you bring up a success story in college football. But with all the grad transfers and athletes in college basketball who have put their name in the portal. I wonder how collegiate basketball programs are dealing with trying to recruit these players when they won’t be able to visit their facilities.
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