[Husker] Defensive coaching assignment changes

[Alan Siporin]

On 2/4/05 6:34 AM, "Harmon, Josh" <j.harmon at tcu.edu> wrote:

> This is probably an unanswerable question, but what makes Blake -- among other
> select coaches really good recruiters?

He sells himself, first. His comments indicated that he has a way of bonding
with the kids, at least giving the impression that he will be there for them
for life, not just for four or five years. Obviously, a lot of recruiters
must try the same approach, and he's not the only one who succeeds at this.
But, by all accounts, Blake is very, very good at making this connection.
Once a kid bonds with a coach it becomes really hard for the kid to say no.
Many fans who follow recruiting get pissed off at the kids for changing
their minds or taking a long time, but if they bond with two or more coaches
from different schools, you can see how torn they become.

Blake also is very good with moms, another key to recruiting, giving them
the sense that he will take care of their boys while they are away from
home. These may be studs to football fans, but even 300 pound lineman are
little boys to their mamas. Big ole John Blake is just the guy to make sure
mama doesn't need to worry. I hear the word, sincerity, come up quite often
from recruits in describing Blake. True or not, that's the way they feel.
And they are probably right. Hard to fake that. And hard to fake a real
passion for this kind of draining work.

I don't know if this rambling helped. I hope so.

Alan Siporin