Legendary college football coach Bobby Bowden mastered what Charlie Strong is trying to pull off on signing day.
During Bowden’s 44-years as a head coach, he spent 34 of them running Florida State’s powerhouse program. The Seminoles had only one losing season under Bowden, won two national championships, and the program he built remains successful under coach Jimbo Fisher. Bowden is viewed as one of the greatest college football coaches because of his success.
One of Bowden’s biggest annual accomplishments was pulling off extraordinary recruiting classes. Florida State rarely approached signing day with a lot of verbal commitments. Instead, Bowden was infamous throughout the recruiting world for obtaining an avalanche of commitments and finishing a high-ranked recruiting class every year. Whenever FSU only had a handful of commitments, everybody knew Bowden would eventually work his magic during home visits and grab the elite players he wanted.
Strong will attempt to duplicate Bowden's blueprint on Wednesday. Texas currently has 15 players verbally committed, and Strong could receive nearly 10 commitments this week. If everything works out for Strong, this week will be remembered as one of the best recruiting finishes in Longhorn history. If not, it will just be more ammunition for Strong’s critics. There may not be a middle ground.
Bowden fully understands the uneasiness Strong is likely enduring as signing day approaches.
"Usually if they (recruits) waited until the last minute, it was their idea, not ours,” Bowden told me during a recent phone interview. "Naturally, we’d like to have them as soon as we could get them. Then we’d know what we got. If you wait until the last day like we did, one reason you wait is because they are pretty good football players. If they’re not good football players, they sign early to be sure they get a scholarship. I noticed a lot of guys this year said I’ll let you know on signing day.
"There’s a lot of guys we didn’t know until they actually sent in their signed scholarship. The big thing is we naturally preferred if they would commit early, but a lot of times the great ones won’t, so don’t hurry them. They’ll off and leave you and go to somebody else."
Strong is definitely a low-pressure salesman.
Texas recently received a verbal commitment from free safety Eric Cuffee, seemingly lost tight end Irvin Smith to Alabama, but rebounded with Lil’ Jordan Humphrey’s pledge on Saturday. Strong is currently waiting for the decisions of several key players, such as D’Andre Christmas-Giles, Malcolm Roach, Stephon Taylor, Patrick Hudson, Dontavious Jackson, Erick Fowler, Brandon Jones, Jordan Elliott, Chris Daniels and other elite recruits. He usually does not discourage players for taking visits. Strong simply prefers to have one of the last in-home visits before the dead period begins, which explains why Texas has 15 commitments heading into signing day.
Bowden’s late surge was always successful, but was never 100 percent positive everything would fall in place.
"Here’s what scared you," Bowden said. "Let’s say I’m going after 13 boys. I can’t just quit after 13. I might only get half of them. What do you do? You go after 20. What if all 20 of them commit? Then you got too many. There was always that scary part. If too many of them sign, you’re in trouble. If it works out just right, you’re okay. You hope it’s not too far under. You’d rather to be one or two under than two or three over. You can only sign so many. You can sign all you want, but you can’t get but so many of them in school because you don’t have enough scholarships available."
Bowden said there were times he did sign too many (elite) players – what a problem to have – but team attrition helped him to avoid problems.
"Here’s the thing about it," Bowden said. "You sign in February. By the time May came around, it kind of worked out. One of the kids you had committed couldn’t get into school. Another kid you had committed got married and decided he didn’t want to play football. There’s a lot of circumstances that usually balanced things out. It’s scary. What if I sign too many kids? That means I’m going to have to disappoint one of them. Once you do that, your reputation is gone. If you sign a kid and then in May and say, ‘Son, I’m sorry. I don’t have a scholarship.’? You can’t do that."
Strong and his staff prefer to watch the senior film of some players before extending a scholarship offer. Texas defensive coordinator Vance Bedford previously said a lot of players develop late, and the Longhorns do not want to miss out on anybody. It is a strategy Bowden understands.
"It probably is (a good thing) if you can wait. If they’ll let you wait," Bowden said. "I can see waiting on a kid, but on your end, sooner or later, you have to commit to him. If you don’t, he’ll say, ‘Gosh, he’s not even offering me a scholarship. I’m going to so-and-so.’ Everybody has a style. He (Strong) has got a style, and he’s been pretty successful. I think he’ll do well."
Another frustrating aspect of picking up late commitments for Bowden was making sure recruits did not back out of their pledges.
No matter how many times Bowden spoke to a prospect, he knew it was hard to predict the actions of an 18-year-old. Bowden never went to bed the night before signing day believing he would wake up with the nation’s top recruiting class, even if it transpired often. He always believed no matter what a recruit promised before signing day, nothing was official until the letter of intent was received.
"There were many where we lost them on the last day," Bowden said. "You thought you had them. There were guys that we’d call them the night before (and say), ‘Son, be sure at 7 o’clock in the morning to sign that scholarship. Of course, we can’t be there. Sign that scholarship and mail it in. As soon as you mail it, it comes to our FedEx, we know it’s good.' That night, he’ll say, 'Okay, coach. Okay', and the next day sign with somebody else. That don’t happen often. We’ve had that happen a few times. We’ve got some that way, too.
"If he’s got character, and he’s an honest shooter, you got him. He might be telling four other coaches the same thing. You got to know what you’re dealing with."
Strong is dealing with the same uncertainty Bowden mastered during his tenure. The landslide of commitments are expected to pile up this week, and Longhorn fans will likely be on a wild ride through Wednesday.
Bowden said he would rather have early commitments than play the waiting game heading into signing day.
However, it the game is played right, there is a huge payoff.
"That (receiving late commitments) don’t happen to a lot of schools," Bowden said. "Only the elite can make that happen. Alabama probably makes that happen, and probably a few others."
Funniest Thing You Will See This Week
Sports On A Dime
1. Let’s set the line at 15. Do you think Texas will finish with a recruiting class ranked below or above that line?
2. I do not believe Johnny Manziel is trying to do whatever it takes to get out of Cleveland. Manziel is just an athlete who has never been held accountable because he knows skill always overshadows stupidity. Manziel does not act like a person who cares. Then again, Manziel is seemingly not acting.
3. Manziel’s antics will benefit Robert Griffin III during the offseason. Jerry Jones had a man crush on Manziel coming out of college, but Griffin is less of a risk right now. Every time Manziel is in the news, Griffin needs to look for real estate in Dallas. Great one-liner, Clarence Hill.
4. This Texas A&M kid was definitely all jacked up on Mountain Dew:
5. The Pro Bowl is on Sunday night? Looks like the perfect time to see what NetFlix has to offer.
6. I am looking forward to Super Bowl Media Day on Monday. The event traditionally began on Tuesday morning every year. Now it is a primetime event. This will probably be another feather in Roger Goodell’s cap, and he does not need the eye-popping women from TV Azteca for it to be successful. Of course, nobody is going to complain if they are caught on camera.
7. However, I am already over the “Cam Newton The Villain” storyline. Reporters are always compelled to write the story everyone is talking about while covering a huge event. After the Newton story becomes exhausting, most writers will focus on the actual game later this week. Until then, I will do my best to avoid arguing about this ridiculous topic.
8. Here is who I believe will be voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday: Brett Favre (Green Bay), Orlando Pace (Rams/Bears), Terrell Owens (several teams), Kevin Greene (several teams); Dick Stanfel (Lions/Redskins), senior finalist. There is a lot of support for former Bucs/Colts coach Tony Dungy, but having only one Super Bowl ring has worked against him. I still do not believe voters in the room will get past Marvin Harrison’s alleged criminal activity and put him in. There is support for Ed DeBartolo, but some voters are 100 percent against him ever getting in.
9. It is hard for me to imagine the Oakland Raiders actually moving to Las Vegas, but it would be one heck of a road trip for football fans. If there is a way for this move to occur, it needs to happen.
10. Sergey Kovalev’s second dismantling of Jean Pascal on Saturday reminded me of when Kelly Pavlik beat down Jermain Taylor twice. The best part of the fight was Freddie Roach’s decision to stop Pascal’s punishment. It was the right move by a future hall of fame trainer.
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