I understand that GP has a certain way of evaluating talent. He likes to see a large body of work and watch guys in person. I get it and it’s not been unsuccessful. Hard to argue with his track record. Having said that, while the need to properly evaluate talent shouldn’t change, the way we get in front of top recruits and build relationships needs to evolve. For an old school guy like GP showing top recruits “love” and playing the “party event/twitter likes” game must feel like going to the dentist but that how today’s game works.
this isn't about gary's process for evaluation, the time line for making offers, or expecting tcu to bring top 10 classes on a regular basis.
this is about marketing the program and it is the single most common complaint i get from friends who are high school coaches when you compare tcu versus our peers and yes, texas, ou, and atm are peers in recruiting as well all are going for the same kids.
i have heard great things about the staff when they are out visiting schools. heard great things about gary and the staff willing to discuss football with the high school coaches and show the high school guys great respect.
the problem i have been told is they don't feel as welcome coming to visit ft worth and seeing the facilities, seeing the process as other programs. it isn't the job of the high school coaches to know what the frogs facilities are like or have an idea how the program works with kids to maximize them on the field and in the classroom.
the lack of a spring game does get noticed because of the access high school coaches are given in some schools.
look, if we don't want to have a spring game with a few thousand in the stands great, but invite recruits and coaches to a private showing type of event where they get a behind the scene look at how the staff prepares for practice, how the staff interacts with kids on the field, how they are taught, how they are challenged.
tcu had two great high school directors in perry and fitch and i was told those guys were very, very popular with the metroplex staffs. anyone notice the difference in frogs recruiting in the metroplex when you had those guys on staff and since the recent hire?
when luper came aboard the frogs were ice skating uphill in how they were doing some things and the frogs had two successive back office people who had worked with him at auburn and some changes were made.
that position is now filled by a person whose experience was as a compliance intern/ga at tcu and worked in compliance for okie state for 8 months.
the frogs have a great product from the facilities, to the the coaching, to the support in the program, to the school and the campus etc... not asking to change gary's evaluation processes as much as how the frogs push the message and you have to adjust to changes by your peers
atm, ou, and texas all have had big recent staff changes. you have to evolve or your die and i know of no sales manager who would be happy with his sales force if they had a top notch product and they weren't getting it in front of their potential audiences as often and effectively as possible.