The Recruiting Blues

Nice LAT front page article by David Wharton basically pointing how Fig Tech has been kicking our collective asses over the past few years...by owning the local kids here in the extended LA area.  KD the Thinker is allegedly doing better, but wake me when he beats out Coach Pom Pom the Humanitarian for a 5-star kid.

I would think our next football coach's #1 skill will have to be recruiting AND developing championship players.  Something like what our basketball coach does...go figure.

Go Bruins!!! Here is the article:

It was a simple equation that Pete Carroll settled upon when he arrived as the new football coach at USC six years ago.

The struggling program needed an influx of talent. Southern California ranked among the national hotbeds for young players.
So he would scour the local high schools.

"It seemed like common sense," Carroll said. "And it seemed like an opportunity to prove our work ethic."
Recruiting is the lifeblood of college football, an annual dance by which coaches scramble to restock their rosters. In Southern California, it takes vivid form in the rivalry between USC and UCLA.

Most fans judge their annual matchup, which reconvenes Saturday at the Rose Bowl, by the final score. But before the teams even reach the stadium, the outcome is influenced by how they fared in the battle for recruits.

In 2000, Carroll and an assistant, Ed Orgeron, visited a dozen or more schools each day, driving from the Westside to San Bernardino, from Lancaster to Orange County, meeting players and coaches.

"We would go and watch guys work out at 6 in the morning and go till 9 or 10 at night," recalled Orgeron, now the coach at Mississippi. "It was a buzz saw."

Winning this behind-the-scenes competition helped Carroll remake the Trojans into a national powerhouse. Now a similar effort has begun in Westwood.

This time, it is UCLA Coach Karl Dorrell trying to invigorate a beleaguered program by winning hearts and minds at local schools. "That's the challenge," Dorrell said. "It's a process of trying to make inroads."

Keeping 'em at home