Recent Coaches Controversies

If you are a fan of college football, you have probably heard of the recent controversies at the University of Kansas and Texas Tech University, as well as at South Florida.

At each of those schools, the head coach was fired for alleged mistreatment of players.  One coach allegedly made inappropriate remarks about players families or backgrounds, the second coach allegedly required a player to be locked in a dark storage area for two or three hours, while the third coach was alleged to have grabbed a player by the throat.

As a recruit or the parents of a recruit who hopes to earn an athletic scholarship, is there any way to predict this type of behavior from a college coach?  No, in most cases there isn’t.  However, I believe that it re-emphasizes the importance of making a connection with the head coach when you are visiting campus.

Your primary recruiter may be one of the assistant coaches, but it won’t be the assistant coach who decides on the starting line-up.  It is important to spend some time with the head coach to try to determine the type of person that he is and if he is truly interested in you, or if he is just going off of the recommendation from an assistant.

It is also important to try to determine what kind of relationship the head coach has with his players. Is he the outgoing type that you can talk to about a personal problem, or is he the quiet type who is hard to “read” because he is quiet and doesn’t say a whole lot?

If you are asking the right questions and asking the right people, you stand a better chance of perhaps getting a least an indication of how a coach treats and communicates with his players.

In some ways, it may be easier to be recruited by and to play for a fiery, volatile coach, because you at least have an idea of what to expect when you arrive on campus.  A coach that is quiet, doesn’t say much, and is hard to read can be tougher to figure out because it is harder to assess their personality and how they might react in various situations.

Our “Plan for Success Roadmap” includes a list of questions you should ask and things you should look for during campus visits that will help you obtain some good information.

Do you have other questions about recruiting, or about academic eligibility or athletic scholarships? Contact Rick Allen at 918-994-7271 or at
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