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
with your questions.  To receive our complimentary monthly newsletter, sign up here on the website.

Advice for College Athletes Regarding Transfer Situations

It’s the time of year when some college athletes are considering, or have already decided, to transfer to another school for the spring semester. Sometimes it is their choice, and sometimes they are encouraged to leave. (Some baseball athletes are being affected by the latter, as NCAA Division I coaches must cap their baseball roster at 35 players by the start of the season.)

If an athlete is planning to transfer to an NCAA Division I or II school, coaches cannot speak to the athlete about a transfer until they receive written permission from the athlete’s current institution. So, the first thing the athlete should do is talk to their coach and explain that they would like to request permission to speak with other schools. One of the things that upsets many coaches is when they receive a “permission to contact” form from another school and the student-athlete has not given them any indication that they are considering a transfer. The key to remember – coaches don’t like surprises.

It also can be helpful if the athlete and his/her parents are on the same page. A father once contacted school B to say that his son wanted to transfer from school A, and asked school B how to accomplish the transfer. B assumed that the athlete was interested in their school and sent a “permission to contact” form to school A. The compliance person at A contacted his counterpart at B and said that the athlete wanted to know why the form was sent because he had no interest in transferring. I told my counterpart at A that the athlete should talk to his Dad.

For more information on this and other relevant topics, please call 918-994-7271 or email rick@informedathlete.com.