A nice article from Eric with Satterfield on the recent recruiting surge.
www.wdrb.com
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – University of Louisville football coach Scott Satterfield and his staff sat around their office not too long ago as they brain-stormed plans for a recent visit of 18 recruits coming to campus, when Satterfield said he found himself thinking, "We’re going to do what?"
What Louisville did is the stuff of social media virality. A group of college football prospects heading out to a Bowman Field airplane hangar filled with private planes and luxury sports cars. Sports cars in the end zone at Cardinal Stadium. A recruit already committed, quarterback Pierce Clarkson, taking out billboards to praise his fellow commits and hoping to attract new ones.
"You're thinking outside the box, you know, you're always trying to think, 'What's next? What's different? What can we do to entice and enhance our visit?,'" Satterfield said Thursday in an interview with WDRB. "And you know, some of the stuff, on the surface you think about it, the ideas were brought up, and you're like, 'Really? Is that going to be something we need to do?' But you just brainstorm and you start talking to young people. I've got my kids, 18, 19, 20-years old, and run that stuff by them. And they’re, 'Yeah, that’d probably be pretty cool.' And that's really what it came down to this past weekend. You're just trying to create a great experience, something that's going to be memorable."
The images – posted not by U of L or its coaches or program, but by the prospects themselves – caused a bit of a stir around town when shared by The State of Louisville Twitter account. And when Rueben Owens, the nation’s No. 1-ranked running back, committed to Louisville on Monday fresh off of that visit, the discussion widened.
It's a bit of a change in modern recruiting. The visit isn’t just built around the experience of the players, but in how players might share that experience to impress other prospects. It's not that nobody has used sports cars in recruiting before. It's been done. But Louisville's recent success has drawn some attention.
Raise your hand if, at the end of the last football season, you had Louisville as the most intriguing story in national college football recruiting come the start of the summer.
Put them down. I don’t believe you.
Yet here the Cardinals are, sparking (earlier this week) a discussion from none other than Dan Patrick on national radio, and plenty of others who follow national football recruiting, after fashioning what is starting out to be – by far – the highest-rated class in program history, currently No. 11 nationally in the estimation of 24/7 Sports.
With the ever-present college football caveat that players can and often do change commitments and that classes in June aren’t always what materialize in December, Louisville’s early success this year has led to some widespread curiosity.
What is happening at Louisville? What has changed? And what is Louisville doing that others aren’t? How do you go from zero to Top 15 in a span of a few months?
To get Satterfield’s answer that question, I spent some time with him on Thursday talking about Louisville recruiting.
THE IMPACT OF NIL MONEY
The first place most people will point is Name, Image and Likeness. And certainly, Louisville is making the most of those opportunities. A collective, 502 Circle, has been formed to support the program’s efforts with NIL money.
But that makes Louisville just one of hundreds. Everybody has NIL money. In fact, most would tell you that NIL has made the national recruiting landscape even more competitive, not less. To argue that Louisville has some kind of advantage over the traditional football powers is not necessarily a credible argument.
"We're playing all by the same rules now," Satterfield said. "There's opportunities at a lot of schools. I mean, you think about some of these blue bloods that's had great recruiting and great players over the years, and had a lot of money surrounding their programs and a lot of donors that that want to help their programs. So now with NIL I think it's a level playing field throughout the country. And you know, that's certainly part of it."
But it’s not the only part of it. There is, as they say, always someone with more money. Louisville isn’t making financial offers that can’t be topped.
Louisville undoubtedly is benefiting from its NIL efforts and from being a top Adidas school. But Satterfield points to a couple of other factors in the rising momentum.
(con't)
CRAWFORD | One-on-one: Satterfield talks Louisville's football recruiting roll
It's a bit of a change in modern recruiting.
CRAWFORD | One-on-one: Satterfield talks Louisville's football recruiting roll
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – University of Louisville football coach Scott Satterfield and his staff sat around their office not too long ago as they brain-stormed plans for a recent visit of 18 recruits coming to campus, when Satterfield said he found himself thinking, "We’re going to do what?"
What Louisville did is the stuff of social media virality. A group of college football prospects heading out to a Bowman Field airplane hangar filled with private planes and luxury sports cars. Sports cars in the end zone at Cardinal Stadium. A recruit already committed, quarterback Pierce Clarkson, taking out billboards to praise his fellow commits and hoping to attract new ones.
"You're thinking outside the box, you know, you're always trying to think, 'What's next? What's different? What can we do to entice and enhance our visit?,'" Satterfield said Thursday in an interview with WDRB. "And you know, some of the stuff, on the surface you think about it, the ideas were brought up, and you're like, 'Really? Is that going to be something we need to do?' But you just brainstorm and you start talking to young people. I've got my kids, 18, 19, 20-years old, and run that stuff by them. And they’re, 'Yeah, that’d probably be pretty cool.' And that's really what it came down to this past weekend. You're just trying to create a great experience, something that's going to be memorable."
The images – posted not by U of L or its coaches or program, but by the prospects themselves – caused a bit of a stir around town when shared by The State of Louisville Twitter account. And when Rueben Owens, the nation’s No. 1-ranked running back, committed to Louisville on Monday fresh off of that visit, the discussion widened.
It's a bit of a change in modern recruiting. The visit isn’t just built around the experience of the players, but in how players might share that experience to impress other prospects. It's not that nobody has used sports cars in recruiting before. It's been done. But Louisville's recent success has drawn some attention.
Raise your hand if, at the end of the last football season, you had Louisville as the most intriguing story in national college football recruiting come the start of the summer.
Put them down. I don’t believe you.
Yet here the Cardinals are, sparking (earlier this week) a discussion from none other than Dan Patrick on national radio, and plenty of others who follow national football recruiting, after fashioning what is starting out to be – by far – the highest-rated class in program history, currently No. 11 nationally in the estimation of 24/7 Sports.
With the ever-present college football caveat that players can and often do change commitments and that classes in June aren’t always what materialize in December, Louisville’s early success this year has led to some widespread curiosity.
What is happening at Louisville? What has changed? And what is Louisville doing that others aren’t? How do you go from zero to Top 15 in a span of a few months?
To get Satterfield’s answer that question, I spent some time with him on Thursday talking about Louisville recruiting.
THE IMPACT OF NIL MONEY
The first place most people will point is Name, Image and Likeness. And certainly, Louisville is making the most of those opportunities. A collective, 502 Circle, has been formed to support the program’s efforts with NIL money.
But that makes Louisville just one of hundreds. Everybody has NIL money. In fact, most would tell you that NIL has made the national recruiting landscape even more competitive, not less. To argue that Louisville has some kind of advantage over the traditional football powers is not necessarily a credible argument.
"We're playing all by the same rules now," Satterfield said. "There's opportunities at a lot of schools. I mean, you think about some of these blue bloods that's had great recruiting and great players over the years, and had a lot of money surrounding their programs and a lot of donors that that want to help their programs. So now with NIL I think it's a level playing field throughout the country. And you know, that's certainly part of it."
But it’s not the only part of it. There is, as they say, always someone with more money. Louisville isn’t making financial offers that can’t be topped.
Louisville undoubtedly is benefiting from its NIL efforts and from being a top Adidas school. But Satterfield points to a couple of other factors in the rising momentum.
(con't)
