Over at SB Nation, Bill Connelly has a magnificent longform on the “blueprint for a rebuild,” which dives into how six coaches have built or plan to build their respective programs.
It’s well worth your time. Connelly talked in-depth to Kansas State’s Bill Snyder, UConn’s Bob Diaco, Memphis’ Justin Fuente, Indiana’s Kevin Wilson, Kentucky’s Mark Stoops and Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops. An excerpt from his conversation with Diaco, who left a gig as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator to take over a lagging program in Storrs:“I think that the brand is strong, in part, based on those championships. Those are worldwide news events, and we’ve had unprecedented-in-sport type of success there. So the brand is strong. And then you just take a peek, just a quick Google search. You’ll see this is one of the top public universities in the country, one of the top research universities in terms of science and mathematics. It’s in an area that’s very close to a bunch of Fortune 500 companies. We’re pretty rich in resources. And it’s a resident life campus, not a commuter campus. This is a good place for the quintessential college experience.”
He’s selling me on the school, and he might not even realize he’s doing it. You can’t stop the salesman mid-pitch.
“Hopefully prospective student-athletes don’t make the decision based on football alone. You can’t hide behind [the information you mail a recruit]; there’s too much info at a finger’s touch. If your graduation rate is at 43 percent, you can’t hide from that. A lot of players want to go to institutions that they are going to graduate from, next to their teammates and classmates. If you’re in a metroplex, and you’re recruiting against other AAC teams, and if there’s a prospect that’s interested in you and another school, and he also wants to be an engineer, and your engineering department is strong, you’ve got more opportunity there.”It’s a fascinating look at how these coaches have gone about building their programs -- the K-State/Snyder stuff is certainly interesting -- and is definitely worth your time with one week until kickoff.