I keep reading how game day helps recruiting — said by a lot of posters I respect. I don’t get how Game Day helps recruiting. Game Day is for the fans not the HS kids. I acknowledge that Game Day can help brand recognition some but some supposedly knowledgeable people haven’t got that we are NOT the holes as recently as the Pitt game.
Off the top of your head who hosted Game Day 4 weeks ago? 6 weeks ago. Can’t remember? That’s about how much Game day helps recruiting.
The activities planned for official visits pretty much take up Game Day for our visiting recruits. Many of the highly recruited kids are on official visits to other schools. How does Game Day help in recruiting?ll Game Day which at one time was an exciting event now is old hat to young people. And to some old farts such as myself. Game Day? Boooooorrring!
I’m willing to listen. In what ways do you see Game Day once every 5 or 10 year helping in recruiting.
I’ll go so far as to say what I think helps recruiting. Videos such as One with Wolfpack Football produced every week made available to recruits and prospects. Never heard of One with Wolfpack Football? Skate over to Gopack.com, look under sports and click on Archived Stories. Here’s the link for Episode Nine: http://www.gopack.com/news/2017/10/23/one-with-wolfpack-football-episode-9.aspx?path=football
Schools like Clemson are regularly getting these videos in recruits hands. Sweeney learned it at Alabama. Kids getting these videos start wanting to go to Alabama, Clemson and other big time recruiting schools before their junior year in high school. NC State is leveraging recruiting that way now. Producing these videos takes talented staff, facilities and funding.
We have the staff now, the facilities now and the funding apparently. We didn’t before “dull, boring Doeren.” The video facilities are under Doeren. Football is the top priority. Basketball will benefit too. Debbie will see to that.
Back to recruiting. The OVs, official visits, are planned and carried out by the recruiting staff. Nearly all recruits say what a great time they had on the OV or how impressed they were with the family atmosphere at NC State or how impressed they were with our campus, our facilities, our academics. Thunder Dan doesn’t just build bodies of athletes on our roster, he helps with recruiting. He keeps a book of before and after pictures of kids who have lost bad weight and/or added muscle. The recruit sees what coming here to NC State can do for him physically. Other stats are kept and noted for recruits. Thunder Dan Burnette is more than a guy who keeps athletes in shape and build bodies, he is a true asset to recruiting.
The obvious stuff such as meeting with the position coaches and the conversations these guys have often makes the difference. Our coaches are family men with core values like their boss. We attract young men who appreciate those kind of values and want to spend their 4 or 5 years in college mentored by those men.
All these activities are organized by the recruiting staff — where and when the activities take place, when recruits meet with position coaches, meet with Doeren, etc. The players who serve as hosts are paired up with recruits to optimize relationships. Nothing is left to chance. This is recruiting that makes a difference.
This is the kind of recruiting that makes a difference with the kind of young men we are now attracting to NC State. Game Day obviously helping recruiting? I don’t think so.
Fans are jumping on the Wolfpack bandwagon because we are winning. The foundation for that winning started when Dave Doeren accepted the Head Coach position. It takes time to do things the right way. It has taken time for us to build the solid foundation that will serve us for a long time. This would not be possible without Debbie Yow and Randy Woodson. We don’t hear what they do but they are doing what needs to be done to make NC State successful.
Recruiting with substance, not flash in the pan Game Day help.
