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Mack Brown Signing Day Presser: Post-Mortem

Posted by HenryJames on February 4th, 2010 under Football, Recruiting

I didn’t get to watch Mack Brown’s press conference yesterday, but they do have the transcript up at TexasSports. It’s really good. Surprisingly good for those of us who are accustomed to Mack speak. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty of Mack speak. But he gave insight into our recruiting process that I don’t remember reading before.

Some people have asked about how we recruit and what we do. So you will know, each coach on our staff has an area he recruits, and he goes out and finds the player. For example, Mike Tolleson has the Fort Worth area. So, he found Reggie Wilson and Darius White. Bruce Chambers has parts of Dallas. Bobby Kennedy has the other parts of Dallas. Bruce found Mike Davis, and Bobby Kennedy found Jackson Jeffcoat.

Some people might object to his use of the word ‘found,’ but he’s not using it in the sense that Texas was the first school to discover these players.

Then, they bring the video back to the position coach. If the position coach likes the young man enough we get a transcript on every young man.

So the position coach is the gatekeeper. If he doesn’t like you, you’re out of luck at least initially. I’m pretty sure this is not a hard and fast rule though. If I discover say Vince Young, but Greg Davis doesn’t like him I’m still going to recruit the guy. Not that this happened or anything. There are ways to circumvent an established work flow in any organization.

It goes to Brian Davis.

Ugh. Hopefully then a competent underling gets it.

It goes to our admissions office. They give us a yes or a no, or here’s what he has to do before he gets accepted to The University of Texas.

Guys who have no hopes of qualifying don’t get this far. These guys can be identified by their public emphasis on academics while considering OU and the SEC. If a guy gets his transcript this far, he’s probably going to make it into Texas.

Then, the position coach takes it to the coordinator on either side of the ball, either Greg or Will. Then, that side of the ball, if it’s Connor Wood, Case McCoy, the offense as a staff would watch it. Then they bring it to me. They bring a transcript to me. They bring the video to me. They write comments, each one of them. They have to watch them in different areas first, in different rooms. So they can write down what they think, so everybody doesn’t sit in and just agree. We want to make sure we have opinions, because recruiting is difficult.

Secret ballot, imo. Not sure how I feel about this. I’d like to think that Brown has surrounded himself with assistants who aren’t influenced by groupthink. Guys who can hash it out among themselves and come to a decision that they’ll all then get behind.

Then I have to make a decision on whether we take a young man or not.

There’s another guy on staff who gets a final say now as well.

I don’t know how what we do compares to what other staffs do. Because of our in-state concentration, we obviously are able to get things done a lot more quickly. We can see all of our top targets probably within a week as compared to a team that is forced to do most of their recruiting out of state.

So we should leverage our advantage.

We’ll always get the majority of our players from Texas, but after we finish most of our recruiting by the end of February we should concentrate on 8-10 out of state guys.

Thoughts?

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33 Responses

  1. Greg said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 12:18 pm

    I’d like to think that Brown has surrounded himself with assistants who aren’t influenced by groupthink.

    I agree with you.

  2. dedfischer said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 12:24 pm

    This is exactly how Tuberville stated yesterday that he handles the process of offering.

    I’m going to start sending tapes to MacWhorter with notes that say:

    Hey Mac, found this guy in Bovina. Good grades, goes to church on Sundays and DOMINATES in this scrimmage against Raton South. Can’t miss prospect.

    Love,

    Bobby

  3. Sailor Ripley said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 12:26 pm

    Greg bet me to it. I think this is the salient point from all of that.

    This is exactly how you set up a distributed, flat organization that runs at maximum efficiency and effectiveness. However, it requires a hunger and lack of comfort from each guy on staff. Not sure we have that in each spot.

    Also, it doesn’t seem like the Coordinators should be just sitting around waiting for underlings to finish triage. A recent article that had Muck’s quotes about Muschamp gives me comfort on that side of the ball. I’m less sanguine about Davis.

  4. Greg said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 12:36 pm

    I’m less sanguine about Davis.

    That’s a good point, too.

  5. Dumeril Seven said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 12:52 pm

    You really can’t depend on surrounding yourself with people who aren’t influenced by group think. *Everybody* is to some degree, and even if they aren’t they may not be as candid when their immediate boss is sitting in the room listening. Good business managers try to eliminate that when they’re first soliciting opinions. Mack is right on this point.

  6. dedfischer said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 12:58 pm

    I should have added sans the transcript process.

  7. Byron Hanspard, 0.0 GPA said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 1:08 pm

    “I should have added sans the transcript process.”

    Iba knowed whacha mint, ded…

  8. Name (required) said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 1:14 pm

    So Mack doesnt just pull up the Statesman Fab 55 and carpet bomb offers to the top 30?

  9. HenryJames said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 1:20 pm

    He also said we got Hicks because of Jeff Madden. I can’t tell from the transcript if he was joking, but CTJ told me as much repeatedly throughout Hicks’ recruitment.

  10. WMH said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 1:45 pm

    “It goes to Brian Davis.

    Ugh. Hopefully then a competent underling gets it.”

    Made my day.

  11. tearaway20 said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 2:10 pm

    - I’d like to think that Brown has surrounded himself with assistants who aren’t influenced by groupthink.

    - I agree with you.

    Love you guys and all but you couldn’t be more wrong about this. It’s FANTASTIC that Brown takes this approach. You want the opinions as independent as possible. If you think they, or you, are immune you’re just out of touch with what’s going on. Wise managers do this. Most don’t. Strongly suspect most teams (including pros) get this wrong despite the fact that its one of the easiest things they could do to improve their scouting.

  12. Steve Nebraska said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 2:12 pm

    “It goes to Brian Davis.

    Ugh. Hopefully then a competent underling gets it.”

    No kidding. It might as well go to Brian Fellows.

  13. Eskimohorn said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 2:23 pm

    “I’d like to think that Brown has surrounded himself with assistants who aren’t influenced by groupthink.”

    I think y’all are missing the point. The coaches aren’t hashing out a gameplan. They are evaluating talent. Being able to share your thoughts directly to Mack in an objective fashion must be very valuable and speaks to his management style. It also provides an analytical forum for each of the coaches, as opposed to the Animal House selection method where the group throws beer at a photo of Flounder.

    If Mack’s staff was full of extroverts, this analytical method might not work. Even then, it may not be the best policy to openly discuss recruits even among coaches. This way, Mack is the central repository for information and prevents any possibility that recruits would catch wind of negative comments.

    Bottom-line: When it comes to recruiting, Mack Brown is without peer. You can make the argument that the only thing that holds him back is his coaching personnel decisions.

  14. Sugarpants said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 2:23 pm

    Somebody needs to turn up their irony detector.

  15. Texas Wahoo said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 2:37 pm

    “Also, it doesn’t seem like the Coordinators should be just sitting around waiting for underlings to finish triage.”

    Aren’t each of the coordinators also position coaches?

  16. Doperbo said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 2:40 pm

    The other advantage is it deflects criticism for a coach who was high on a kid that turns out to be a bust, because the talent evals are siloed.

  17. Greg said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 2:42 pm

    Somebody needs to turn up their irony detector.

    Ditto.

  18. Eskimohorn said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 2:51 pm

    “Somebody needs to turn up their irony detector.”

    I checked the internet for such a device and found no such item. It directed me to something called a sarcasm meter. Perhaps you can provide us with your services as the resident irony detector.

  19. dedfischer said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 2:52 pm

    So Doperbo, you are saying Chambers talks a lot of shit about MacWhorter behind his back?

  20. HenryJames said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 2:56 pm

    We talk shit about Ripley around BC for signing Doperbo.

  21. tearaway20 said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 3:20 pm

    Ugh. My bad. Hot button issue for me. Consider it turned up.
    Still dinging HJ.

  22. magnusbleuveigner said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 3:50 pm

    Doperbo = Brett Robin, imo.

    Rip signed him knowing he wouldn’t offer a whole lot on the blogosfield, but that he had a chance to be a high character doctor type.

    Or maybe he’s Frank Okam.

  23. Doperbo said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 3:53 pm

    I am in charge of a massive recruiting operation that is identical, according to CTJ, to Texas football recruiting. Our takes are hashed out in open sessions and I routinely mock colleagues for misses they’ve had in the past when I disagree with them. Not all organizations can handle that level of enlightenment, imo.

  24. Greg said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 4:11 pm

    Our takes are hashed out in open sessions and I routinely mock colleagues for misses they’ve had in the past when I disagree with them.

    Doperbo always has some of the best ideas.

  25. Minnesotahorn said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 4:17 pm

    Doperbo was a product of poor evaluation and desperation on our part. We mistakenly thought DrJHorn was actually a doctor and so we were left scrambling at the last minute. Aurmon Satchell imo.

  26. huge said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 4:27 pm

    Better to be Brett Robin than Buck Burnette.

  27. Mysterious Package said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 4:37 pm

    Still cant believe USC landed 5 Jackson Jeffcoats.

  28. ghostofagroundgame said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 4:43 pm

    $$ talks.

    I assume Sailor hired Doperbo for his Zeta connections. I do not mean the awesomest sorority to party with at late night.

  29. srr50 said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 4:43 pm

    I am in charge of a massive recruiting operation that is identical, according to CTJ, to Texas football recruiting. Our takes are hashed out in open sessions and I routinely mock colleagues for misses they’ve had in the past when I disagree with them. Not all organizations can handle that level of enlightenment, imo.

    You could say that.

  30. utexex said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 5:08 pm

    These guys can be identified by their public emphasis on academics while considering OU and the SEC.

    You think? Good stuff.

  31. bob said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 10:14 pm

    here’s why we should never take Mack for granted;

    http://www.freep.com/article/20100203/SPORTS06/100203048/1238/hss/Rodriguez-defends-signing-Fla.-recruit-Demar-Dorsey

  32. Sugarpants said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 10:20 pm

    “Greg” – not referring to you, clearly. Thanks for reading along, though.

  33. Sugarpants said:

    February 4th, 2010 at 10:25 pm

    “I checked the internet for such a device and found no such item. It directed me to something called a sarcasm meter. Perhaps you can provide us with your services as the resident irony detector”

    Eskimohorn said: “Clearly someone undestands the subtle difference between sarcasm and irony.”

    F…..

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