New Recruiting Software - Trib Article

[KB]

New Recruiting Software Is The Latest Quantum Leap In USF's Football Program

By BRETT McMURPHY The Tampa Tribune

Published: Aug 24, 2006

TAMPA - Through its brief 10-year history, the University of South Florida has had to overcome its share of recruiting challenges: selling players on a school with trailers as football offices, no conference affiliation and operating on a shoestring budget.

A new athletic facility has replaced the trailers, the Bulls begin their second season in the Big East this fall and the budget continues to grow by leaps and bounds.

As much progress as they've made, the Bulls will make another quantum leap next month with the debut of a new software-based recruiting program. The program includes a customized Web site that USF coaches can use to communicate with recruits and track the responsiveness to their recruiting pitches, while also making the recruiting effort much more efficient.

"This puts us on the cutting edge," USF offensive line coach Greg Frey said.

USF purchased the software program, RecruitingRadar, from BlueChip Athletic Solutions (BAS), an Atlanta-based company. USF will pay BAS $28,800 annually for the service, Associate Athletic Director Rick Costello said.

All of USF's information on recruits - names, phone numbers, family members, 40-yard times, high school coaches, statistics, academics, highlight videos, etc. - are available to USF's coaches on a laptop computer or their hand-held palm device.

The software manages text messages, e-mails, postal letters, NCAA compliance logs, contact and evaluation history on each recruit on their hand-held device and even alerts coaches on a recruit's birthday.

Just this week, USF recruiting coordinator Carl Franks' Treo reminded him of a recruit's birthday.

"It makes it easy for me to send a text message or an e-mail that says 'Happy Birthday,' " Franks said.

Another bonus: USF's coaches, perhaps the nation's only Division I-A staff that had to use their personal cell phones, will finally have university-issued cell phones. In a trade out with Cingular, the coaches will be provided Treos or BlackBerrys at no cost to the university so they can access their recruiting database anytime and from anywhere.

"BAS analyzed our recruiting message and converted it to a Web site that teenagers respond to and can visit 24/7," Boston College recruiting coordinator Jerry Petercuskie said.

As much as it helps the coaches become more organized and efficient in detailing all of their recruiting information, the coaches are also as excited about the new Web site geared toward recruits - www.theusfbulls.com- that should launch by the Sept. 2 season opener.

"If we're able to identify more with them, it's incumbent, as coaches, to understand the culture of our prospects," Franks said. "If we don't do that, we may have a difficult time understanding the world they live in. Adopting their technology will make our lives that much easier. This brings us more up to speed, being able to provide communication to recruits without being so intrusive to the families and recruits."

One benefit is the coaches can track the interest of a recruit.

"It gives us some feedback on how well we're marketing our Web site," Franks said. "If a young man is hitting the Web site during the season, but then isn't visiting the Web site around signing day, it gives me immediate feedback.

"It also lets us know what's important to each individual. Some may be interested in our engineering school, the music school, how many linebackers we have, our wide receivers coach, the stadium we play in - getting feedback from them helps us market our program."

In March 2005, Duke became the first program to utilize RecruitingRadar. Since then other schools have utilized the program, including Georgia Tech, Boston College, Kansas State, Vanderbilt, Central Florida and Tennessee.

"South Florida is an absolute poster child for this," said Steve Kennedy, CEO and founder of BAS. "South Florida has a lot to sell. It's not bad playing in Raymond James Stadium, it's not bad having the beach around the corner. It's not a bad spot for nightlife. There's also a huge strength in being in a BCS conference. But there's not a whole lot of people who know that.

"We want to help extract what is good about South Florida and put out that message for them."

While the general public can view the Web site, recruits will be supplied a sign-on and password allowing them to instant message coaches or visit recruit specific features on the Web site.

"This puts all the information in front of the kid and they can see if what Coach Frey is telling me is the truth," Frey said. "Not to mention, it's fun looking at the highlight films. They can see, 'Do they run my style of offense, my style of defense?'"

USF coach Jim Leavitt, who credited Franks' persistence for implementing the new software, is eager to get the Web site up and running.

"You should see the Bull on the Web site," Leavitt said. "I like the eyes on it. You click on the eyes and the heart to see what we're all about. It's going to be pretty good."

Reporter Brett McMurphy can be reached at (813) 259-7928 or bmcmurphy@tampatrib.com.

[HOTMello2005]

About time we stepped into the 21st century!!!

As always, GO BULLS!!!

[vankai]

sounds interesting - hope this helps us

[BULLfreak]

Hey HOT how is band practice I hear you have a large turn out. A girl that works for me has a freshmen son in the band and the poor kid his mom keeps on going and watching practice every day. Poor Kid

[Ricky the Bull]

https://www.recruitingradar.com/

[HOTMello2005]

Hey HOT how is band practice I hear you have a large turn out. A girl that works for me has a freshmen son in the band and the poor kid his mom keeps on going and watching practice every day. Poor Kid

I'll post here in response, but will respect if it gets moved to another thread.

2004 - We had 185 members

Last Year - We had 200 members

This year, we have 240 members.  The largest HOT has been in its eight year history.

We've already taught the rookies the Pre-Game show and everyone the first 2/3 of the first field show.  "HOT 2K6 ... Size DOES Matter!" (for those of you that want to make banners)

Look for a message from the Alumni Association in the very near future.  I will also post on TheBullsPen for all other USF fans.

As always....GO BULLS!!!

[BULLfreak]

that is great.

[Bull Matrix]

It is nice to hear that the HOT continues to get stronger. I have to say that the HOT has done an awesome job for being such a young program at USF.  Last year the HOT rocked during the bowl game in Charlotte.

[smazza]

2 years behind the big boys

why wasnt usf out front on this?

doesnt usf have a computer dept?

usf is playing catch up again

usf needs to be cutting edge

[Triple B]

2 years behind the big boys

Unless this is for basketball too I would hardly call Duke a "big boy" in college football.