Recruiting trail paved with money

[Papa_Bull]

Recruiting trail paved with money

By MIKE KNOBLER

Cox News Service

Monday, January 31, 2005

ATLANTA  Chan Gailey and his assistant coaches can be pretty persuasive when it comes to convincing football players to attend Georgia Tech. After all, it's their job.

But it never hurts to have a little help.

So when many of the Yellow Jackets' most sought-after recruits visited campus Dec. 10-12, they got a talk from sports psychologist Kevin Elko, flown in from Pittsburgh for the occasion.

The cost: $1,035.

"I talk with them about how to make a choice," said Elko, who also makes about eight trips to Atlanta per year to work with Tech's football team.

"It was deep. It was inspirational," said Martin Frierson, a receiver from Columbia who committed to Tech. "What keeps you going? What's your drive? Would you be able to achieve that at Georgia Tech?"

Elko's fee is one of the most unusual expenses found in four months of Tech and Georgia football recruiting invoices the Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained under the state's open records law. The invoices provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the not-so-glamorous life of an assistant coach on the recruiting road, from Giff Smith's on-the-go lunch of Honey Buns, cheddar crackers, Big Red chewing gum and Mountain Dew in Hinesville to Brian Jean-Mary's 6,300-miles-in-10-days trip to visit prospects from Colorado to Pennsylvania and points in between.

Tech budgeted $556,703 for 2004-05 football recruiting, which works out to more than $25,000 for each of the 18-20 players expected to sign with the Yellow Jackets on Wednesday. But that per-player figure is misleading: In recruiting, like in fishing, you spend much of your effort on the ones that got away.

Jacksonville linebacker Marvin Sapp reneged on a commitment to attend Tech and said he'll sign with South Carolina. But the Yellow Jackets still are out the $907.12 spent on meals, mileage, parking and expense money for his three-day visit to campus (and that doesn't include his two-night bill from the Georgia Tech hotel). The Sapps and their host dined on filet mignon at the hotel one night and ate a $487.96 meal at Buckhead's Capital Grille the next.

Recruits don't get to travel in private planes or chauffeured limousines, and they don't get to stay in luxury penthouses. New NCAA rules have banned those excesses. But the food and hospitality still make an impression. A month after his visit to Atlanta, lineman Brad Sellers remembers the future teammates he met and the steak and shrimp he ate.

Recruits eat well; traveling coaches eat economically. Georgia's recruiters get $28 a day in meal money, Tech's $26, whether they're tracking talent in rural Alabama or in the high-dollar cities of the Northeast.

But appearances count, so Tech's recruiters rent full-size cars. And because it wouldn't do to lose their way and show up late, they rent cars with GPS navigation systems that tell them how to get where they're going.

Assistant coaches do much of their recruiting alone, although they team up for visits to the homes of the top prospects. On Nov. 28, Georgia sent six assistant coaches to the home of Houston County's Kyle Moore, whom Rivals.com calls the nation's second-best defensive end prospect. On Dec. 16, Bulldogs coach Mark Richt and four of his assistants visited the Moore house to make their case. All that teamwork, however, apparently didn't work. Moore has said he's deciding between Miami and Southern California.

Still, Georgia and Georgia Tech work hard to ensure most of their recruiting investments pay off. They make travel plans so as to see as many prospects as possible in the shortest amount of time. For example, Richt and then-Georgia defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder visited four South Florida prospects on Dec. 1 and stopped in later that day to see a high school coach. And Georgia and Georgia Tech screen prospects carefully before inviting them for expense-paid recruiting visits.

"We don't do anything frivolously," Gailey said.

That includes booking the team's sports psychologist for one of Tech's biggest recruiting weekends. Elko worked with the Pittsburgh Steelers when Gailey was offensive coordinator and worked with the Dallas Cowboys when Gailey was head coach. Other college clients have included Miami and LSU. Gailey said Elko is an asset to the Yellow Jackets, and it can't hurt to let the prospects know about it.

"We just say, 'Hey, this is another part of who we are and what we can provide our players,' " Gailey said.

Mike Knobler writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/sports/content/shared/sports/stories/RECRUITING_0131_COX.html;COXnetJSessionID=B2J6C621QwrOZ4A0TL9Y2f2LmA2DmF1XUkX19Am11fjVsjwpxSon!1989913020?urac=n&urvf=11072003149100.48067633815847244

[Velcro]

Interesting article, nice find howie, as usual!

[Omniscientbull]

Shouldn't STK be calling the NCAA about a meal at the Capital Grille.  It's much nicer than our Starship Dinner or whatever the boat is called.

[bulls96go]

what was our budget?

[smazza]

kids are the talent

they deserve the perks

a fat slob like  GOL would be no where with out the kids