Approach differs for neutral-site games
Lamarcus Joyner ate it up when he was in Columbus, Ohio, on Sept. 12 for the USC-Ohio State game. Ditto for the Oct. 14 USC-Notre Dame game in South Bend, Ind.
"I had a good time at both," said the high school defensive back/return man extraordinaire.
So when two more of the top-flight college programs recruiting him meet Saturday, the top-rated cornerback in the ESPNU 150 will be there as Georgia and Florida knock heads. Well, sort of.
Joyner doesn't do neutral-site "official" recruiting visits, in part because the NCAA doesn't permit them, and Florida-Georgia is played in Jacksonville, Fla. So he'll watch on TV. "I have to watch," said the St. Thomas Aquinas (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) star. "Got to see how the teams play it, how I might fit in."
Neutral-site games rarely fit into recruiting plans.
"Rules prohibit schools from providing complimentary tickets to prospective student-athletes unless the school plays two or more of their games at that site," said Georgia defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator Rodney Garner. "Therefore, no recruiting can take place for either school during this type of game."
Prospects are allowed to make unlimited "unofficial visits" at their expense to colleges that interest them, and often do so by attending summer camps or even games while paying their own way.
Neutral-Site Recruiting
Texas is always a recruiting hot spot. Notre Dame will get an extra push with the Lone Star State's recruits with a "home game" in San Antonio on Saturday. Coast-to-Coast Notes
They're allowed to make just five "official visits," however, with the school paying their way.
Some student-athletes suggest there's not much difference between the two other than whether or not there's a game.
"To be honest, it's not much different," Joyner said, "other than you're there on the college dime."
Others find otherwise.
"Most of the time you don't have a player host [on an unofficial]; it's a person they hire," said Cassius Marsh, a defensive tackle from Oaks Christian High (Calif.). He made numerous unofficial visits to Cal, USC and UCLA, and official visits to Cal, Arizona State and LSU. "It's not as intense, much more laid-back than officials."
Marsh said his official visit to Cal didn't do much for him: "I was kind of bored since I'd already seen just about everything."
His official to LSU? Ding! Ding! Ding! Great value. In fact, Marsh called LSU coaches Monday and committed to play for the Tigers. Here's part of the reason:
"The Cox [Communications Academic] Center is a great support system [at LSU] for students. And the overall atmosphere, the history of the team, and how promising every single season can be," he said. "LSU had like 50,000 tailgaters when I was there.
"The fans are much more intense than any of the fans in the PAC 10. LSU pretty much blows everybody else out the window."
Aramide Olaniyan, an outside linebacker at Woodberry Forest (Va.) School, made his first official visit a few weeks ago, to UCLA. He's also considering Duke, North Carolina, Miami, NC State, Vanderbilt and Michigan. He, too, has made unofficial visits, saying "at Michigan, we got to check out the business school, and that was a blast."
He said one obvious benefit to making an official visit when the team has a game that weekend is "You get to know the coaches better, and see how they interact with players in game situations."
College coaches often would rather host official visits in the offseason, or between the end of the regular season and a bowl game because they have more time.
"Some of the good things about coming in during the season are seeing a game and enjoying the atmosphere," said Texas wide receivers coach and assistant recruiting coordinator Bobby Kennedy. "Instead of having one or two guys in at a time, we like to try to get the whole group lined up to come in during the banquet weekend in December.
"That works best for us because people see our team at the banquet and they get to come to a practice, so they get a good sense of what our program is all about."
For the school, the goal in this instance is both to retain prospects who have already made commitments and to persuade some who have not.
If players want to attend a game, Texas prefers it be on the school's Austin campus rather than the annual neutral-site game against Oklahoma in Dallas.
"[At home], they're on the sideline before kickoff, so they get to take in the atmosphere and you get to be more personable with them," Kennedy said. "When it's an off-campus site like the Red River Rivalry in the Cotton Bowl, we can't speak to prospects."
In general, in-season official campus visits follow a similar format, and coaches are pressed for time.
Players usually arrive Saturday morning after having played the night before.
"They all pretty much do things the same way," Marsh said. "You basically meet the coaches, have breakfast, and go tour the campus, do the pregame activities, go on the field during the game. Once you've watched the game you go with your [player] host [for social activities], and you got curfew. The next morning, you sit in on meetings."
Though much of an official visit is conducted in group form -- other than meetings with position coaches and the like -- Garner said part of each official is usually tailor-made.
"We have a general itinerary that we follow for every official visit," he said. "And we try to make sure we get the prospective student-athlete to meet with a faculty member in the area of his academic interest."
At Texas, "We always try to tailor visits to what the prospects want to see," Kennedy said. "You're going to tailor each visit a certain way so you can put your best foot forward, but also show them what they need to see to make to make an informed decision on what school's best for them."
Joyner, who has made unofficial visits to Georgia, Miami and Tennessee in addition to FSU and Florida, said he will make official visits to USC and Alabama. "I'm going to be real picky about the last one. I don't know yet," he said. "Somewhere out of state because I've been to Florida and Florida State plenty."
Like Marsh, Joyner said he got something special out of official visits to Ohio State and Notre Dame, where he was looking out not only for his athletic and academic interests, but for life after football.
He attended the spring game at Ohio State on an unofficial, but learned things in his official visit that he hadn't before.
"I was looking for the feel from the town, the atmosphere, the fans, the players, the way they're being coached," he said. "I want to know how does the place feel? Can I climatize? My thing is I want to be successful, and if I am going to be, I'm going to have to man up and maybe live in some weather [unlike south Florida]. And are the guys on the team good guys, or are they going to go partying around every day? Everybody has fun in college, but you've got to stay focused.
"It's bigger than football. After I graduate, if I don't make the NFL, will they be here to support me? What kind of name will I make myself for myself at Ohio State? Ohio State was louder, more fans, bigger alumni base. Notre Dame. … I know the association with fans is probably as big, but in terms of fan base, Ohio State had an edge. I had a good time at both."
Matt Winkeljohn left the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after spending 21 years there. He can be reached at mattwinkeljohn@yahoo.com.
