Football recruiting at Penn State and Temple in the age of COVID-19 brings challenges, technology solutions
Temple recently had virtual orientation for the players who had signed their 2020 letters of intent either in December or February.
The new world order that is required by the coronavirus pandemic has affected college football in a big way, especially with recruiting, where coaches are unable to visit in person with prospects at their high schools, or bring them to their campuses.
So coaches James Franklin of Penn State and Rod Carey of Temple can do nothing more than embrace the technology, reaching out with recruits and their families remotely, mostly by Zoom or FaceTime.
“I think FaceTime is probably as big as anything with the recruits right now, and finding ways to interact with them so that they see your face,” Franklin said during a recent conference call.
“It’s one thing to call a player, it’s another thing to be able to get on Zoom or FaceTime and be able to interact and smile and see each other. There’s value in all these things. We’re trying to embrace this as much as we possibly can to close ground on some of the schools that got further into spring ball and further into junior days.”
Carey also has made the most of modern devices. Temple recently had virtual orientation for the players who signed their 2020 letters of intent either in December or February. The Owls staff used Zoom to connect with the players and their parents.
“It was good,” Carey said in a recent telephone interview. “It is never as good as being in person. All the parents and kids were taking notes, asking questions.”
With a lot of extra time, Temple’s coaching staff has been able to watch a lot of film on potential recruits. While Carey says that he can evaluate a player on film, there are certain intangibles that a coach can discern only from meeting with the player in person.
“You can’t completely evaluate a prospect off film because all you are looking at him is as a football player,” Carey said. “There is a lot more to that, what type of personality is he, what is his home life like, what does he want out of Temple? You may love a kid on film, and you may get together and the kid knows it is not a fit and we know it also.”
"The bad part is we had junior day scheduled for every Friday in spring ball, and none of that happened.”
For Penn State defensive coordinator Brent Pry, prevented from building in-person relationships with potential recruits and their families, communications remotely are the best way to go.
“In the end, facilities are fantastic, but it’s about the people, the people in our program, and the people in that family that we’re recruiting,” Pry said. “This is the opportunity to get to know everybody a little bit better, a little closer, make sure that everybody at both ends is making the right decisions.
“Some guys are feeling a lot of angst. Some families are motivated through this to make an earlier decision. We’re just trying to provide the guidance of what a commitment means and what that’s all about.
"Then some guys are really putting pause on this thing. They’re going to wait until this thing kind of clears up and they can get back around and do the things that they want to do. It’s a unique experience and everybody is going to cut their own path with it.”
Carey also has experienced the pause that his recruits and families have put on the process.
“It is kind of like you are about 60-65% through the recruiting process and all of a sudden, boom, it comes to a stop, minus getting them to call you,” he said. “It is that last 30-35% that has been challenging.”
Penn State had just three oral commitments for its 2021 freshman class through the first week of April but received one on Thursday and three on Friday. Three of them are from Detroit, including twins Kalen and Kobe King; two are from Maryland; one from Pennsylvania; and athlete Liam Clifford of Cincinnati, the brother of Nittany Lions quarterback Sean Clifford.
The late flood of pledges has raised the Nittany Lions’ ranking to 12th overall (fourth in the Big Ten) by Rivals.com and 13th (fifth in the Big Ten) by 247Sports. Ohio State, the Big Ten leader, has 15 commitments and is ranked No. 1 by both recruiting websites.
» READ MORE: Penn State defensive coordinator Brent Pry making sure his players are good with football, classes and life
Meanwhile, for the same period, Temple has two commitments – quarterback Justin Lynch of Chicago’s Mount Carmel High School and receiver Malik Cooper of St. Joseph’s Prep. Rivals ranks the Owls 62nd overall and 247Sports has them at No. 57.
Temple actually got in two spring practice sessions before it had to stop. Penn State never made it to the scheduled March 18 opening of its camp. For both teams, it represented missed opportunities to get high school recruits on campus, particularly current juniors who were introduced to coaches in summer camps.
“We saw a lot of them last summer and had some of them invited to games in the fall,” Carey said. “We also had an unofficial day in January, which was really beneficial. The bad part is we had junior day scheduled for every Friday in spring ball and none of that happened.”
Franklin said the situation is more challenging for Northeast schools that start spring football later.
“One of the big parts about the NCAA is to try to level the playing field as much as you possibly can,” he said. “Some schools have gotten done with spring ball, some have gotten half of spring ball done. They’ve had junior days. We weren’t able to get recruits on campus like we normally do. Spring ball is a huge recruiting time for us, for them to come up, watch practice, and interact with the coaches.”
» READ MORE: Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour hopes there will be a 2020 football season
Carey, who admits that “we’re way too early recruiting,” looks forward to the fall and evaluating seniors who might have been overlooked as juniors or were injured. He holds spots on his team for the late bloomers.
“Some of them turn out to be our best players,” he said.
Despite the unusual circumstances, the work must continue. Commitments will be slower in coming weeks as recruits and families wait hoping that the uncertain situation will clear up. And the coaches’ Zoom and FaceTime skills will get a lot of practice.
“Obviously everybody’s dealing with it,” Pry said. “We’ve got a lot of prospects out there interested in Penn State and what we’re doing. We try not to make hasty decisions and still be diligent and trust our process.
"It’s just like anything, a little bit of adversity is an opportunity to grow and be challenged in some different areas. I trust that we’ll work through it the right way.”