From ESPN Insider
Big 12 coaches sound off on recruiting
JULY 23, 2014 11:00:58 AM PDT
By Damon Sayles
DALLAS -- Winning football games holds top billing in most cases, but when discussing the most important objective to college football coaches, a great recruiting class is always high on the totem pole.
The Big 12 media days on Monday and Tuesday gave coaches a chance to share their opinions on their teams, their competitors and the future of college football. It also allowed each coach to talk about the positives and negatives of recruiting.
All 10 conference head coaches were asked the same question: "What's the hardest part about recruiting players to the Big 12?" Here are their answers, honest and unfiltered.
Art Briles, Baylor
"I think getting kids to stay in state would be the No. 1 thing I'm looking at. If I find out that new girl moves in, and all of a sudden, she looks as good or better than the one you've been walking down the hall the last year and a half … and then, let her be there a year and a half, and she may not look that much better. A lot of times, when something new comes along -- like an out-of-state school -- you're thinking, 'That might be nice.' What's nice is having mama, daddy and all your kinfolks able to drive and watch you play every weekend.
At the end of the day, it's about F-A-M-I-L-Y, and that's what we've got." 
Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
"I think it's the limitations we have and the ability to observe and get to know the players. We're so limited in our contacts and the amount of times we actually get to see them play live. You always worry about who you bring into your program. I think that's the biggest concern for us; we'd like to have more access to really get to know them as a person and player, more than we really do."
Dana Holgorsen, West Virginia
"The Big 12's actually helped our recruiting. It goes back to when I was hired by Oliver [Luck]; there was an interest to try and bring some kids from Texas. Once we got into the Big 12, it wasn't regional anymore. The Big East was regional. It felt regional, the TV coverage was regional, it didn't have the national flair that the Big 12 has. Once we got into the Big 12, we're more recognizable now than we ever have been, not only with guys who are around the surrounding state of West Virginia but also on the east coast and in Florida. We can recruit junior colleges on a national level. They've seen Big 12 football games. We have to compete the best of the best in order to compete in the Big 12, and the Big 12 is definitely up there."
Kliff Kingsbury, Texas Tech
"Everybody's recruiting the same guys now. It used to be a couple of schools recruiting the top guys. Now you've got six or seven teams that all have a legit shot of getting a top prospect. There are so many good players in the state, but everybody's going to find their way in. You've got to be good at targeting who you want and make sure you get him."
Gary Patterson, TCU
"We've always recruited well against everyone in the Big 12, even when we weren't here. Out of the amount of scholarships we have, we only have a couple left. We were ranked in the top 25 in most recruiting polls. There's a lot of great players in this area who are good people and do good things, and we're looking for that. We've just got to go out and prove to people that we can win in the conference. When that happens, I think the sky's the limit for TCU. Hopefully it's this year. If not, we're building the foundation to get where we need to get to."
Paul Rhoads, Iowa State
"Recruiting is very challenging. Arguably, at the two biggest traditional programs I've been -- Ohio State and Auburn -- recruiting was hard there, too. There are challenges everywhere you go in recruiting. We have more of them in Ames, Iowa, and Iowa State than most folks. We're in a state that produces 8-10 Division I players a year, on a good year, and very rarely are there any defensive linemen. There's not a ton of speed in our state. Now you spread out your fingers and go elsewhere. You get to Florida or Texas or places like that, and they can't necessarily find Iowa on a national atlas, so you've got to educate them and get as much in front of them that you can and work hard to get them on your campus. That's the hardest job in the whole process. [Also,] getting the young man to our campus. Once we do that, we have a pretty good product to sell, whether it be facilities or people or philosophy or whatever it is."
LHC LHC Bill Snyder, Kansas State
"
I don't know if there's anything extremely difficult.
Because of the social media venue, you really can have contact anywhere in the country. More and more people probably are looking into the Midwest, Texas and the southeastern conferences, and everybody can get everywhere right now if you have [a cellphone]. Consequently, that probably would make it more difficult because you're not isolated in recruiting."
Bob Stoops, Oklahoma
"We've got a great recruiting base around the area. I just read something someone put in front of me [that] in the last five years of the NFL draft, we're ranked No. 3, tied for third, with the number of draft picks, so we must be recruiting pretty well."
Charlie Strong, Texas
"Recruiting is a yearlong process. The great thing about it is signing day is not until February. But you always want to build the relationship with high school coaches because that's where it all starts at. And we have outstanding coaches within the state, and we will continue to build those relationships. Our coaches have broken down, and each one of them has a part of this state. They know just how critical it is to go recruit the top players and get them into our program."
Charlie Weis, Kansas
"I don't think there's anything hard about recruiting to the Big 12. I think for me, personally, the toughest thing I do in recruiting is getting a guy past the stigma of ‘Kansas.' Once we get them on campus, I think the chance of getting them is very high. Losing: That's what the stigma is. We had a recruiting visit the second weekend in June. We had eight guys visit; we had eight guys commit. It wasn't like these were people others weren't interested in. The toughest thing is getting them on campus. Once you do .. Lawrence is a wonderful town, and KU is a wonderful school. Our facilities, our academic support, our dorm situation, where they eat, the campus itself ... it sells itself."
