‘The place are you from?’: The pre-internet period — when 5-star recruits weren’t family names

Twenty years earlier than he turned a fixture on Scott Van Pelt’s midnight SportsCenter, “Stanford Steve” Coughlin turned a mini-celebrity for different causes. A extremely recruited tight finish from Connecticut within the Class of 1996, Coughlin was named nationwide participant of the yr as a senior by the revered recruiting journal SuperPrep.

“I didn’t even know what SuperPrep was,” Coughlin mentioned. “I bear in mind when my recruiter at Stanford, (Mose) Rison known as, and he mentioned, ‘Congratulations!’ I’m like, ‘What are you speaking about?’ He mentioned you’re SuperPrep Nationwide Participant of the Yr. I’m like, ‘Oh, cool.’”

If he had been a modern-day prospect, Coughlin would have had his personal web page on Rivals and 247Sports no later than his sophomore season of highschool and the accompanying status of a four- or five-star rating. Most people might have logged on at any time and discovered that he was planning to take official visits to Stanford, North Carolina and UCLA.

As a substitute, he recollects attending a camp at Notre Dame the summer season earlier than his senior yr the place, regardless of holding scholarship gives from Syracuse, Boston School and others, the teaching workers had no thought who he was.

“After which after the primary 7-on-7, (offensive coordinator) Bob Davie pulled me apart, he’s like, ‘Hey, the place are you from?’” mentioned Coughlin.

In 1996, the web was nonetheless in its infancy. Recruiting junkies might subscribe to a distinct segment publication like SuperPrep, which charged $65 for 3 points a yr, or Tom Lemming’s Prep Soccer Report. Or they might name one of many analysts’ 1-900-numbers, which price $1.49 per minute to hearken to the newest updates.

However most followers’ main publicity to the highest highschool gamers within the nation got here through general-interest shops like USA In the present day, which printed its weekly high 25 groups and a postseason All-America workforce; Parade, a weekly journal tucked inside Sunday newspapers that named its All-People and participant of the yr; or ESPN’s “Scholastic Sports activities America,” the place a younger Chris Fowler or future Monday Evening Soccer reporter Melissa Stark toured the nation and interviewed the nation’s highschool stars.

And most recruits had little thought the place they stacked up nationally until they bought talked about by a type of shops — most probably throughout their senior seasons.

“Sports activities Illustrated had its Faces within the Crowd (column),” mentioned former Virginia and NFL working again Terry Kirby, thought of the nation’s No. 1 recruit in 1989, “and I can bear in mind my image being in there. It was like ‘OK, wow.’

“You had completely nothing (else).”

Almost every thing about the way in which recruiting works has modified for the reason that authentic iteration of Rivals.com first launched in 1998. Not only for followers, however for the coaches and recruits themselves.

Not like right this moment, when coaches start evaluating prospects as highschool freshmen, most gamers didn’t begin getting seen by recruiters till their junior and even senior seasons. There have been no combines or mega-camps stuffed with four- and five-stars.

Former Stanford quarterback Randy Fasani, a local of Loomis, Calif., who graced the quilt of SuperPrep as its No. 1 participant in 1997, recollects signing up for a Stanford quarterback camp previous to his junior season in an effort to get his identify out.

“I entered that camp as a no-name and didn’t know any of the coaches,” he mentioned. “And through the means of a weekend multi-day camp, they moved me from group to group. On the finish of the camp, coach Tyrone Willingham known as me and my dad and mom as much as his workplace and supplied me a full-ride scholarship.”

In the present day, coaches can pull up Hudl and entry sport video of almost any highschool participant within the nation. Previous to the web, coaches largely discovered who the highest gamers in different areas had been by phrase of mouth. Or by studying Lemming’s journal Prep Soccer Report. As a result of he drove across the nation each spring and summer season assembly recruits and gathering VHS tapes, Lemming typically had extra familiarity with the highest prospects than most coaches.

“All through the ’80s and ’90s nearly each school coach within the nation got here to my home (in Chicago),” mentioned Lemming, who printed his first concern in 1978. “I might have TV screens in my basement and coaches would come downstairs and simply watch lots of guys on tape. They’d fly into Chicago they usually might see 300 or 400 guys in two days.”

As an assistant within the Large 8 within the ’70s and ’80s, future Corridor of Fame head coach Jim Donnan recollects sending out questionnaires to highschool coaches asking if they’d any college-level gamers that yr.

“We tried to search for nationwide guys across the nation, however then you definitely needed to observe up,” he mentioned. “A few of these faculties had spring apply, so you could possibly go watch. In any other case, ship me some movie — and it was 8 mm or 16 mm movie.”

Nevertheless it wasn’t simply the coaches studying from scratch yearly. Usually the primary time a highschool participant realized he was a giant deal past his personal metropolis or state was when a guru like Lemming or SuperPrep’s Allen Wallace first contacted them for an interview. Which often wasn’t till their senior season.

“After I was a sophomore, making the participant of the week within the (Cleveland) Plain Seller was a giant deal for me,” mentioned former Ohio State and NFL star Robert Smith, a Euclid, Ohio native. “As a result of there was no web, I had no thought it was going nationwide actually till my senior yr (1989). We (Euclid) performed within the first nationally televised highschool sport in opposition to St. Ignatius.”

Not that the big-name recruits didn’t get showered with consideration. Handwritten letters from coaches arrived within the mail. Or they’d name your own home and have mother hand over the telephone. Or they’d present up unannounced at your college.

“I can bear in mind taking part in basketball and also you lookup within the stands, you see (Virginia) coach (George) Welsh, you see (Notre Dame’s) Lou Holtz, you see (Alabama’s) Invoice Curry, you see (Penn State’s) Joe Paterno,” mentioned Kirby, who finally selected Virginia over Clemson.

“(Nebraska’s) Tom Osborne would ship some motivational (observe) each single day,” mentioned Coughlin, who selected Stanford over North Carolina.

There was no social media, which meant no means for recruits to supply their very own updates to followers — high 10 graphics, photos from campus visits, a slick dedication edit. Although the 1994 Gatorade Participant of the Yr, future Washington QB Brock Huard, loved one thing of a print-era precursor to Twitter — he wrote a weekly diary for USA In the present day throughout his senior season. A trainer would edit it and fax it into the newspaper for him.

“It was social media earlier than there was ever social media,” mentioned the Fox Sports activities TV analyst, who selected Washington over UCLA. “I didn’t maintain again.”

Huard, now 46, bought an up-close window into modern-day recruiting through his nephew, Sam Huard, a five-star QB within the class of 2021 who dedicated to Washington as a highschool sophomore and is heading into his second season with the Huskies.

“I discovered myself pondering, how would I’ve processed and dealt with the chaos of it and the eye of it and the strain of it?” mentioned Brock Huard. “I used to be a fairly smart and analytical man, and 30 years later I couldn’t think about being thrust into that state of affairs and dealing with it.”

The lifetime of a recruit was quite a bit easier when the coaches barely knew your identify, the newspapers didn’t care sufficient to put in writing about your each transfer and the unhealthily obsessed recruiting junkies of America had no message boards on which to tear you.

(Picture of Randy Fasani: Tom Hauck  / Allsport)