Some insight into the old staff (kinda long)
I've been wanting to post this for a while, but never really did because of relationships with the old staff. Now that they are gone, it's pretty much fair game. I won't use names, but it's pretty easy to figure out. I still see on occasion one of the old staff.
Anyway, years ago, their first year I began to tweet potential recruits. I thought, other schools fans do it, why not us? Even though it felt weird doing it. I then began to get private messages from the then recruiting coordinator (used to get messages from all of them) and a couple of the staff thanking me and telling me to keep it up. A sort of relationship developed with a few of those guys, getting invites to practice and putting me on their list of people that could come watch. Which I thought was cool.
Before the 2nd season, I had a previous relationship with one of the new coaches from a bar I managed, and began to get insight on PJ, their recruiting, and just WMU football in general. He would let me know some things like PJ's drive to be successful was pretty much anything he hadn't seen. When he recruited against him the prior year, recruits would pretty much say, "yeah PJ already called". 12:00 on the nose. Really, after having conversations with this coach about how the program was going, it gave me the confidence in Fleck to get it turned around after a 1-11 season. This coach had seen successful programs.
The aggression on the recruiting trail is what stands out the most though.
I happened to be at the Roadhouse with several of the staff one time when a kid out of Phillips committed. This was a big time get, but instead of celebrating, PJ was pissed that most of his staff wasn't there when the kid committed, and the guys weren't too happy getting bitched at it for it. Basically demanding they come back.
Anyway, it was interesting to see the conversation among the position coaches that followed. First, one coach called it right away, this kid won't stick. Phillips kids word meant nothing according to him, because of the head coach there. That kid did eventually go somewhere else. And WMU is 0 for 3 or 4 on Phillips kids who have committed to us and stuck with it. But then they got into the recruiting class, and it was a little shocking to me to hear them talk about how they can't believe they took this guy, or this guy is going to be a player, this one won't etc...
I asked one of the guys that was there who landed a couple big time guys who were offered by a Big Ten school how he did it. Basically just said he outworked that school. They figured that their offer would just land them, which works a lot, but most guys want that constant contact. Not a mind numbing revelation there, but he was pretty cocky about it (there is competition among coaches on guys they land). Which is funny now considering one of those guys made it to campus and never played a down.
I also knew what guys they were targeting, which guys they thought they had and didn't. One guy, Khari Willis, who is now at MSU is a guy I think they had locked. It was amazing how much time these guys spent on the road, and frankly on their phones communicating with guys.
One time, a couple of the coaches who recruited the Detroit area told me they think they were going to get a big time guy and it was going to shock everyone. It was a RB, and at the time, I automatically thought of Mike Weber. I realize now, they could have been talking about Matt Falcon.
Of many of the conversations I had with these guys, a couple stood out. One, Chance Stewart had been here less than six months, and one of the coaches told me he would never play a down at QB for WMU. Of course he was right. The other, was the disappointment of not being able to keep James Gilbert, who is now the running back at Ball State, and seeing how good he turned out. Out of all the conversations we had about recruiting, that was the guy that stood out in them not being able to land that had verbally committed.
I don't mention these things to fawn over PJ and the old staff, or say that Lester can't do that job. I just have never really been able to let anyone really know some of the inside stuff until now. The one coach in particular that I had a friendship with never came out and said it, but I don't think he liked PJ much. Next time I see him, I am sure that I will get him to talk more freely.
I also found it interesting to find out that staffs do read message boards like these. And that was one reason that even though I knew several of the coaches and one of them rather well, I still didn't get a ton of information even though I never put that information out there. Because they worried it would be tied to them.
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