Troy's Larry Blakeney likes to compete, for players and on the field

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

To hear Larry Blakeney tell it, the secret to his success in attracting football players good enough to win three straight league championships to Troy is keeping out of the way.

When it comes to recruiting, Blakeney said, "I'm involved to an extent, but I try not to be a burden on the guys."

Blakeney makes sure the guys - his assistants - stay on the same page when they fan out across Alabama, Georgia and Florida, mostly, to find players who fit the Trojans' schemes and fill their needs.

"Everybody is responsible to everybody," he said. "We all sort of cross-check with each other.

"It all starts with organization and the numbers you have for initials (scholarship counters) every year. You try to get as close as you can to refurbish the offense, defense and special teams. We look at it like 12-12-1, depending on how many scholarships you have got left from the year before, how many initials you have."

Blakeney, 61, said the Trojans also use junior college players to plug gaps. Then there are the grayshirts - players who come to the Sun Belt Conference school, but put off enrolling full-time until January and join the team the following season.

"There's no way to make sure," he said. "You just make sure the same people are laying eyes on them every time, that the coaches and coordinators and recruiting coordinator are on the same page.

"There is sort of a science to it, but it's a mad science."

Blakeney, who has been Troy's head coach since 1991 and has compiled a 144-73-1 record, is like many of his peers in that his main recruiting role is as a finisher.

"Maybe in December and January I'm out there trying to get in some homes," he said. "I try to help in closing the deal on somebody or if it's important that they see the head coach outside an on-campus visit. Maybe the parents weren't able to come on a visit.

"Other head coaches are different and think they need to be out there a lot, and that's all well and good. I really feel good about everybody understanding what their job is in recruiting and how they go about it."

Troy has one of the youngest staffs in the country, with an average age of 38, and the youngest Division I-A offensive coordinator in the nation in Neal Brown, 28.

"I don't think it hurts that they are able to relate and understand the kids," Blakeney said. "We have guys with sharp eyes, sharp evaluating skills and you can be that at any age.

"Right now, we've got guys across the board who like to recruit. They know how and they want to win."

Blakeney said wanting to win both on the field and in recruiting is what drives him.

"Recruiting is just like anything as far as this job goes," he said. "It's work. It's competing and it gets your juices going to face up with folks in our league and sometimes with teams not in our league that we can compete with. Sometimes we get hit on the head with kids we have commitments from, so we deal with that and move on.

"If it sounds like a blur, it is."

News staff writer Mike Perrin covers state colleges. Write him at mperrin@bhamnews.com. Check out Perrin's blog at blog.al.com/pressbox.