Louisiana recruiting confidential: Brian Kelly’s 1st year, who recruits the state best
The Athletic talked to high school coaches around the state about Kelly’s approach, top recruiters and which players deserve attention.
theathletic.com
Here is the panel:
• Coach 1: Head coach in Baton Rouge area
• Coach 2: Head coach in Baton Rouge area
• Coach 3: High school assistant coach in South Louisiana
• Coach 4: Head coach in Southwest Louisiana
• Coach 5: Head coach in New Orleans
• Coach 6: Head coach in New Orleans
Who are some of top out-of-state schools and recruiters?
Coach 5: Louisiana Tech’s coach Teddy Veal, receivers coach. Teddy’s been doing a real good job coming down here and getting some key guys, but also up north.Coach 1: Louisiana Tech does an outstanding job. They get all over the state. Coach Cumbie I like a lot. He came in and I met him, and I think he’s a good guy. It’s gonna take a little bit of time to get his system in there and get it going, but I think he will.
With Kelly lacking Louisiana connections, how big of a role did his staff play during the transition?
Coach 3: What’s helping Brian Kelly is getting (associate head coach/running backs coach) Frank Wilson back on staff. Getting Frank back, because Frank is one of the best recruiters in the country. Frank knows Louisiana, especially New Orleans, inside and out. The receiver coach Cortez Hankton, he’s from New Orleans. He’s from here. So getting people from here that’s on the staff in higher positions, that helps him because they understand the Louisiana mind. They understand Louisiana kids.
It helped their street cred, because once they lost Corey Raymond to Florida, he was one of the best recruiters in the state, especially with DBs. That helps them because a lot of people know Frank. Everybody knows Frank. Frank recruited me when I was in high school. … Frank is gonna take care of you.
Coach 4: Coach Frank and I have a good relationship. (Quarterbacks) Coach (Joe) Sloan, I knew him back when he was at Tech. He and I talk a lot as well.
Coach 1: Joe Sloan was a good hire, especially for the Baton Rouge area in recruiting. I mean, I met him when he was at Louisiana Tech and he recruited us hard here. He’s really got good relationships with a lot of coaches in this area.
Coach 2: The thing that Joe does better than most guys I come across is he’s always on top of the academic piece. He doesn’t leave it to the backroom guys to hope that it’s right. He goes in there and he crunches all the numbers himself. He’s always done a great job with that going back a decade now.
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