FanPost

Top 5 Easiest Places to Recruit

Got a little bored, so I started thinking about the 5 easiest and hardest places to recruit to and why. Tomorrow I'll write about the 5 hardest (I think you all have an idea of at least one haha)

 

5. Notre Dame

Wonder how a team coming off a 3 win season and a coach who has yet to prove he can win can continue to pull in top 5 recruiting classes? Three words: Notre Dame Football. It's a proven fact, no seriously, that for every 1 fan that HATES Notre Dame, there is 1 that LOVES them. The Irish have a fan base that is worldwide. Think about it. Every single one of you knows an Irish fan, and therefore every recruit does as well. Few schools can match the passion of the Irish fans, and Notre Dame has an aura that no other school does.

4. Ohio State

Take the only major D1 football school in a state rich with football talent, throw in a stadium with over 100,000 people, and mix in a dash of sweater vest, and you get THE Ohio State University. A big school in a big city, they get almost every recruit they go after. There's a ton of pressure for Ohio kids to go to tOSU, and that translates into their team being more than 90% Ohioans. There's a reason tOSU has been in the NC Championship the last two years (insert Big 10 joke here), and I can tell you that talent is a big part of it.

3. Texas

I would put Texas higher, given the level of talent in the state, but they have to battle with Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and LSU for every single recruit. They have a rich tradition, an ideal city, Austin, the top one or two schools in terms of population (switches with Ohio State almost every year), and the girls, my oh my, the girls. Pretty sweet stadium makes for a fun gameday atmosphere. Kids in Texas grow up wanting to go to UT. If that scholarship offer comes, they usually commit right away. It's why UT gets so many early commits.

2. USC

Where to begin with the Trojans. You have beautiful weather, a great fan base (much like ND), classic stadium, amazing tradition, and probably one of the most iconic figures in college football. Throw in the fact that there are roughly 30+ million people within a 3 hour drive from campus, and you have a great spot to recruit. It doesn't matter that UCLA is in the same area. Offer 10 kids the same scholarships from USC and UCLA, and 9 will become Trojans. But let's not forget the fact that they do it nationwide too. Dwayne Jarrett was from Jersey, where most kids go to Penn State. Mike Williams somehow got out of Florida untouched. And John David Booty and Joe McKnight were from Louisiana, where kids only care for 1 team, which is....

1. LSU

You might be scratching your head on this one, but hear me out. Louisiana, and the south for that matter, is a hot bed for high school football talent. For any one who has read Meat Market (recruiting book by Bruce Feldman, follows Ole Miss for 1 year), they discuss the enormous amount of pressure to stay in Louisiana. And since there is only 1 major, and we mean major, football school in Louisiana, they end up Tigers. Great, loud fan base makes Tiger Stadium one of the premiere atmospheres in the country. But wait, there's no kid in Louisiana to replace that Left Tackle that just graduated? Well, you could try Dallas (7 hour drive), Houston (4 hour 20 min drive), Memphis (6 hour drive) or Atlanta (8 hour drive)- all recruiting hotbeds frequented by the major schools. Less than 1/5 of their roster consists of players not from LA or a neighboring state. Must be nice, huh guys?

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