Huge ’Net change in recruiting game

Morgan Park defensive end Craig Drummond (90) is one of the most recruited football players in Illinois.
(Mark Kuefner/For the Sun-Times)

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Take it from Chuck Long and Corwin Brown, two former area football stars, recruiting has changed dramatically since the 1980s, when they graduated from high school.

They claim extensive media coverage and improvements in technology, particularly the invention of the Internet, have had more to do with sweeping changes in the recruiting process over the last 30 years.

‘‘When I came out, I didn’t know who else Michigan was recruiting,” said Brown, who graduated from Julian in 1988 and chose Michigan over Wisconsin.

‘‘Now everybody knows. If a kid comes to visit a school, all the recruiting services talk to the kid and all the kids read it.

‘‘Now telephone conversations are on the Internet, only minutes after our call is completed. It’s a good thing because it holds people accountable. It can be tough because a kid can take things the wrong way. For example, a school can’t tell a kid he will be the best player it is recruiting.’’

De-commitments have become a big problem, too. When Brown and Long were being recruited and a kid gave his word, it was like a legal contract. A player didn’t continue to make campus visits and didn’t change his mind, opting to attend another school.

‘‘When colleges recruited a guy at Julian, there was a certain way to behave or you had to answer to [coach] J.W. Smith,’’ said Brown, now defensive coordinator at Notre Dame. ‘‘There was a certain way of handling business.’’

Today, Long, who starred at Wheaton North and Iowa and played for seven years in the NFL, does his own recruiting as head coach at San Diego State. He marvels at how the timetable for recruiting gets earlier and earlier with colleges focusing on sophomores and juniors.

‘‘I didn’t get my first call until December of my senior year,’’ Long said. ‘‘In those days, kids waited until December. Now, so many juniors commit early. And the questions are: What if they peak too soon? What kind of a senior year will they have?’’

In addition, recruiters must evaluate character even more than size, speed and statistics. It isn’t something you can find on a transcript or a questionnaire.

‘‘We have to deal with character more than ever before,’’ Long said. ‘‘That is the first question I want my assistants to ask on the recruiting trail. We need to know about a kid’s character. What kind of a kid is he? What is his background? What about his family? His work ethic?’’

Long noted one other change in the recruiting process from the time he left Wheaton North in 1981 and chose Iowa over Northwestern and Northern Illinois.

‘‘Today, parents come with their kids on campus visits,’’ he said. ‘‘Out of our recent class, 90 percent of the recruits brought their parents. We encourage it. Parents can be a big selling point. In my day, no parents came with their kids.’’

Meanwhile, Morgan Park defensive end Craig Drummond continues to be the No. 1 prospect in the class of 2009 in the area. He has offers from Illinois, Iowa, Penn State, Purdue, Michigan, Wisconsin, USC, Miami, Oregon and Kansas State.

The 6-5, 255-pounder is running track this spring to keep in shape. In preparation for his senior year, he wants to weigh 260 to 265 pounds, reduce his 40-yard speed from 4.5 seconds to 4.4 or even 4.3 and improve his bench-press from 305 to at least 350 pounds.

‘‘I want to make a decision before my senior year,’’ Drummond said. ‘‘But I’m not focusing on recruiting or making visits until I’m done with my ACT. I’m looking for a great school, somewhere I can play for a national championship.’’