Orgeron making sense about May visits

I don’t always agree with Ole Miss football coach Ed Orgeron.

Pinning his offensive fortunes on quarterback Brent Schaeffer before he even arrived on campus last season didn’t seem like the most prudent thing to do.

I knew Schaeffer and so did Tennessee fans. He left them talking about unfulfilled potential, immaturity off the field and a baseball bat attack — not winning football games.

Also, had I been named Ole Miss coach, I don’t think I would have ripped off my shirt in one of my first meetings with my players and challenged their toughness personally. Was that emasculating or just amusing for the assembled players?

But when Orgeron suggested this week at SEC Media Days that coaches should be allowed to meet with players during the spring evaluation period, I found myself immediately convinced.

“I’d like the head coach just to have a little more contact,” Orgeron said. “We only have one visit with the recruits in the home. I’d like to have a visit in May.”

As it is now, coaches can travel to schools during the May evaluation period and visit with a prospect’s high school coach, but not the player.

If the two just happen to meet in the school hallway (as they most always do) they can exchange pleasantries. But extended conversations are taboo, even though the NCAA deems such violations as minor.

So a coach can travel hundreds, if not thousands of miles, and only say “Hi.” There’s some NCAA logic for you.

“If you fly to California and you fly to Florida,” Orgeron said, “why not be able to talk to the young man and get the process rolling?”

Agreed. Currently, the onus is on the players and their families. They are the ones expected to take unofficial summer visits before their senior year to cement their standing in coaches’ minds.

Hmm, last time I checked it’s the universities who have mega-budgets to cover travel for recruiting, not individual families. I cover several prospects every year that can’t afford to travel to faraway cities.

The elite prospects don’t suffer from such a lack of exposure. The marginal ones do.

If you’re a college coach and you have to decide between a prospect you’ve met with in your office and a player that you’ve only seen on film, whom are you going to choose?

Now I know some of you might be wondering why I’m siding with the shirtless, Schaeffer-loving wonder in Oxford.

Here’s why. When it comes to recruiting, Orgeron has quite a track record. He was a key in assembling all that championship talent at Southern Cal before taking the job at Ole Miss before the 2005 season.

Despite limited resources in Oxford and a 7-16 record last season, he assembled one of the top 20 classes in the nation and already has 20 commitments for the 2008 signing class.

To put it quite simply, Orgeron is one of the nation’s very best recruiters.

Oregeron has already found his next advantage. Forget text messaging, which will be banned next month unless the NCAA makes changes. That’s so 2007.

“We’re just going to find another way,” Orgeron said. “Technology is always going to stay ahead of the rules. Something else is going to come up.”

Count me as one of a growing number of Americans that receive e-mail on my phone. There’s no limit on e-mailing prospects. And I’m quite sure that many of them can receive e-mail on their phones as well.

So, it’s exactly like text messaging? Is that a loophole already discussed in Oxford?

“Well, definitely,” Orgeron said with a sly smile.

Just when I thought Orgeron and I shared similar views on recruiting, he said, “It’s going to slow down. I think it’s going to reach a peak just like the housing market.”

I see no such end in sight to recruiting’s growth. Coaches continue to recruit high school underclassmen and coverage continues to grow.

Dave Hooker covers recruiting. He may be reached at hookerd@knews.com.

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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