Pantagraph: 'Leap of faith' leads BHS grad Glasscock to recruiting post at Minnesota

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per the Pantagraph:

Leaving a paid job for an unpaid one in 2009 certainly qualified as a leap of faith for Billy Glasscock.

Yet because that jump was into Division I college football, the 1995 graduate of Bloomington High School was confident he had executed a successful landing.

“I got connected with Coach (Jerry) Kill (at Northern Illinois),” Glasscock said. “He didn’t have any paid positions, but he was looking for guys to help him. I left a full-time job as offensive coordinator (at Arizona Western) to work for free for him.”

When Kill took the head coaching job at Minnesota in 2011, Glasscock went with him and became the Golden Gophers’ director of recruiting operations.

Glasscock has spearheaded a recruiting effort that has sent Minnesota to four straight bowl appearances, while embracing the ever expanding intricacies of evaluating high school prospects.

“We recruit all year long. There is never a day we’re not recruiting,” said Glasscock, who has no on-field coaching responsibilities. “I manage a department that is growing so fast I almost feel like I’m treading water.”

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/co...cle_8f99df4d-5b21-57d3-a23a-dc2fa30066a0.html

Go Gophers!!
 

"We would rather be in recruiting battles we’re going to dominate instead of fighting the whole Big Ten."

That's a really disappointing phrase to hear coming from him.
 

dpodoll68 said:
"We would rather be in recruiting battles we’re going to dominate instead of fighting the whole Big Ten."

That's a really disappointing phrase to hear coming from him.
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It is, although I expect it came out wrong.

What I think it means is they would rather select than settle. By being the biggest offer on a player they want, they likely get him. I think we saw with the Brewster regime that when you try to recruit nationally with the big boys, the ones that come to / choose Minnesota are often in someway flawed (character or grades or just not great players).
 

dpodoll68 said:
"We would rather be in recruiting battles we’re going to dominate instead of fighting the whole Big Ten."

That's a really disappointing phrase to hear coming from him.
Click to expand...

This would be a great topic for Dave Mona to ask about on Sunday. I agree it is disappointing to hear.
 

What is Bloomington High School?

I don't mind the quote, there are plenty of good players and you have to be wise in where you allocate time.
 



It doesn't bother me one bit. They are confident in their coaching and assessments. They understand the difference between 4* and high 2* is marginal. If the players want to be here and they fit the system and needs, I don't care about the star rating.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

MaxyJR1 said:
It doesn't bother me one bit. They are confident in their coaching and assessments. They understand the difference between 4* and high 2* is marginal. If the players want to be here and they fit the system and needs, I don't care about the star rating.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Star ratings and the quality/quantity of the offer list are two different things. The latter is directly indicative of the types of recruiting battles in which they'd have to engage.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Star ratings and the quality/quantity of the offer list are two different things. The latter is directly indicative of the types of recruiting battles in which they'd have to engage.
Click to expand...

I agree, however our staff really seems to put camps and seeing these kids in person at the top. Other schools seem to follow our offers/commits and the battles tend to come in Nov-Feb.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 



Winnipegopher said:
It is, although I expect it came out wrong.

What I think it means is they would rather select than settle. By being the biggest offer on a player they want, they likely get him. I think we saw with the Brewster regime that when you try to recruit nationally with the big boys, the ones that come to / choose Minnesota are often in someway flawed (character or grades or just not great players).
Click to expand...
What I think they do is look in under recruited areas. In Georgia they recruit the smaller high schools, in Florida the southwest, they also use their contacts to find players that are overlooked for some reason. The name schools don't need to do that, they take the best instate talent they can, then fill in with national recruiting. The biggest problem with developing players is, the lack of quick impact, when we need that, we go JUCO.
 

Tim Brewster tried to go head to head with the rest of the Big Ten in recruiting and practically salted the earth here with his recruiting misses. Glasscock isn't saying we don't recruit kids with other Big 10 offers. He's saying we do our own evaluations because we don't believe recruiting services can differentiate well enough who can play and who cannot.
 

With all due respect to Bleed, I think this is the quote from the article that gives a better idea of the recruiting philosophy:

“Of the 2015 active NFL rosters, 33 percent did not play in Power Five conferences. We want to live in that 33 percent world."

As I read that, Glasscock is saying there's a lot of talent out there, and just because a kid doesn't have a lot of Power 5 offers, that doesn't mean he can't play. So, instead of fighting the Power 5 schools for 67% of the talent, the Gophs want to go after the 33% that the Power 5 schools have missed for whatever reason.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
With all due respect to Bleed, I think this is the quote from the article that gives a better idea of the recruiting philosophy:

“Of the 2015 active NFL rosters, 33 percent did not play in Power Five conferences. We want to live in that 33 percent world."

As I read that, Glasscock is saying there's a lot of talent out there, and just because a kid doesn't have a lot of Power 5 offers, that doesn't mean he can't play. So, instead of fighting the Power 5 schools for 67% of the talent, the Gophs want to go after the 33% that the Power 5 schools have missed for whatever reason.
Click to expand...
I guess at least they are honest with themselves that MN is not a preferred destination for recruits with options.
 



dpodoll68 said:
Star ratings and the quality/quantity of the offer list are two different things. The latter is directly indicative of the types of recruiting battles in which they'd have to engage.
Click to expand...
Well doesn't everyone want to dominate their recruiting battles? I get what you're saying, but they've done a good job of recruiting and developing players the past six years, putting successful teams on the field, guys in the NFL and also guys who graduate and for the most part stay out of trouble. And it's also not like they haven't gone up with the big boys or other Big Ten schools and landed players either.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
With all due respect to Bleed, I think this is the quote from the article that gives a better idea of the recruiting philosophy:

“Of the 2015 active NFL rosters, 33 percent did not play in Power Five conferences. We want to live in that 33 percent world."

As I read that, Glasscock is saying there's a lot of talent out there, and just because a kid doesn't have a lot of Power 5 offers, that doesn't mean he can't play. So, instead of fighting the Power 5 schools for 67% of the talent, the Gophs want to go after the 33% that the Power 5 schools have missed for whatever reason.
Click to expand...

If you choose to live in that world you can't afford a too many recruiting misses.
 

scools12 said:
If you choose to live in that world you can't afford a too many recruiting misses.
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Especially at QB. That is part of why Claeys dumped the QB Coach and OC. Leidner has developed but he is the only QB to make it through the program so far.
 

scools12 said:
If you choose to live in that world you can't afford a too many recruiting misses.
Click to expand...

You also can't spend all your time recruiting against helmet schools and maybe pull 1 or 2, and be left scrambling in December to fill out a class or hold onto guys.
When we have success and our facilities are competitive, we can go after higher profile recruits.
 

Gopher Football Recruiting Philosophy and Analytics

The following article makes the case for why the Gopher’s recruiting philosophy is sound and successful.

Glasscock .... Named by national recruiting analyst Tom Lemming as one of the five national directors of operations of the year in 2014, Glasscock oversees the Gophers’ recruiting staff and coordinates official visits and walk-on recruiting.

“Recruiting departments have exploded, and I was fortunate enough to be in on the beginning of it,” he said. “You can watch thousands of kids without leaving your desk. We watch 15,000 to 18,000 kids for every recruiting class to sign 22 of them. You better have a lot of guys doing that.”

Glasscock and the Gophers take pride in finding the diamonds in the rough. Of the 44 players currently on Minnesota’s two deep depth chart, the Gophers were the only school among the Power Five conferences to even offer a scholarship to 34 of them.

“We don’t get caught up in what everybody else is doing. I don’t need anybody to validate my decision,” said Glasscock. “Of the 2015 active NFL rosters, 33 percent did not play in Power Five conferences. We want to live in that 33 percent world. We would rather be in recruiting battles we’re going to dominate instead of fighting the whole Big Ten.”

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/co...cle_8f99df4d-5b21-57d3-a23a-dc2fa30066a0.html

Star rankings have been discussed here way too many times so I am not going to go down that rabbit hole. People are entitled to their beliefs but I prefer to have mine based on sound analytics. This includes Warren Buffet, David Dreman, Dr. Z’s “Beat The Race Track”, Peter Senge, Edward Deming and “Money Ball”.
 

I have seen people griping about us not going after bigger fish, but I just don't care that much. I actually prefer this approach Glasscock articulates.

I would much rather get recruits that fit our system and culture really well and we can develop them for 5 years, rather than spend way more energy trying to get higher rated guys. You have a lower yield on those guys, you end up taking more marginal back up recruits, and coaches spend way more energy coaxing them into coming to the U. I would rather our coaches spend their time coaching Gophers than texting with 16 year olds.
 

How are we defining "sound and successful?"

Having 34 out of 44 players on the two deeps without other Power Five offers may indicate success -- or it may not. If you only offer guys without other Power Five offers, you'll have a lot of guys without other Power Five offers playing.
 

Hates Monikers said:
How are we defining "sound and successful?"

Having 34 out of 44 players on the two deeps without other Power Five offers may indicate success -- or it may not. If you only offer guys without other Power Five offers, you'll have a lot of guys without other Power Five offers playing.
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Wins and loses would probably be the best metric
 


Chicken and egg. Do you have to win 1st to get big-time recruits - or do you have to get big-time recruits first to win?

It's hard to evaluate when a program really hasn't done either in the recent past. Yes, they had a couple of 8-win seasons, and played in some bowl games - but that hasn't changed the perception of the program on the national scene. If they can run off a 9-win or 10-win season in the near future, then we might be able to evaluate whether that will make a significant difference in recruiting.
 

eker0016 said:
I have seen people griping about us not going after bigger fish, but I just don't care that much. I actually prefer this approach Glasscock articulates.

I would much rather get recruits that fit our system and culture really well and we can develop them for 5 years, rather than spend way more energy trying to get higher rated guys. You have a lower yield on those guys, you end up taking more marginal back up recruits, and coaches spend way more energy coaxing them into coming to the U. I would rather our coaches spend their time coaching Gophers than texting with 16 year olds.
Click to expand...

But it's not an either-or situation. This coaching staff rarely goes after out-of-state players that have other Power 5 offers because, by their own admission, they'd rather be involved in recruiting battles that they can dominate. Saying that you'd rather have guys who fit the system implies that guys with better offer sheets won't fit the system, which is simply not true. The guy with 5 Big Ten offers can be your plan A, and the guy with 5 Sun Belt offers can be your plan B. You can cut bait with plan A when you have reason to believe that it's not going to happen. At this point, they're going straight to plan B in most cases without putting much or any genuine effort into plan A. I think all that most of us ask is that they give plan A a fair shake and be ok with having to work a longer process to get better recruits. In virtually all cases, a Big Ten school can swoop in a week before signing day and select any recruit they want who has zero Power 5 offers.
 

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