There are many different ways to mold a football team and a player toward success, but a common denominator is the ability to adjust on the fly. Even well after the final whistle of the 2019 season, coaches and players are still trying to make adjustments, as they navigate their way on the recruiting trail in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
With spring camps and the April live evaluation recruiting period canceled, there's a scramble for high school players to remain relevant and catch coaches' attention. Likewise, college coaches must figure out how to assess and find the next key piece of their recruiting classes.
"The eye test is a big part of recruiting," Iona Prep football coach Joe Spagnolo said. "College coaches are recruiting blind right now. They don't have that ability."
The challenge to aid his players inspired Spagnolo to go digital. Students have been distance-learning virtually throughout the quarantine, so why not do the same with football?
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With Iona Prep's "cyber combine," coaches can get a recruiting supplement to aid in their player evaluations, alongside game film. They get to gain some information that they would have gathered at football camps.
The video is comprised of body measurements — like height, weight, hand size and wingspan — as well as timed tasks, such as a 40-yard dash. It also features players going through position-specific drills, like a wide receiver running routes, or a lineman demonstrating footwork and blocking techniques. To top things off, there's an assortment of five highlight plays from this past season.
"Everything is verified because it's all on video," Iona Prep wide receiver and defensive back Ethan Robinson said. "When you zoom in on the tape measure, you can't cheat and say like, 'Oh, I'm 6-3,' but you're really only 6-1. Everything's positive for us because we're going about it honestly."
Spagnolo sent instructions to parents and players to ensure that clips for the cyber combines are filmed in a certain way to maintain transparency and honesty. He says the response from college coaches has been "amazing," with some of his players receiving offers shortly after sending the videos.
"College coaches haven't seen these kids since January, so (it's) just getting the transparency of what kids look like since 16, 17-year-olds change a lot in five or six months," Spagnolo said. "We have a lineman that lost 30 pounds and 10 percent body fat. He really watched his diet. We have other guys that have consciously tried to put 20 to 30 pounds on in the offseason, and they have done that, too. College coaches need to see that.
"When you're talking about two kids on a board, and you're trying to determine who you're going to give an offer to, if you have a film showing how fast the kid is, showing how tall he is, or how big his wingspan is, I think it gives the college coach a little bit more conviction with your guy."
Adapting on the recruiting trail
With the inability to see players up close, it's game film, transcripts, and any other obtainable information that hold much greater weight. It can even be something as simple as a text or a phone call. There's been a shift to virtual meetings through Zoom and FaceTime as well.
Pace football coach Andy Rondeau feels busier than usual.
"We're trying to adapt to it, but everything ends up being a technical production," Rondeau said. "If you have a staff meeting, you used to be able to do something together for 15 minutes, but now you have to send out a memo and you got to get everyone logged in. It just seems like most things are a production. Even academic meetings with our existing players ... It just seems a little bit more calculated, so I think there's an efficiency to all this that we're still learning."
While there's an adjustment, Rondeau has enjoyed the players who remain proactive in their recruitment, whether it be through maintaining contact or with virtual events, like a cyber combine.
"If people end up doing virtual events, those things are very helpful for everybody to learn," Rondeau said.
For Marist football coach Jim Parady, the cyber combine is appreciated, but it is just one tool of information.
"It is what it is. We're not really putting a whole bunch of stock into it, but we would definitely take a look at it," Parady said. "It was put out there, but we're looking more at the game film and getting to know the kids that way."
Despite the current limitations and Marist's junior day recruiting event being canceled, Parady maintains the same strategy in recruiting, albeit with more emphasis on film analysis. After evaluating a recruit's high school transcript, then they begin to look at full game film and see if there's a potential fit to move further with recruiting.
His staff plans on discussing if they will choose to have a virtual junior day, as other colleges have.
"Up until this point and for where we're at right now, I think it's the most we can do," Parady said. "When things start to get better, which they will hopefully sooner than later, and travel is allowed, we'd love to get the kids up on campus and be able to spend some time in person with them.
"If it's limited, it's limited, and we have to go off and do the evaluation that we're able to obtain at this point. And we've got the high school coaches. We talk to them about your character, just trying to get to know all aspects of the kids like we normally would."
Collecting offers in quarantine
Spagnolo is fortunate to have a strong group of juniors, eight of whom have received Division I offers. He expects more members of the class will join the octet, and that the cyber combines will help achieve that.
While it helped bolster the already strong profile of standouts like quarterback Darius Wilson, who has 16 D-I offers, and defensive end Khordae Sydnor, a recent Purdue commit, the cyber combine has helped some teammates earn their most serious Division I attention.
Robinson and lineman Kevin Rohde received their first offers after publishing their combines.
"I was really nervous because I had interest, but I didn't have any offers," Robinson said. "In the beginning, it was kinda like this shut everything down for me because I was really looking forward to getting out there at camps, to run and go compete against the best talent to prove I deserve to have offers.
"The cyber combine actually really helped. Things like that, it's only making me more confident in myself and making me know that everything's gonna be fine."
There are other challenges in place, even for players like Wilson and Sydnor, who had a wide array of schools to choose from. Wilson hopes to go on official visits and actually set foot on campus one day.
For Sydnor, the pandemic led him to making decision without ever visiting Purdue. He still felt comfortable after asking questions and doing research on the school.
"We made the decision to commit early, me and my family, because of the coronavirus," Sydnor said. "We didn't know if kids were going to start to commit early because of the virus, so I didn't want to get my spot taken or stuff like that. It was a big decision that me and my parents had to make."
Players and coaches continue to march forward during this time. Spagnolo's Gaels will still produce cyber combine videos, and the Iona Prep coach hopes that the positive reception continues.
"When you get kids at camp, you get to see them in person," Spagnolo said. "It puts the pieces together and that's a part of the process that we're not going to have this year for the most part. I think college coaches are putting together ways of getting around that. They're all smart and they know what they're doing. They know what they're looking for. I'm sure what we're doing is gonna kind of be the norm for the rest of this recruiting cycle at the very least."
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