Media Savvy
Call Someone Who Cares
By Stan Savran

Webster's dictionary defines the word "recruiting" as follows: to look for someone as for a service or employment.

My definition of recruiting for athletic purposes is the following: much ado about nothing: and everything.

'Tis the season for recruiting: Actually, to speak the full and unabridged truth, recruiting knows no season. It goes 24/7/365.

It's only near letter of intent day that so much attention is paid to it a day on which coaches glow and alums dance as they open their checkbooks for another donation to the old alma mater. Much ado about nothing.

Now, before I continue trashing what is religion to some, let me say that recruiting is indeed the lifeblood of a program. You have to recruit well to win. It's a concept not lost on me. Having said that, it is the biggest waste of print and breath in all of sports.

It is as inexact a science as is meteorology, something proven daily by local TV weather types. If the NFL draft is a crapshoot, a procedure fraught with annual failure even though they are dealing with players who have performed at the highest level of college competition, how can one possibly accurately evaluate the performances of a 17-year old? In high school, Jumbo Waslewski, 6-6, 305, may have been playing against a bunch of Junior Smiths, 5-11, 225. Advantage Jumbo. But how will he project when he goes up against other Jumbo's?

Let me give you an example of just how meaningless excessive attention to recruiting can be: Perhaps the greatest recruiting class of all time was Jackie Sherrill's 1977 class at Pitt. Sherrill recruited 30 players that year, including NFL greats Hugh Green, Rickey Jackson, Mark May, and Russ Grimm. It certainly doesn't end there. Also in the group were Rick Trocano, Jerry Boyarsky, Benjie Pryor, Greg Meisner, Bill Neill, Dave Trout, Carlton Williamson, Wayne DiBartola, Artrell Hawkins and Rooster Jones. All either played in the NFL or at the very least were highly significant contributors to the Panthers. Eleven of the thirty were drafted, and some had exceptional NFL careers.

Would you not agree that this collection represents about as good a recruiting class as has ever been assembled? Yet, by my rather liberal calculation, only 16 players, barely more than half the original cast, made significant contributions at Pitt. That's under the absolute best circumstances possible. If the absolute best you can expect is 50%, what can a coach expect from just a pretty good bunch of recruits, let alone in a down recruiting season?

That's why when people call my talk show and are bouncing off the walls because Jumbo signed with their team, I barely stifle a yawn. Get a life, would you please? If your happiness is hinged on the decisions of 17-year olds, then maybe your life, as they say in Pittsburgh, needs spiced up.

When I get requests to have the latest hot recruit on my show, my stock answer is absolutely not! Who cares? If you care, fine. But if you care that much, you're probably tuned to the wrong show.

Based on the facts, and more importantly, based on the history, today's hot recruit will become tomorrow's forgotten name. 1977 at Pitt taught us that. Call back in a couple years when one of these kids actually does something. Then we'll have something to talk about.

Until then, I pass. I'm not telling you what to like. I'm just telling you where you shouldn't go to find it.

Stan Savran hosts a sports talk show 3-6 pm weekdays on WBGG Fox Sports Radio 970.