Recruiting Question

[VandyManners]

I say this with no disrespect to other colleges, but I do not understand how some schools out recruit Vanderbilt. I myself went to a small public college in Tennessee, but grew up a Vanderbilt fan because of my Dad. He was a blue collar guy that retired from the Ford Glass Plant with no college education. However, he was born in Nashville in 1929 and was a die hard Vandy fan.

He loved Vandy. Maybe it was because it was the local team, or maybe because Vanderbilt Hospital was a second home to us since he spent so much time there. Regardless of his reasoning, I was into Vandy Sports at a young age. We had season tickets to Football and both Men and women's basketball. I grew up at Dudley so it was all I ever knew. After graduating from APSU I always considered myself a Vandy fan. Even though I did not attend Vanderbilt as a student, I know what Vandy offers as far as opportunity for a young person both on and off the field.

Which brings me to my recruiting question. With all Vandy has to offer ( Top 20 Education, Great City of Nashville, SEC, early play time) how does Missouri, UK, Arkansas, Miss St, and South Carolina out recruit us? I get football power houses like Bama, LSU, Georgia, and even old school power houses like Florida and Auburn who are light years ahead of us in facilities and reputation. But what does UK and Mizz have that we don't. When I see them get more 4 stars than us, I just do not understand. Not to mention other teams outside of the SEC, like Rutgers, West Virginia, Indiana, and Boston College, which are all in the top 20. To me Vandy is far superior for ones future on and off the field. I am man enough to admit I do not know what those school have to offer that appeals to an 18 year old that Vandy does not have. Maybe they are phenomenal places to go to school and play football. Any thoughts?

[BrentVU]

Last summer I was at a Q&A with Barton Simmons and someone asked him, how does Vanderbilt start getting some of these elite athletes that seem to always commit and play at other places? What does Vanderbilt have to do to start getting some of these? He had a one-word answer.

"Win."

[nyyankeeDore]

Last summer I was at a Q&A with Barton Simmons and someone asked him, how does Vanderbilt start getting some of these elite athletes that seem to always commit and play at other places? What does Vanderbilt have to do to start getting some of these? He had a one-word answer.

"Win."

The answer "win" begs the question: how much winning, before such elite athletes are here, is needed to get them to come here? I think a 5 and 7 overall record including 2 SEC wins would go a long way in this regard.

[Nashmann]

Win and facilities upgrades. Also make available majors more recruits want without affecting integrity.

[AuricGoldfinger]

I know this might be heresy, but I tend to think the importance of Nashville as a city to a recruit is somewhat overhyped. This doesn't mean I don't love Nashville. I do. But I'm a middle aged man with means who knows that Music City is much more than Lower Broad's honky tonks--you know, the ones that are always shown on the television broadcast of every Vanderbilt game.

A better way to put it is this--for an aspiring professional athlete in a major college sport, the location of the university (be it Nashville or Nome) probably tends to matter less than a host of other factors.

I think the key for Vanderbilt is to put the appeal of Nashville in context for the recruit to make it relevant for him and to answer the question, "What will being in Nashville do for me?"

That, and all the other stuff that's important to a recruit.

[OldDude]

To many recruits a top education means a lot. However a lot of top athletes have their eyes on the NFL whether that is a realistic goal or not. To them the extra work and challenge of VU academics may be a negative even if they do tell mama that the education is important.

[DivergentDore]

World class academics at a school like Vanderbilt should be used in recruiting but I think the "academic card" has been played too often over the years and in an essence became a crutch to justify lazy recruiting. Add in many administrations using academics to justify having abyssimal facilities compared to our conference opponents and you get many, many years of futility.

Kids can drive to any other campus in the SEC and see that schools colors for 50 miles before arriving and see the school colors on every local business. Vandy? If they drive in from one direction they can now see a billboard and a then pretty decent chance of not seeing anything black and gold until arriving at campus.

Hard to land SEC caliber players when pushing extra classwork with no buzz or aspirations around the program and stadiums half full with visiting fans.

[alathIN]

I know this might be heresy, but I tend to think the importance of Nashville as a city to a recruit is somewhat overhyped. This doesn't mean I don't love Nashville. I do.

I didn't really discover Nashville until I graduated. When you're a college kid, you spend most of your time on campus.
If you want to see what appeals to college kids in a town, go to a small town dominated by a big university like Lawrence KS or Bloomington IN. The entire local economy is devoted to entertaining 18-22 year olds.

[Dorewithaflare]

All you have to do is look at all the people that center their football season around trips to Nashville . Not only having a chance to see a win but all the things that coming to our city offers.

[vandy05]

Academics are also very subjective. There are thousands of schools out there (I just looked it up and there are about 4,000) and as much as we may distinguish between Vanderbilt and a place like Missouri, an 18 year old is not going to be as discerning in most cases. Also, if a school like Vandy is ranked say 16 and Missouri is 78 (I have no idea), that difference to a kid from Cleveland just isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. I know, heresy, but I think that is a factor as well.

[Doresince89]

No one likes to hear this but it is a process for an average to bad team to crawl up the ranks. I'll use UK as an example because I live in Kentucky and had many conversations with a good friend who is a UK alum. Stoops was hired and decided he would go into Ohio and Indiana and get kids who the Big Ten (OSU) was not interested in because they were not at the OSU level. Stoops convinced these kids to some to UK since it was only 1-3 hours away from home and in the SEC. He started with high 3 star kids getting the occasional 4 star but his teams got better each year. Not dramatically so but they did get better. As they improved, he could nab a couple more 4 star kids and higher 3 star. Stoops has slowly worked his way up to a top 15 class this year.

Everyone wants Lea to go get a bunch of 4 star guys to come but he had to prove himself first . It is not a quick fix and I mean it will take 4-6 years for him to start getting more than 1 or 2 4star kids. He may not be the guy but he has to have a lot of time before we know for sure.