Becoming a Badger: Welcome to the family
February 03, 2009 | Football
With Signing Day right around the corner (Feb. 4) UWBadgers.com decided to try and give fans an inside look at the recruiting process, from the time a player pops up the radar, through his recruitment (evaluations, home visits, visits to campus) right up to Signing Day. Today we examine the final pieces of the puzzle: the scholarship offer, the commitment and Signing Day.
Making an offer
As we've chronicled in the earlier installments, recruiting involves a lot of evaluation on both sides, by players and coaches. From the coaches' side, an offer is made if everyone on the staff is on the same page about the recruit's ability and character.
'If the recruiting coach thinks he's a good enough player, it goes to the position coach,' said assistant coach Randall McCray, UW's recruiting coordinator. 'The position coach watches it, writes down his evaluation, and then it goes to the offensive or defensive staffs. The staff watches the video, especially the coordinators. If it passes that, then it goes to the desk of the head coach, with all the evaluations, plus their GPA and an ACT or SAT score, if possible.'
Head coach Bret Bielema then has the final say as to whether a recruit gets an offer.
'The thing that we always tell our players that we want them to be able to do is that we want them to be able to have academic, athletic and social success here at Wisconsin,' Coach Bielema said. 'Just because someone's a good football players doesn't necessarily mean they'll be a great fit for Wisconsin. We have to find the right person for the right situation here on our roster. '
'To get to his desk, the player is a heck of a ball player and is going to play somewhere in college and have a lot of success,' McCray said. 'Most of the time, when the tape gets to his desk, he has already met the kids because of how early we're getting them up for unofficial visits and stuff like that.'
If the recruit has gone through the evaluation process and Coach Bielema signs off on the scholarship offer, there are a few different ways to communicate that offer to the recruit. But it always comes from the head coach.
'Coach wants to be involved in the process of offering these young men scholarships,' McCray said. 'If they are a senior, we'll use our phone call to make the offer. Or, I may get word from Coach Bielema, `when you get to the house, tell him we're going to offer him and then call me.''
Saying yes
UW freshman quarterback Jon Budmayr is a member of the Badgers' class of 2009. He verbally committed to UW last May and is currently enrolled at Wisconsin. He said during his recruitment, he visited six or seven schools. He eventually narrowed the list to three before selecting UW. He gave the Badger coaches his commitment in person.
'Me and my family came up here and we met with Coach Bielema, Coach Chryst and Coach McCray and I just committed to them that day,' Budmayr said. 'They were excited and that was definitely a good feeling for me because it reassured me that I had made the right decision. It was a great day. I definitely wanted my parents to be in there, just to be able to celebrate that with them because they know it's been a dream of mine to play at this level. And with all the hard work they put in throughout the process it was nice for them to witness the payoff.'
Like a number of recruits, Budmayr made his commitment before the start of his senior year in high school.
'I thought it was (a good idea) just because it limited the distractions, ' Budmayr said. 'Even though I was injured in the first game of my senior year it was still nice to have it out of the way. Even before the summer, to get it out of the way, because there's so much team stuff that you're committed to. To be able to do that without that decision weighing in the back of your mind was nice. '
For Budmayr, Wisconsin presented the complete package for him to continue his growth as a person and player.
'The academics were very important to me,' Budmayr said. 'I felt comfortable with what I was getting into from that standpoint. Football-wise, the coaches, players, the entire environment was something that I wanted to be a part of. And, when it came down to it, the opportunity to keep growing in my faith life is what truly led me to Wisconsin.'
Getting the good news
From the coaches' standpoint, hearing a recruit say, 'yes' is a combination of excitement and relief.
'A lot of work goes into it,' McCray said. 'When a kid finally says yes, you're excited. The staff is relieved because you've fulfilled a need. You've added a young man that we feel is going to make the program better. It's a little bit of a relief but until signing day, it's still a lot of work, trying to make sure the kid is comfortable, trying to answer all his questions.'
As McCray alluded to, nothing is official until Signing Day. While a recruit may verbally tell a coach he we attend his university, on Signing Day they must sign a National Letter of Intent that binds them to the school they are committing to.
'You'd like to feel solid about all of them but you know you don 't,' McCray said. 'There's a little bit of anxiety. When that last letter comes across the fax machine and he has called Coach Bielema and Coach Bielema has congratulated him, there's a sense of relief.'
That sense of relief doesn't last too long, though. The process starts all over to search for the latest Badger recruits.
'You catch your breath and start to work on next year's class, ' McCray said. 'The next day we'll review our list, go in and have a recruiting meeting and go over the numbers for next year's class. We 've already started on the Class of 2010 but that next day (Feb. 5), the boards are cleared of the commits for this year and those new kids for next year are up on the board within the next two days.'
Related Content
- sportid=111&storyid=16629"> --> Becoming a Badger: Targeting recruits
- sportid=111&storyid=16661"> --> Becoming a Badger: Getting to know them
- sportid=111&storyid=16663"> --> Becoming a Badger: A great place to visit
