Recruiting wasn't always like this. Until recently, the broad-based networks like Rivals.com and Scout weren't even an idea in someone's mind.Not long ago it was old school, with names like Allen Wallace, Tom Lemming and Rick Kimbrel. They (and others) published once-a-year magazines, perhaps a newsletter or a 900 number for the hopelessly committed recruiting fan to know something so simple as the name, high school, height, weight and brief athletic summary of a recruit. It also helped to know where he was headed, of course.
Reflecting on how things have changed, listen to this anecdote from Rick Kimbrel who is now the West Coast Editor for Rivals.com:
It was still a small world back then. Things were done in hard copy, weeks in advance. Every kid he called got excited to hear his voice.But Kimbrel always had a sense it could be bigger. The 900 number they'd started was doing brisk business. People loved the real-time information they could get. And it wasn't just fans. Lawyers, doctors, even Nike chairman Phil Knight, signed up.
The athletes he scouted saw the power in it too. One mention in Blue Chip Illustrated and they were set. One of his first big finds was a wide receiver out of South Central L.A. named Keyshawn Johnson.
"Keyshawn would always come by and hang out in my office. He was at Valley College at the time, but he had no place to go," Kimbrel said. "So he'd come in and read through all the magazines we'd publish and just talk to us."
That would pretty much never happen now.
Indeed. In fact, a solid handful of kids with offers from around the nation annually avoid the recruiting writers altogether, leaving coaches, friends, teammates and sometimes family in the dark until they've made up their minds.
