Every host in a college football market is taking a deep breath today. Yeah, that’s right, for one day and one day only, you’re probably about to fill an entire show with coverage of National Signing Day.
If you’re a host that doesn’t regularly follow college football recruiting, this is probably one of your least favorite shows of the year. However, it’s still a necessary evil, seeing as the true diehard fans absolutely eat up coverage such as this. But whether you love or hate this day, here’s five helpful tips to ensure you provide an entertaining National Signing Day show. Let’s discuss with Tye Richardson, co-host of Halftime on ESPN Arkansas.
Should you have recruits on the show?
“Typically, one out of every 10 is a good interview,” said Richardson. “They’re just not used to it, they’re not adequate on air and they’re just not used to being under the microscope and being under the pressure to do an on-air interview. Even if it’s only like 10 minutes, we’ve had to cut some kids off at that point. That’s not just Arkansas commits, that’s across-the-board with high school kids trying to interview on the first or second radio spot. It just doesn’t usually make for great radio, having a high school kid on, even though the listener wants to hear what they have to say.”
I have to agree on all those points. Plus, if you’re interviewing several kids throughout your show, your questions will probably sound repetitive. There’s nothing wrong with letting your listeners hear from the newest signees, but instead of having a kid on for 8-10 minutes, what about a pre-recorded interview where you can pick the best 1-2 minutes?
“I know Jason Barrett always talks about, if the interview is bad, cut it off,” said Richardson. “The mindset you’re taking, which I kind of like, you pre-record it and if there’s a good bit or two you use it on the air. If not, you just put it on SoundCloud and let people listen to it that way. The last thing you want is to force someone to turn you off because of how bad an interview is or how boring the segment is. Unfortunately for some of these high school kids during the first interview, it tends to go that way.”
How honest can you be about a recruiting class?
Every coach in America will approach the podium and say, “we absolutely love our class. It’s one of the most complete we’ve had. We filled every position need we have this offseason.” That quote is undefeated when it comes to coaches on National Signing Day. But in reality, that’s rarely true when you’re evaluating how good a class actually is. So how honest should you be if the team you’re covering had a sub-par recruiting effort?
“I try to be as honest as possible,” said Richardson. “I got a lot of flak for questioning the Sam Pittman hire and being skeptical about it. You just can’t gloss over this, man. You’re trying to rebuild a program that’s gone 2-10 in the last two years and 8-28 in the last 36 ball games. Plus, your recruiting class is going to end up as the worst in the SEC. That doesn’t bode well. I’m not going to sugarcoat it, I’m going to be honest. That’s going to tick some people off, because they want to be positive, because there’s a new coach. But I’m just going to be upfront.”
Honesty is still appreciated by the listener. If it’s a bad class, it’s perfectly ok to say that. Being critical of college athletes can rub some people the wrong way, especially ones that haven’t even stepped on campus, but if you feel like you have to be critical, be creative in the way you do it. Don’t single out the individual player, he’s not the one who offered himself a scholarship.
So you really don’t know much about recruiting. Do you fake it?
It really is ok if you don’t religiously follow recruiting. It’s not an easy thing to do. Granted, if you’re covering a college football team, you should at least have enough baseline knowledge to do a show. But if you’re not the expert, find someone who is.
“We’ll have Nikki Chavanelle on today, she does recruiting for the Rivals Arkansas site and we’ll have her on to go more in-depth with this class,” said Richardson. Phil Elson (Richardson’s co-host) and I aren’t as in-depth on recruiting because it’s a 24-7 job. I really don’t want to sound like an idiot and try to project someone that I’ve either never seen or only seen one time. For player comparisons and analysis, we’ll defer to those people who actually cover recruiting. I’d rather use their words and tell people what they think, rather than me, who’s only watched one of their games.”
Should your recruiting coverage extend to local kids in the area?
If you’re hosting in a college football market, it’s likely there’s an appetite in the area for high school football, too. Sure, spend the majority of your time hammering down on the recruiting class for the team you cover, but it’s also ok to spend a few moments to discuss area kids and who they signed with.
“We’ll touch on some of the kids that are planning on going elsewhere but not necessarily the ones who are headed to the FCS level or lower. For example, Jacolby Criswell is currently a North Carolina commit and all signs point to him signing with the Tar Heels. He grew up an Arkansas Fan and his half-brother was Dre Greenlaw, who played linebacker for the Hogs. But Chad Morris and his staff didn’t make Jacolby a priority and Mack Brown did. So he’s going out of state. Robert Scott is an offensive lineman at Conway that Arkansas is probably going to lose to Ole Miss, which is a big loss. So there are a couple of big-time recruits that are potentially leaving the state. We’ll focus more on them than other kids that might be going to smaller schools.”
Can National Signing Day be entertaining on the air?
It’s not going to be a hit with all of your listeners, but as previously stated, the diehard fans will come for recruiting info. In fact, they’ll expect it. Give them the info they crave.
Be creative in the way you cover National Signing Day. If the team’s biggest rival is having a great day, talk about it. If the team’s biggest rival is having a terrible day, talk about it. Have the head coach on the show and use NSD as an excuse to ask about some of the more pressing issues going on with the team.
*Why can’t the Big 12 sign high-level defensive talent?
*Are Clemson and Alabama only going to widen their gap on the rest of the field with the classes they put together?
*Should Clay Helton have been fired solely for having one of the worst recruiting classes in USC history?
There’s actually a lot of ways to cover and make National Signing Day interesting without discussing the height, weight and 40-yard dash time of a kid you’ve never seen play.
“I mean I like it,” said Richardson. “I don’t know if you’ve ever had a chance to interview Bill King out of Nashville, but this is what he used to do on the regular. He had a show dedicated to just recruiting. People used to pay just to listen to his voicemails, I mean people love this. Arkansas fans are like every other passionate fan base, they eat this stuff up. There’s always going to be the average fan that doesn’t care as much, but the diehard is always going to pay a little bit more attention. I enjoy it but this recruiting class is just not exciting. If this was a similar class to last year, where it was Top 25 and people are blown away by how Arkansas got these kids in, then I think there’d be a little bit more excitement surrounding it.”
Tyler McComas is a columnist for BSM and a sports radio talk show host in Norman, OK where he hosts afternoon drive for SportsTalk 1400. You can find him on Twitter @Tyler_McComas or you can email him at TylerMcComas08@yahoo.com.
