Recruitment, the Key To Success.

Deion Sanders is once again changing the face of college football. The difference is, this time he’s left his cleats and jersey behind for a headset and tennis shoes. Throughout the past four years Deion or “Coach Prime” has taken a rather different route into coaching at the collegiate level some would even call mystifying. Coach Prime has now coached two individual collegiate football teams and has had success with both programs. 

Due to this success, Coach Prime has displayed his ability of powerful recruitment which in effect consistently leads to establishing what is known as a winning culture in programs that haven’t been able to find ways to win for some time. When coaches or other high-valued leaders assume their roles in any organization, their goal is to improve on their predecessors’ performance by implementing their own ideas. If the organization has done a lot of losing, the new leaders can make their mark by establishing a “winning culture.” 

Five-time best-selling author, Nathan Jamail via his website defines winning culture as “a culture that sets the stage for positive attitudes, high expectations, and successful performances.”

Recruitment is an essential aspect of achieving the successful performance portion of building a winning culture in college sports. Recruitment contains a few different levels. First and foremost the attraction phase. As the offseason begins universities all across the country will begin to plan and soon execute their shot at signing many of the nation’s highest-rated recruits.

This typically occurs in the form of a letter, a phone call, or even an email to show their interest in the respective recruit. Next, we move to the engagement phase. During this engagement phase coaching staff reach out to the recruits they want on their team. In efforts to secure the recruit coaches would invite them to visit the campus to get their initial sample of what the university has to offer. 

Coach Prime is equipped with one of the best personal recruitment arsenals in all of college football. It’s safe to say he is no stranger to having to evaluate talent effectively due to his successful athletic career where he was drafted fifth overall of the 1989 NFL draft class and flourished during a 14-year NFL career which landed him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It seems as if this ability to evaluate talent has transferred from his athletic career into aiding him now just as much as being a head coach.

Another attribute that aids Coach Prime’s recruitment techniques, which he obtained due to his legendary athletic career is his popularity. Before the Coach Prime Era, Deion “PrimeTime” Sanders was a Hall of Fame athlete as well as a TV personality known across the country. Today, because of his popularity it provides him with the element of celebrity endorsement when recruiting.

In “Celebrity Endorsements: a literature review and research agenda” authors Lars Bergkvist and Kris Qiang Zhao propose the definition, “a celebrity endorsement is an agreement between an indi- vidual who enjoys public recognition (a celebrity) and an entity (e.g., a brand) to use the celebrity for the purpose of promoting the entity.”

Coach Prime’s element of celebrity endorsement essentially sweetens the pot when he aims to attract recruits. Coach Prime always has had the lights on him, and they shine a little more now that he is coaching. Stepping into coaching his light begins to widen also making his players shine within the media significantly more than if they were to go play at another organization. This increased exposure aids players within Coach Prime’s team with many opportunities they may not have the chance to explore if they were to play elsewhere. 

After the engagement phase recruits are to weigh the options and soon enough to be prepared to commit the school for the upcoming school year and football season.

Once the recruits join the program. The following portion falls under the positive attitudes and high expectations category. Essentially setting a standard, which is crucial to establishing a winning culture. Ensuring players know and understand what it takes to reach the goal of significant improvement compared to previous seasons under former leadership. 

“Instilling a winning culture requires changing how people think about the company and altering habitual behaviors.” 

Although it may appear like it doesn’t fall directly into the recruiting category, to change mindsets in efforts to build this winning culture in a team requires the coach to recruit players that are both coachable and receptive and then successfully integrate them with the team they’ve taken leadership over.

Due to poor performance in previous seasons, a team could be lacking in numerous areas, as stated before recruitment could play a huge factor. However, morale within the team plays a key role as well. For a team to consistently want to improve there must be a goal that as a collective they all want to achieve. Whether the motivation is to prove the media wrong or simply change the organization’s public image in and out. Coach Prime has shown his ability to effectively instill this prosperous mindset into the teams he’s coached.

“On the eve of his two-year anniversary with the program, Sanders reflected on the changes he’s seen at Jackson State (3-0, 1-0). It’s fitting that two years under Sanders comes after a dominant 66-24 victory over Grambling State on Saturday. The second game of Sanders’ tenure began with a 33-28 victory over Grambling State, JSU’s first victory over their SWAC rival since Nov. 3, 2012.

“These guys that we have in the locker room now have a burning desire to make it to the next level,” Sanders said. “They take this game seriously. They know this game can rescue generations and give wealth to generations. They’re serious about it, unlike when we first got here.“

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what Coach Prime’s amazing recruiting skills have done for not only the teams he’s coached but also how he’s changed the game of Collegiate Football.

References

Bergkvsit, L., Qiang Zhao, K. (2015, December 26). Celebrity Endorsements: a literature review and research agenda. Routledge https://web-s-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.rowan.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=0&sid=a0fc7d40-2ca9-4a11-89be-c42e99e8d354%40redis

Meehan, P., Rigby, D., & Rogerss, P. (2014, August 7). Creating and sustaining a winning culture. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2008/02/creating-and-sustaining-a-winn-1 

Newsome, L. (2022, September 20). How Deion Sanders changed Jackson State from “pickup football” to “burning desire” to make NFL. Clarion Ledger. https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/college/jackson-state/2022/09/20/deion-sanders-first-two-years-jackson-state-football/69503378007/ 

https://web-s-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.rowan.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=0&sid=a0fc7d40-2ca9-4a11-89be-c42e99e8d354%40redis