ASU football coaches recruit ‘at home 1st’ between Arizona, California
Feb 10, 2020, 10:39 AM | Updated: 11:29 am
ASU football head coach Herm Edwards interviews with Doug & Wolf on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station on Feb. 10, 2020. (Matt Layman/Arizona Sports)
(Matt Layman/Arizona Sports)
ASU football’s penchant for recruiting in California has been well-documented. The Sun Devils were said to have “won” the recruiting battle there among the blue chip prospects, while their haul of Arizona players is lesser for the 2020 class.
Herm Edwards told Doug & Wolf on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station that’s more of a numbers game than anything.
“You always start at home first. And home plate is Arizona,” Edwards said Monday. “When you think about it, out of the 30 [Arizona] guys we went after in the last two, three years, we got seven. We got seven. And seven others went to Pac-12 teams. And the rest of them were all out of state. So we get two or three every year.
“We’re not going to get them all, we realize that, but we’re recruiting very hard here. And then first base is California. And it just so happens to be there’s more kids in California. So you’re always going to get more out of California, because of the numbers.”
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According to 247Sports, there were 31 prospects in California that were 4 or 5 stars. Of those, ASU successfully recruited seven — the most of any school.
“We’re having a lot of fun,” Edwards said. “I was aware of the recruiting part of it, but didn’t actually understand the volume of it; of what you had to put into this and how much time it was going to take. I thought coming in, it was about 75% [of your time]. I was dead wrong. It’s 90.”
Edwards told Doug & Wolf that he embraces the recruiting process, even though some coaches have historically been relieved to let it go after they leave college football.
“I do [embrace recruiting], because it’s the lifeblood of what you do,” Edwards said. “And it’s about relationships. And I realize that. And it’s more than one relationship. It’s the relationships that affect this young man’s process of how he’s going to decide where to go, and that’s deep. There’s a lot of different avenues now. It’s not just mom and dad or grandma or their uncle. It’s a lot of people even below that, and you’ve got to deal with it, and I think the more you get connected to those people, that helps you.”
