The Green Board

Great article, Leigh. You talk about the pressure the coaches felt, and I'd add that the pressure on the head coach to be seen was even more so. When you get into the top 30 recruits per class, often it's the head coach taking more of a lead in the player recruitment since these "elite" guys are more and more demanding to talk to the head coach as much as the assistant that's leading the player recruitment. To your point, in past years the simple fact of getting a coach from your staff to sit in the stands and make your school's presence felt at a recruit's game has been replaced with players wanting to see the head coach in the stands at their games. This July, the new format and no change to the AAU events (except to pack them all in on the same days) made it nearly impossible for most head coaches to be where they needed to be at all times.