The Coaching Carousel and How it Affects Recruiting

We live in a world where everyone wants things to happen right away. Players transfer when things don't go their way instead of toughing it out. Athletic directors don't give coaches enough time to legitimately build their program. To add to the instability, many coaches are looking to move jobs in order to win more and/or make more money.

Coaches like any human want to better themselves and their families. When an opportunity arises after being really good at what they currently do, they would be doing themselves a disservice by not at least looking into another position at another school that would be willing to give the coach more resources to recruit and win. This potential new position usually offers more money as well. You as a recruit or a recruit's parent, have to understand that this is part of the business and it happens EVERY year.

From a recruiting standpoint you have to look at a lot of things. When a coaching staff is young and has been successful they are prime candidates to move on to "the next level." That is definitely something to think about before making your college decision. And it happens at all levels as well.

Another thing to look at is the changing of assistant coaches. Assistants are much more likely to be on the move than the head coach. Head coaches' contracts are generally long term (more than three years) while most assistants are on a year to year contract. So, the (assistant) coach that you developed the best relationship with could easily be at another place by the time you make it to campus.

You'll see this type of movement a little more in football where coaches won't leave for another opportunity until after the signing period. It makes it really tough for the recruits because they've spent a ton of time communicating with that assistant and by them leaving, the comfort isn't there as much.

All of these different scenarios are some of the reasons why I believe it is the best for a recruit to decide later in the process. I understand if a "dream school" offers you a spot and you have to take it immediately but I don't think that happens as often as people believe. As a recruit, you have to protect yourself and put yourself in the best situation possible.

To go along with all of this I'll tell a story. My first staff meeting while working at WVU. Coach Beilein told all of us that we should be looking for new jobs every year. His contract was the only one that was guaranteed. If he was to get fired, he would get the remaining amount of his contract (or most of it) and we would be out of luck. If he was to leave, there were no guarantees that he would take all of us with him. And then he didn't when he left for Michigan. Pretty eye opening for a young assistant that thought he knew it all.