1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Do recruiting parameters need to be put in place? June 4th: 11:00am

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

Do recruiting parameters need to be put in place? June 4th: 11:00amAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In your face, in your face, son. That is a word that is, we need to break down its meaning. It's authentic. We'll deal with that. 402, 464, 56685, the starter, him and text. I want to be a part of what we're doing. Hit this up. Hit me with a what's up, DP.

What up, Jackson? Reach out, man. Reach out, reach out. Shout out to our friends. Allof fiber. cable for making this stuff happen. Folks at Canopy Street Market, I'm going to head down there after this. Go see Dan Swanson and let him put some goodie bags together along the way.

Lots to talk about over the courses that you can follow on all of the live video stream, Facebook, YouTube X, Allo Channel 961. As mentioned, you can jump and download the ticket app if you have not. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. download the ticket app so we can go wherever you go. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter whether you're on a laptop, desktop, on your phone, on your tablet.

Doesn't matter. We can go where you're going. And that would be the plan. And it would be a good time for it. Lots going on in sports. Lots going on in sports. It is a fantastic, fabulous weekend. Here in Nebraska, as young recruits are all over downtown in the haymarket.

and in some of the discussion, you know, it's a different world now in recruiting. And there's a different, there's a change in the balance between coaches, programs, and players. There's a different level of involvement with parents because now parents are dealing with contractual obligations and promises that have to be considered. And I think in, we're missing the layup in the conversation, which is grownups are negotiating with teenagers, which by most metrics and most analytics and by most standards, there probably has to be boundary put in place. There need to be fence posts. And we say that every great home, every great. home, every great building, every great thing. There's my buddy Wayne.

There's my neighbor. He's a legend around the haymarket. Wayne, Wayne Sharp. That in every great space, there needs to be pillars or boundaries. So imagine your yard, and there has to be not only a gate to allow you in or out,

but there needs to be four fence posts. And as coaches, as a high school coach, I always said that those fence posts have to exist in order for the gate to work, right? For the thing to be worked, for it to be safe, for it to be sound, productive, and otherwise, there has to be four fence posts. Because otherwise, the thing collapses and you're no good.

The first fence post, for me, was the athlete. Okay, the athlete has to be committed to the whole process of the mission. Otherwise, nothing else can happen. Then there's the coach or coaches, fence post two, right? fence post three would be the parents. Parents, parents actually should be the thing. And then the fourth would be the administration, the people in charge, people who are setting guidelines and otherwise.

And then the only thing that could open the gate, the only thing, plural, were love, people that wanted to be in the gate, were going to take what was in the gate out of the gate, and effort, work. In the space, you could do all the work in the world, but the whole mission of it is for you to take it from high school to college. And the gate would open if you've done the work and all the fence posts were on it.

That was kind of the thinking behind it. And the players, again, in that fence post, they had their own space because the players would determine. And I would always say that I needed standard setters on every team. One, the best athlete. Easiest to choose, easiest to identify, right? It is the star that walks in the building that won the genetic lottery

and has some production to validate or confirm, right? Then there is the athlete on the team with the highest sports IQ. The young man or woman who love the game so much that they consume it in such a voracious way that it elevated their talent. It elevated their talent. That's what IQ does for you. It elevates the talent. Then there is the hardest worker.

The hardest worker. And this is the person that, quite frankly, in every drill, somebody at some point during the year is going to get upset at this player because you're going too hard, bro. You're making us look bad. but if I need a drill to be exhibited, shown, this is how we want this done. So for basketball, for football, for baseball,

it didn't matter what sport it was, but in order to play for me, the very first thing we did, right, was to get out the line. And I don't care if it was the foul line. I don't care if it was home plate. I don't care if it was on the side of a football field. that I got everybody to run to sprint 20 yards.

And then I timed them. Where he said, go. And so, Jackson, if I asked you without thinking how fast you could run that 20 yards, you're going to show me the fastest time that you can possibly run. Because that, but without thinking you're setting the standard for how we're going to engage the rest of the year's why. because anytime I blow a whistle from that point forward, I know how quickly you can get from wherever you are to wherever I need you to be. See, that standard is set.

Yeah. That standard is set. And you can't jog it because that's not what we do. And I don't have to do, we can do cardio through suicides and back and forth and up downs, or we can simply honor that we're going to transition at our maximum speed all the time. keeps it simple. And whether you were playing center field or first base,

you exit, you go onto the field and you exit the field at what speed, Jackson, your top speed. Top speed. Top speed. Standard. Don't need you to look good. Don't need to be cute. Get there.

Get there, get there, get there. And then, so I've got the best athlete, best player. then I've got the smartest IQ, highest IQ within the sport. Then I've got the hardest worker, the guy that sets a tone and tempo all the time, all the time. And my fourth one is the academic superstar. I need the academic superstar because it's much easier for me with talent, hard work, and high IQ for me to coach a smart player than is dumb player. And I need somebody that sets a standard for off the field for how,

academics are going to be him. And they're the, they're the, they're the, they're the, they're the gatekeeper. And the standard setter for academics within the program, because if you don't have one, the other exists. The absolute other exists, because there's always to do it on a team

that wants to drag down the academic performance of a team. Can't help it unless, less, less, one of my fence posts is academics. I can't say academics comes first if I don't make it a priority. and through all of the stuff, all of the stuff in play, that in today's environment,

those things have to be connected. Because let's say Jackson Climshmith is a, let's say he's a 300, a 330 hitter in baseball. Ooh. Okay. High school, you're high school senior. You hit 330. You played an entire 30, 30, you played an entire 30.

game schedule, you only make two errors. Power numbers are up. RBI number is up. How many of the gates, how many boundaries are resetting? Are we checking? All but two. We now get confirmation because

it means your coach believed to you because he kept putting you out there, right? Your teammates believed in you because you kept producing. What's my question going to be? What kind of young man? is he and what kind of priorities he put on academics? Because the guy who hit 3.30 in high school has the talent to play at the next level.

If he is going to fail, it's not going to be because of talent. It's going to be because he doesn't have the academic support or wherewithal or knowledge or IQ to do it. Most people who get to college and get a scholarship or get on the field or get on a practice squad have enough of that. If they fail or struggle, it's all the stories that you hear. The people who struggle are people who struggle off the field because the boundaries don't exist.

Don't, boundaries don't exist. And then what I have to ask is, let's say Jackson is a 330 hitter. He was a two-year starter. Let's say his, academically, he's a 3.0 GPA. And he has letters from all of his teachers that he is a really good student. But let's also say that right next to him at a different school is Austin Ormond. And Austin Orman hits 3 30.

And Austin Orman is a two-year starter. And Austin Orman is a 3.5 GPA. Who am I going to take? May with a higher GPA? Come on now. People don't have the discussion. And they do not make it clear to people what the priorities and focuses are. That, listen, Austin Ormond could hit 310, but he's a 4.0 GPA.

Come on. Who do I take? Who do I invest? The quarter of a million dollars worth of scholarship value, who am I going to risk putting that money in the pocket of? Who do I invest it in? the 4.0 guy or the 3.0 guy? 4.0. All the time.

I will take less talent and less production on the field over, over those achievements at that level with the academic reduction. Yeah. And so then, let's just say it's a 300 hitter, 4.0 GPA, but on my roster, I have a freshman who had the same numbers in high school but has given me a year's worth of work

who am I going to keep same spot the guy who's been there for a year who showed me he can handle the workload within my standards. Yeah. So for all the people who talk recruiting and then you talk about NIL money and you talk transfer portal

and you talk all of these things, you have to have the discussion first. What's the standard? What's the standard that you're working from? What standard is the coach working from? Is the university working from? Are the parents working from and the athlete working from? And I also have to know,

you know, one of the most important things that people don't talk about in it? Coaching. Yeah. Coaching. That Jackson hitting 330 and having a 3.30, but is he doing it at 4A, 2A? Is he doing it in Class C?

Is the coach at his high school, somebody that produces Division I talent? Or is he the first of the first? Does that coach run my system? Does that coach speak my language? Is he a positive coach? Is he a verbal beatdown coach? Because if I'm going to bring you

into my yard, I have to know who you are. And before we get to any of the other stuff, I have to know those things because one of the conversations we then have to have is financial value. Yep. Financial value. And the first thing I'm going to ask Jackson is we tell, I tell the players that coached for me this thing, that, and Barry Thompson and I share this, this was a part of our process, was that in Afghanistan, the,

asking players whether they wanted to play in college or whether they thought they were worthy of playing in college. Then we asked them where, so look at your production, look at your measurables, height, weight, speed, strength, power, production, grades, etc. Now look, tell me where you think you belong in the college system. Division one, power four, you belong, you belong mid-major, do you belong Juko? Do you belong on a walk-on program somewhere? Because if you can't, then take your stats and look at, oh, you want to play for Nebraska? You want to play, you want to play linebacker in Nebraska. You're a really good high school linebacker based on the state of Nebraska.

High school, okay, how tall are you? Are you 5-11? Six-foot, six-one, what do you wait? One-95, a lot of linebackers around high school. Show me the guy, the starter on Nebraska's defensive roster that fits those measurements. And if there aren't any, then you got some more work to do. Oh, yeah. And, hey, if you plugged in high school senior numbers to what Nebraska's

first and second team at that position produce. Who has better numbers? Because if you're going to take a spot, you have to be better than the people who already are there. You can't be as good as the guy because we just said. If all things are equal, I take the guy who's been in my system, knows my verbiage, knows the routine,

knows the has had the academic success at the collegiate level. They've had success in Lincoln, Nebraska versus wherever they were on the planet before they got here. So you have to be better than. You have to be better than. You can't be as good as because as good as keeps you where you are. It keeps you where you makes you. It means you're really good high school football player or baseball player or volleyball

play. Because if you tell me that you want me to invest a quarter of a million dollars in you, who I only have 105 spots and I only have X number of spots per position and I only have X number of spots per position per year and oh transfer portal because there's some grownups who have committed who have played this thing at the next level already they've already proven that they can make it through the year. I don't need to know that they've produced at the college level. I need to know that they exist and have worked at the college level. Because the high school

player hasn't. He hasn't had to get himself up out of bed for the first time in his whole life by himself. He hasn't had to deal with social life away from his parents ever before. He's going to have to manage his diet and feed himself. He's going to have to regulate his sleep for the very first time. Somebody else is going to have control of his schedule, the whole schedule for the very first time. So you can't be as good as you have to be better than. And then, and then, and then.

Here comes the money talk. And, oh, you want to talk NIL. You want to talk about value to the program. Okay, here's the standard because we have a standard, right? Academics, personal, family, administrative, team. All those things. All those things. There is a standard that currently exists,

and here's the part that we also forget. The mission isn't to stay at the standard. The mission is to raise the standard the next year. You need to get better than you, last year. Do you think Matt Ruhle wants to say the same as he was last year? Or do you think he wants to get better? Do you think the players who've returned to the program want to do the same thing they did last year? No, they do not. They want to get better. Oh, yeah. And if you're going to be in a battle, do you want people next to you who you trust or don't know? You want people you trust.

because you want people that when things get difficult, and they will, and they will, are they going to stand next to you and fight? Are they going to protect you back? Are they going to raise the standard? And then you actually have to do the word. All of that work for every one of those boxes that we just talked about, every one of those situations and circumstances.

I'm talking to high school coaches, I'm talking to high school parents, parents of athletes, student athletes and scholar athletes. Student athletes, listen, if you can get through and excel at a sport and you're a student athlete and you happy with that, right? I'm doing this ball thing, but I still go to class and get your bees. That's wonderful. It's still not as good as the scholar athlete who committed to being above raising the standard the accepted standard which is 3.0

some cases 2.0 right they'll let you still play but I've never had a play that I would allow to play who had a 2.0 GPA. Yeah I mean come on. Like you're not even trying. It's it's so hard to get a 2.0 GPA if you're like yeah. So the 3.0 and the 3.5 GPA,

the 3.5 GPA means that you were consistently above standard and you did it while playing ball. So for all the young people, right, for all you parents out there, when you have the conversations with your young people, those are the conversations you need to have. And it's a conversation that the parents need to be aware of. Hey, mom, dad, you're spending all of this money on travel ball. All of your weekends are occupied with travel tournaments.

how much of that time is spent academically, how much that time is spent on the person, on the young person, just being a young person. Being 15 is not easy, not in this day and age where information is available all the time. But are you teaching that, you know what,

the priority and importance is if you want to do this? And there's a time, hey, mom, if you're spending thousands of dollars on junior to play, AAU baseball and he's hitting 240, please make sure he's a 4.0 student. Yeah. Hey, if he's playing basketball and he's averaging

seven points a game, please make sure he's a 4.0 student. Hey, if he gets the second most carries on his high school team, please make sure he's a 4.0 student. Yeah. And even if he is, the star on the team, please make sure he's a 4.0 student. please make sure that academics is her focus. Please make sure that her wellness is in order, her mental wellness.

Make sure that he's a good person because there is not a coach of any value in any program across America that wants a jerk on his team. If you tell your son and daughter, attitude matters. Good attitude matters more. bad attitude from parent or player will remove the potential and opportunity to play at the next level because every coaches you're dealing with at the next level knows more about it than you do and the last thing I want brought into my yard is a bad dog my grandmother said a thing to me and I heard a coach repeated and it made sense think about this when you find a how house, a new house, worthy of you walking in the front door, please make sure that you don't

take dirty shoes into that clean house. That is college recruiting. In a nutshell. There it is. One-on-one, 97 ticket. We'll be back.