The battle plan behind Eastern Washington football recruiting

Think you have a hard time picking out clothes to wear in the morning? Or choosing just the right item on the menu — not to mention the wine list?

Then how about putting yourself in the shoes of Eastern Washington University football coaches, who just a month ago delivered the latest crop of 21 recruits, and are already busy preparing for the 2016 National Letter of Intent Day.

Eastern’s defensive line coach, Ryan Sawyer, doubles as the team’s recruiting coordinator and spoke recently about the process of putting championship caliber players on the field for the Eagles.

The job of picking through list after list, video after video, and arrive at both a quantity and quality that will fit the talent needs and budget is daunting on the surface.

“Before we pare it down it’s about 2,400 kids,” Sawyer said. That will be sliced to between 300-400 by May. In April Eastern conducts what they call a Junior Day with visits and campus tours.

A summer football camp on the EWU campus plays a big part in the process.

“The beauty of that opportunity is coaches get to see how a kid actually follows instructions,” Sawyer said.

July is quiet, Sawyer explained with minimal contact, primarily through social media. Offer letters go out Aug. 1.

Finally, between 100-200 of those prospects — split between four home games — will be invited to campus during football season to get a real inside look at Eastern football.

“Our fourth game, usually against Montana, Montana State or something like that, we make that just the best guys,” Sawyer explained. Those are the dozen or more players who haven’t been on campus that “We must get on campus, we gotta’ give them a little extra love type of deal.”

Sawyer, a defensive end at Central Washington University from 1996-99, said he took on the chore seven years ago as recruiting coordinator when it appeared no one else wanted to. “Would you rather do camp or recruiting?” were his options.

“I enjoy it, I enjoy the relationships, the process, I enjoy finding new little ways we can get better at it,” Sawyer said.

Eastern can offer 63 full rides, but can split those into a total of 85. “There are going to be a number of guys where are going to be on a partial,” Sawyer said. For instance a tuition only offer is 50-percent of the overall cost to attend school.

From a budget standpoint, Sawyer said there is none for recruiting.

“We try to be as efficient as possible (ie. staying at home with parents in Sawyer’s case),” he said. “We try to save money when we can, but we go recruit as much as we need to.”

That’s in part why Eastern tackles some of the top teams in the West. They will tackle Oregon, Sept. 5 in Eugene and reap the payday of about $450,000.

“It’s a very responsible agreement between us and administration,” Sawyer said. “Once in a while they’ll want us to justify certain trips, we rarely get told no.”

But few can argue with the success in the last five years with a national championship, plus the television exposure Eastern receives from being showcased in a game like they did, Aug. 23 against Sam Houston State University to kick off the entire 2014 college football season.

As with any business, or a military battle plan, how personnel are utilized is crucial. Sawyer has his troops stationed in specific areas so as to take advantage of their knowledge and relationships.

“For example, coach (John) Graham recruits Spokane; coach (Josh) Federer recruits Eastern Washington; coach (Aaron) Best, coach (Zak) Hill, coach (Jeff) Schmedding and myself, all four of us, stretch up (and) down the I-5 corridor, in Washington,” Sawyer said. ”We split up Oregon in two, we split up Northern California in three; one guy goes to Colorado.”

Familiarity with an area or a school is important, Sawyer explained. He covers his hometown of Kent, Wash.

“A couple of benefits from that, I get to go home and see my family; I stay there so we save money on our recruiting budget,” Sawyer said.

Sawyer has easy access to, and knows coaches throughout that area, some who are still there from when he was a player at Kent High School 20 years ago.

”You’re strategic with where you put coaches,” Sawyer explained. “Coach Federer, for example, coached in Colorado for a couple of years, so to put him back in Colorado to recruit makes complete sense.”

Besides travel, much of the recruiting process involves analyzing video.

“We are watching three or four kids a day as a staff,” Sawyer said. “It’s 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there, but we’re getting these kids in our heads.”

Coaches try to make the tedious job of watching film another recruiting plus. “The kid goes, ‘you saw my film, too,’” Sawyer said. “That can be a tool for us.”

Next Week: How technology has revolutionized recruiting.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.