5 Coaches with the Most to Gain from New NCAA Recruiting Rules

The NCAA has made some changes to the rules of recruiting. Coaches can now pretty much contact a recruit more freely and more frequently. Coaches also now don't have any restraints on how to contact a recruit, so Facebook, calling, texting, Skyping, emailing, flying kites and just about everything else is pretty much fair game now.

Another interesting change in recruiting is that there is no longer any restraint on how many coaches can go off campus to recruit. So now, a head coach can unleash his whole staff to attack the trail and pound the pavement at once. You won't see head coaches out on the road often, if at all, but now they can deploy their whole staff of coaches to go lure talent to campus at the same time.

So which coaches stand to gain the most from these changes? Let's find out.

The Top Recruiting Head Coaches

The head coaches who really work hard at recruiting will benefit from this because they can just text, call, email and Facebook recruits at will.

Urban Meyer, Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin all immediately come to mind. They worked hard and efficiently under the old recruiting rules. Now they can make contact with prospects even more frequently. Since it's free and there are so many avenues to do it, the rich will get richer. 

Assistant Coaches Who Work Hard at Recruiting

Assistant coaches such as Ed Orgeron at USC, D.J. Durkin at Florida, Clarence McKinney at Texas A&M, Jeremy Pruitt at Florida State, James Coley at Miami and Kirby Smart at Alabama will gain a lot from the rule changes.

These assistants and many others across the country now have more avenues to contact prospects and really put the press on recruits when going after them. 

Head Coaches Who May Not Have Been Fully Enjoy Recruiting

You'd be shocked, but there are many coaches who just want to coach and not recruit. They especially do not like going out on the road, looking for players and being away from their families.

Many head coaches were in favor of the rule change that was put into effect several years ago that kept head coaches from going off campus in the offseason.

Now, those coaches who were in favor of the rule change can just sit back in their offices and call, text and email prospects at will. 

Tech Savvy Coaches

The coaches who know how to work the new technological advances of today will gain a lot from the rule changes. Skyping will increase, texting will become extreme and Twitter is going to explode.

Old school coaches who just know how to run a clicker and dial a telephone are going to suffer. Nowadays in recruiting you better be on Facebook, know how to connect via Skype and be a quick texter and skilled Tweeter.

Young Coaches and Off-Field Staff Members

Another interesting change that the NCAA made is that coaches can now hire a recruiting coordinator and a support staff that are separate from the coaching staff.

Many times, coaches hire young guys who aspire to be coaches in entry-level roles like graduate assistant or quality control, yet they can't recruit.

Now, a coach can hire a young guy for one of these off-field positions on the recruiting staff and let him learn the recruiting side while he sits in on position meetings.

Thus the young coach can be groomed to be an efficient recruiter as well as a knowledgeable teacher as a position coach in a year or two.

Edwin Weathersby is the College Football Recruiting Analyst for Bleacher Report. He has worked in scouting/player personnel departments for three professional football teams, including the New York Giants, Cleveland Browns and the Las Vegas Gladiators of the Arena League. He spent a year evaluating prep prospects and writing specific recruiting and scouting content articles for Student Sports Football (formerly ESPN Rise-HS). A syndicated scout and writer, he's also contributed to WeAreSC.com, GatorBait.net and Diamonds in the Rough Inc., a College Football and NFL Draft magazine.