The Recruiting Guy

Recruiting Q&A: Defensive line coach John Scott Jr.

Arkansas assistant coach John Scott Jr. directs his players Tuesday, March 28, 2017, during spring practice at the UA practice facility in Fayetteville.

This is the second of a series focused on the Arkansas assistants and their recruiting areas, philosophy and most unusual story on the recruiting trail.

RECRUITING TERRITORY: Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina

RECRUITING PHILOSOPHY: Obviously, if you’re recruiting the young man, you have already identified him as someone athletically that you feel like will fit your program for what you’re looking to do. Once we identify those individuals athletically based off of what we see on tape, that’s when recruiting really goes into high gear. Now it’s my job as a coach is to go out and see if the other components identify with what we want to have representing the University of Arkansas. That’s when you really get to know the kid’s character. I can’t say enough about the character of a kid, especially in a time where social media is on top of everything. I think you have to get to know the character of a kid. That’s huge. You get to know that, but getting to know the kid and getting to know the kid’s family background, getting to know the people that touch that kid on a everyday basis. Whether it’s his teachers in high school, the counselor, it’s the lady in the cafeteria that he speaks to everyday when he comes in there. The principal that sees the kid. The more people you can talk to like that helps paints you a really good picture of what the kid is like on and off the field.

The second thing we look at can the kid make it here academically. How will the kid handle his business in the classroom? Sometimes you get that kid where they start slow in high school and then they start to figure it out or you get the kid that’s extremely intelligent and will get a nice test score which shows he’s really, really intelligent, but has kind of just coasted through. So you figure that out. But like I said I can’t speak enough on the character and then the grade component for me is kind of where I go. Kids are going to be kids, and they’ll make mistakes, but I do think if you do a thorough enough job you can alleviate some of that. Not all of it, but some of it … root it out.

I was with Jeff Monken at Georgia Southern. That’s how Jeff has always recruited, and it matched the way I felt like you needed to recruit. We won a lot of ballgames there with Jeff and doing it that way. Recruiting high character kids. Don’t get me wrong, they were good players, but we alleviated a lot of other guys that were good players, but they didn't have the character. I’ve been to other places, and sometimes you’ve taken the best available, but that’s not always good. Sometimes you don't get a great fit. You don’t want to have those type of kids in your program. So I’m right with Coach B on his philosophy .

FUNNIEST RECRUITING STORY: So I’m a young coach and this is my first spring recruiting at Norfolk State and my first time going out on my own. I’m gung-ho — I’m fired up. I got the green and gold on. So I go to a high school, and the coach is in the gym. He has a PE class going on, so I’m going in, "Hey I’m Coach Scott from Norfolk State." I’m fired up and the kids are playing dodgeball, so I’m standing off to the side with the coach. I’m looking at him, and he’s standing off to the side. Meanwhile, the dodgeball is going on to my right, so I’m literally in mid-sentence talking to the coach about my spill about my school, and I get hit right in the face with a dodgeball, and I promise you (laughing). I don’t know where I was at for five minutes. I’m telling you I was concussed. … I mean, it hit me right in the face, and I’m a dark-skinned fella, but I had a ball print on the side of my face. So when I get off the ground the coach is standing there, and he’s saying, "Hey man, you alright?" I was non-responsive for about a minute. I literally got knocked unconscious with a dodgeball in the face. It was so embarrassing I didn't realize where I was for a minute. That was one of the funniest stories I’ve had recruiting. So now, I’ve learned anytime I’m going into the gym and I’m talking, I’m looking straight at all of the action.