LITTLE ROCK — While most of the credit for Arkansas' nationally ranked recruiting class goes to Coach Bobby Petrino, recruiting coordinator Tim Horton and the other full-time assistant coaches, the efforts of graduate assistants Chip Long and Marty Biagi shouldn't be overlooked.
"Chip and Marty do a great job of evaluating talent for us," Petrino said. "They are given an area of the country and video in order to identify players and turn that information over to our coaches. Each of them do a tremendous job as part of the organization of the recruiting weekends we have here. They put in a large number of hours on those weekends."
Graduate assistants are generally aspiring coaches who continue to work on their education while helping out the staff. Long and Biagi have much of the same responsibilities as other coaches on staff, but they aren't allowed to go off campus to recruit or scout prospects.
Long, a native of Birmingham, Ala., was a receiver and tight end at North Alabama, where heearned All-America honors in 2005. He joined Petrino's staff at Louisville in 2006 and remained there under Steve Kragthorpe until rejoining Petrino in 2008.
"I jumped at the opportunity to work with him again," said Long, who is working toward a master's in workforce development. "I love every single day. There's not a better offensive mind and a better teacher in America."
Long said the majority of his calls to recruits during the season were on Thursday and Sunday nights. After the season, he and the other coaches were allowed more free time to contact prospects.
Long played a key role in helping the Hogs sign running back Ronnie Wingo Jr. of St. Louis.
"He actually was the first guy to contact me from Arkansas," Wingo said. "When we went to the school, he was just a cool guy. He drove us around when we came down for our visit. I like his personality and the type person he is. He's real down-toearth."
Long helps recruit Missouri and the Atlantic side of Florida, from the tip of Orlando to the West Palm Beach area.
"Right now, I'm touching bases with lot of high school coaches and getting film on guys," said Long, who coaches tight ends. "The head coach wants us recruit an area and recruit it hard."
From December to national signing day, Long usually arrived at the Broyles Center around 7 a.m. and stayed until 10 p.m.
"During the season, you could be there from six in the morning to past midnight depending on how much work you had to do," he said.
Biagi was an outstanding place-kicker and punter coming out of Shelbyville, Ky., who was recruited by Petrino at Louisville but signed with Marshall.
"My freshman year at Marshall, I believe Louisville punted 24 times and I punted 64 times that same year," said Biagi, who earned Conference USA All-Freshman honors in 2005. "You want to go somewhere you'll win, but you also want to play if you're going to work that hard."
Biagi was about to be hired last summer as special teams coordinator at a Division III school in Maryland but received a call from Petrino a few days before he was set to start the job. Biagi said he couldn't pass up working for Petrino at Arkansas and in the SEC.
"Coach Petrino really gives us a lot of responsibility that most GA's at other schools don't get, but, at the same time, he expects a lot when he dishes out that responsibility," Biagi said. "It's just like he tells the players and the coaches, 'I'm going to give you as much as you can handle.' "
Biagi has worked as a head instructor at kicking camps atVirginia Tech, Auburn, Virginia Tech, Appalachian State, Georgia Southern and Coastal Carolina, and he is in charge of coaching Arkansas' kicking specialists.
He also assisted former cornerbacks coach Lorenzo Ward last year but will help defensive coordinator Willy Robinson in the defensive backfield for the 2009 season.
"I will now help Coach Reggie Johnson recruit the state of Alabama," said Biagi, who recruited Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Ohio last season. "Any time there's film coming in from Alabama, I'll be looking at that and making hundreds of phone calls to high school coaches and try to trim the list for Coach Johnson so that would save him time."
Biagi said he caught the coaching bug during his sophomore year at Marshall. He started breaking down film for the special teams his junior and senior years.
In an effort to get into coaching, Biagi, who was still on scholarship at Marshall, paid his own way to Anaheim, Calif., for the2008 American Football Coaches Association convention. Then, after the convention, Biagi came up with a creative way to circulate his resume.
"I thought the only time coaches are around a fax machine is signing day," Biagi said. "I found this program online, which I paid about $20, and you can punch in about 100 different fax numbers and their addresses. I sent that out at 7 a.m. on signing day, which apparently wasn't the greatest idea because I was tying up fax machines.
"I got several phone calls from coaches saying, 'Don't you ever apply here.' I called my dad and told him I have ruined any chance of coaching."
Not everyone felt that way. Biagi said he also received several calls from other schools praising his originality.
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Sports, Pages 25 on 02/13/2009