Spontaneity Can Work Both Ways in Recruiting

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By Randy York

Wednesday is Signing Day 2012, and that means Huskers.com is the official source of all Nebraska recruiting news that's fit to print. It also means NU's football coaching staff heads east on I-80 to regale donors Wednesday night with all the hoopla that went into the 2012 recruiting class. On Thursday night, the coaches come back to Lincoln for an even more embellished sequel.

Whatever stories emerge from those two banquets may need some extra sizzle if they're going to make the list of John Papuchis favorites. Today, on the eve of Signing Day, we offer up two true J.P. accounts that show how football recruiting is, at best, an inexact science. The first is a bit underhanded, but worked. The second example required spontaneous sacrifice, but it didn't convince a top recruit to sign on the dotted line.

Let's start with a classic tale which will never lose its appeal because it involves Rex Burkhead, an All-Big Ten running back and an all-world human being. Papuchis, now Nebraska's defensive coordinator, was with Tim Beck, then NU's running backs coach and now the Huskers' offensive coordinator. They attended one of Burkhead's basketball practices at Plano Senior High School in Texas. When practice was over, Papuchis (J.P.) and Beck and a couple of coaches were standing around, and suddenly J.P. had a basketball in his hand and was standing at mid-court.

Sensing an opportunity to connect with Burkhead in a unique way, J.P. asked Rex if he would come to Nebraska if he made a half-court shot. Intrigued, Rex moved closer to watch the challenge. "As luck would have it," Papuchis told me, "I let it go underhanded, and I made the shot. Swished it even ... nothing but net! Rex kind of turned red and smiled. He certainly didn't commit to us on the spot, and I don't think that shot had anything to do with him committing. But it didn't hurt our chances either, that's for sure."

The next story in J.P.'s book of classics is funnier, but didn't deliver, so don't try yourself under any circumstances.

It happened when his wife, Billie, was in labor with John, the family's second child. "It was during a period of the recruiting calendar when we were not allowed to call recruits, but they could call us," J.P. said. "The tough part about that was, if you miss the phone call, there's no way to return it (without committing an NCAA violation).

Papuchis laughs a little nervously recalling the scene. "My wife was pretty far along in the process," he said, "when I got a call from the defensive end we were recruiting hard in California. He was one of the top recruits in that class."

The scene was straight out of your favorite sit-com. While J.P. was showing his loving, affectionate, encouraging side, he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. "I thought it was either my wife's mom or my mom wanting to know how the labor was going," J.P. recalled. "But when I looked, I could see it was the very important recruit we wanted."

Papuchis remembers thinking he had to make a split-second decision. "Do I talk to him? Or do I press the ignore button?" J.P. said. "I went ahead and took the chance of my wife being very, very angry at me and answered the phone."

Actually, his split-second decision is worse than that. "Not only did I answer the phone," J.P. admitted, "but I threw the phone to her and asked her to say hi to the recruit. I wanted him to know that if I was willing to use the phone while my wife was in labor, then I would hope it would reflect how much we wanted him on our team."

Let the record show that Billie Papuchis did her part. She yelled a quick hi, but the California recruit stayed home.

All, however, was not lost. Any time J.P. senses he's losing the crowd at a public appearance, he can use that story and light up the room. More often than not, 50 percent of the audience probably would understand why he made the split-second decision, and the other 50 percent would be horrified. If a call like that ever rings again, it will probably reach voice mail ... and the recruit will commit anyway.

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I love reading those recruiting stories. They never get old. Keep up the great work. Tim Adams, Omaha, Nebraska