Bill Shanks: Building doesn't end at signing day
College football recruiting is addictive, and for a few years, I needed deep therapy for my addiction. Yes, you could have called me a recruitnik back in the day - a fan obsessed with wondering where 18-year-olds would play college football.
The Jeff Whitaker and Forrest Davis magazines barely hit the shelves before I had them in my possession. I waited for the lists that would come out in the papers that ranked the best prospects in the state and in the south. One year I even hosted "Countdown to Signing Day" for Fox Sports South.
The disappointment of prospects not living up to their potential thankfully killed the buzz for me. I still follow recruiting but not as closely as I once did. I can't tell you where ever player is visiting or what his mother's maiden name is, like I might have been able to do 10 to 15 years ago.
But I still reluctantly admit recruiting is the lifeblood of the sport. With a constant revolving door, programs must keep their talent up, so just about everything revolves around recruiting. That's why there's a race for shiny new buildings and indoor practice facilities, and it's why coaches take helicopter rides to see prospects.
There's no doubt the more four-star and five-star prospects a program can get, the better chance it has of being successful. But there's something that gets lost in the shuffle this time of year that needs to be more of a focus. It's a term used often in baseball but for whatever reason not as much in college football.
Player development.
That's the biggest key for a program to be successful - the ability for coaches to take a three-star prospect and make him a four-star player or to make a four-star prospect a five-star player. In other words, the ability to coach players up, to make them better, is the most important part of having a good team.
It's easy to get a stud prospect in that you know will be successful at the next level. But not all quarterbacks can be Aaron Murray, and not all running backs can be Nick Chubb. Some are identified as having the potential for improving with more playing time, even against tougher competition at the next level. But it's up to the coaches to help make it happen.
Some fans panic when a team gets a commitment from a three-star prospect. This past week Alabama got such a commitment, but are you really going to question the judgment of Nick Saban? He's obviously identified a player who has the potential to get better with his coaching, regardless of what the analysts at the scouting services might believe.
Sure, some programs might have to settle for prospects who aren't as highly rated. But maybe they believe they can make those players better, whether it's something they've seen on tape with the skill set or the athletic ability. Either way, fans shouldn't panic when a coach goes after a player he believes he can make better.
New Georgia head coach Kirby Smart is swinging for the fences in his first recruiting season. He has got five or six five-star prospects he might add to the two he already has on Georgia's list for this year. That's great, as Smart knows from being at Alabama the more five-star prospects a program has, the better. But something tells me Smart might have learned a thing or two from Saban about coaching up players.
We see coaches hired for their recruiting ability, and there's no doubt that's important. But don't underestimate the importance of making players better. It's what helps make a program special, regardless of how many stars they accumulate on National Signing Day.
Listen to "The Bill Shanks Show" from 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WPLA Fox Sports 1670 AM in Macon and online at www.foxsports1670.com. Follow Bill at www.twitter.com/BillShanks and email him at thebillshanksshow@yahoo.com.
This story was originally published January 30, 2016 at 3:35 PM with the headline "Bill Shanks: Building doesn't end at signing day ."