Bye week is no off week for football recruiting

Following his weekly press conference Sept. 3 in the football team meeting room at Memorial Stadium, IU head coach Bill Lynch closed by cracking a bit of a joke.

“Enjoy your weekend,” Lynch told reporters. “I heard it’s a holiday.”

Lynch, of course, was referring to the traditional American end-of-summer Labor Day weekend ritual featuring barbecues and otherwise low-key relaxation.

Thanks to a Thursday season-opener that saw the Hoosiers rout Towson 51-17, the weekend wasn’t quite as busy for IU as other college football teams who competed on Saturday.

But having a slow weekend competition-wise just meant the coaching staff’s resources were diverted to another area: recruiting.

In fact, the combination of the Thursday game followed by this week’s sole off weekend in the Hoosiers’ regular season schedule means those coaches will be getting a good jump on scouting future talent.

“There’s no question that it makes it easier,” said Billy Lynch, IU’s wide out coach, of getting that early combination of a Thursday game and an off-week.

One reason, he said, is the obvious: to get a good look at a player in action. But two, Billy Lynch said, is an off-week changes how much focus is applied to recruiting.

“We’ll get out three or four times on Fridays when we play a game the next day,” Lynch said. “Obviously, you can get the same amount done, but your focus is a little bit towards the next day, Saturday. With the bye week, its nice because you can be a little more relaxed and narrow your focus on recruiting.”

Recent NCAA rules now permit football programs to send up to 10 coaches on the road for an off-week, as opposed to the seven permitted on game weeks, IU’s linebacker coach and recruiting coordinator Mike Yeager said.

The grand total of visits to the high schools can’t exceed 42 calendar days between Aug. 1 and Nov. 27.

“This fall is an evaluation period where we’re only allowed to call the seniors once a week, but we’re able to go to their games and watch them,” Yeager said.

However, coaches making contact with a recruit while on that visit isn’t allowed. The NCAA rules result in a visit that involves the IU coaches talking with the high school head coach, checking in with a recruit’s guidance counselor to ensure academic requirements are being met and otherwise just making their presence known.

“We’re fortunate that we’re allowed to get down on the field, have our IU stuff on,” Billy Lynch said. “It’s just the presence of showing support and commitment to a kid who’s already said — at least verbally — that he wants to be Hoosier.”

Lynch also said previous gains in recruiting — notably a strong 2011 class — have allowed coaches to get more of a glimpse at players in the 2012 class.

“We’re able to get a head start and get around to see some juniors that have caught some coaches’ eye,” Lynch said. “It allows us to lay the foundation there.”

That foundation is being laid primarily around the Midwest, Yeager said.

“Our main recruiting areas in the Midwest. We always start with Indiana so we’ve been around Indiana quite a bit,” Yeager said. “From there, just getting around Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin.”

While it may be easier, as Billy Lynch said, that doesn’t mean its a distinct recruiting advantage for the Hoosiers to have an early off-week.

“I don’t think there is,” Yeager said of a possible edge. “As long as your bye week is in those first seven or eight weeks, then you’re guaranteed the guy you’re looking at is still playing and not out because of postseason play or anything.”

On a typical game week — especially one at home — the Hoosiers try to keep the offensive and defensive coordinators off the road.

“If its a game week, we try to avoid sending out the coordinators so that they can stay here and prepare for the game Friday night,” Yeager said. “We can get three or four guys out with the high school coaches during the day and then go check on the game that night.”

Several of the Hoosiers’ coaching staff hit the recruiting trail early this past Friday morning after the Thursday night game, and even more will be taking in high school games Friday.

“We’ll really storm out because we can plan it out even better,” Bill Lynch said. “I think to get a first look at kids early in the season is really big. We’re going to take advantage of it.”