Bryan Harsin’s Thursday was spent where no previous Arkansas State football coach had been on a June afternoon - bouncing around the turf conducting a football camp at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
Today, he’ll do the same in Texarkana, the first time ASU has conducted football camps away from its Jonesboro campus.
“There’s no better opportunity to get out and be on a football field and be around them and just get face-to-face with so many future football players,” Harsin said Thursday from the press box at War Memorial. “It’s hard not to do it.”
Harsin, who was hired in December, and six members of his staff have never coached and rarely recruited Arkansas before assembling in Jonesboro last winter. They took over following ASU’s second consecutive 10-victory season not knowing many of the state’s high school coaches, nor many of the players who will help make up a recruiting class that will be signed next February.
That’s what Thursday was about - and what today will be about - putting faces to names they’ve seen on paper and in practice film, some for the first time.
ASU held a camp in Jonesboro on June 2, one that drew about 200 players to Liberty Bank Stadium. About 100 players attended the War Memorial camp, and more than 100 are expected today.
That’s about 400 players Harsin and his staff get to see in the span of a few weeks, more than 200 of whom they might not have seen had they not strayed from their campus in northeast Arkansas.
“It’s huge,” defensive line coach Steve Caldwell said.
Caldwell never had a chance to participate in off-campus camps while coaching the previous 18 seasons at Tennessee and Arkansas. The SEC has a rule against holding camps away from campus. But such endeavors can become essential for a staff that in addition to being new to the state in which it wants to recruit, isn’t exactly in a centralized location.
Caldwell remembers making several difficult recruiting trips to and from Jonesboro while serving two stints as assistant coach at his alma mater in the late 1970s and 1980s.He said ASU’s visibility and accessibility is much greater now, but the camps still eliminate an obstacle.
“We’re bringing the show to them,” Caldwell said. “We’ll see kids that will never have come to Jonesboro [for a camp]. For them to have an opportunity to be around you for three or four hours, learn more about Arkansas State and what we’re about, it’s really a neat deal.”
Harsin said Caldwell was hired in January not only because of his experience, but his familiarity with high school coaches in Arkansas has been a plus. Same with defensive coordinator John Thompson, who is from Forrest City, was ASU’s defensive coordinator last year and has also coached at Arkansas.
Recruiting coordinator Julius Brown is one of the newcomers who is benefiting from off-campus camps. Brown, who also coaches cornerbacks, played at Boise State, where he later coached with Harsin and was a high school coach in Boise, Idaho, before arriving at ASU.
He’s had to scramble since January to identify players instate ASU wants to offer and said Thursday that list isn’t yet completed. Brown, speaking between sessions at War Memorial on Thursday, said a few offers could be extended this weekend.
“We want the best players in state,” Brown said. “There are kids out there right now who are really doing some good things who we really don’t know a ton about. They’re getting evaluated by our staff. We really like to see kids live and in person and this is a great opportunity for us to do that.”
Texarkana was chosen as the second off-campus camp because of its proximity to Texas, another prime recruiting area.
“We have great relationships there, know the coaches, and we feel like that’s an area we can continue to build and grow and help us in recruiting,” said Harsin, who was co-offensive coordinator for two seasons at Texas before being hired at ASU.
ASU has three commits for the 2014 class, according to recruiting service Rivals.com, one being Warren offensive lineman Jhamahl Bell. Harsin said his initial impressions of Arkansas high school talent has “been good,” but echoed Brown in saying they’re not quite done evaluating for the 2014 class.
“There are so many good players that are under the radar,” Harsin said.
That’s why they’re on the road this week, to uncover such players and take early steps toward a recruiting class that is still in the formative stages.
“I’m really curious as to how this football season goes,” Harsin said. “Not just for us, but also in the whole recruiting process as well, to really evaluate how we’re going to have a great feel for Arkansas and how we’re going to recruit it by having a whole cycle.”
Sports, Pages 19 on 06/15/2013