How Louisville Football's recruiting is adapting during COVID-19
Whether big or small, there's no aspect of the sporting world that hasn't been altered or affected in some fashion from the global COVID-19 pandemic. While speculation has risen on if the 2020 college football season will get shortened or cancelled much like many winter & spring sport championships, the virus has already started to affect the gridiron.
Many programs had to cut short their spring practices, or were not able to get in spring ball whatsoever. Louisville found themselves a little more fortunate than a lot of other schools as they got in seven practices before embarking on spring break, which constituted nearly half their spring schedule.
Unfortunately, everyone is in the same boat when is comes to recruiting. Because of the virus, the NCAA instituted a mandatory recruiting dead period that originally was set to last until Apr. 15 but was later extended to May 31. During this time period, official and unofficial visits as well staff visits to a prospect's home or high school are off-limits.
"You can't go out and these kids and see what kind of work ethic they have," offensive coordinator Dwayne Ledford told reports in a teleconference on Friday. "Now we're trying to build those relationships without the face-to-face contact that you would have if a kid came up on a visit."
Even the inability to host or attend camps has impacted recruiting. Ledford notes that out of the five offensive linemen signed during the previous recruiting cycle, one of them had a scholarship offered after attending a camp hosted by the program, and another Ledford offered after watching him in person at a camp he attended.
"Now we don't have that," he said.
While Louisville is now heavily restricted in their recruiting efforts much like everyone else in Division I, that doesn't mean it has stopped. They just have gotten more creative.
Like most programs, a heavy staple of Louisville's recruiting revolves around showing prospects around the facilities as well as campus. Since campus has been closed and classes have been moved online for the foreseeable future, Ledford and Co. have had to resort to the next best option.
The coaching staff and recruiting department as a whole have gone as virtual as they can, constantly communicating with recruits via video or text. They've even started conducting virtual visits so to speak.
"A lot of the stuff that we're doing is showing videos that coaches may have taken during some of these unofficial or official visits throughout the year," Ledford says. "We're trying to make it as virtual as we can. Where these kids can see what their apartment's gonna look like, what the stadium looks likes coming out to a game."
The program is trying to not only show prospective student-athletes the complete and total package. Not only what it will be like to take the field, but what it will also be like to be a student for the University of Louisville. They even will sometimes include showing them the city as well.
"We feel like we have a lot to show here at Louisville."
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