One of the major changes instituted in the Arizona State football program under new head coach Herm Edwards was naming Al Luginbill as the new Director of Player Personnel for the Sun Devils. Luginbill is one of the most respected and experienced talent evaluators at both the college and NFL levels, and in fact is a previous member of the ASU coaching staff. As ASU embarks on a busy June which includes several official recruiting visits and various prospect camps, Luginbill addressed the ASU media on various recruiting topics. In Part I of this conversation, Luginbill discusses the recruiting strategy of his department, where does the team stand in their efforts with the 2019 and 2020 classes and the importance of recruiting the states of Arizona and California.

Luginbill introduces his recruiting staff

“I want to introduce Ryne Rezac. He is a multi-talented individual that has spent some time here. He knew the campus. He knows the people on the campus, they know him and he heads up our on-campus recruiting. I don’t get caught up in titles but when it deals with on-campus recruiting it is very specific in rules what you can do and you can’t do so we have to make sure we are always within that particular structure. Again, if you ask me what is the greatest difference in college football today since I was involved in college football ‘on a daily basis,’ I would tell you two areas: One, the NCAA rulebook has quadrupled but it’s much easier to access. Technology has made it much easier.

“He’s got a heck of a job just to stay within the rules. His right-hand person who we just got on the staff (is) Radmen Niven. He’s in graphics and social media. Man, you guys relate to that right? This guy here (himself) looks at it and sometimes doesn’t understand any part of it but I know it makes the world tick. I get it and I also understand when I say that, I’m totally, me as an individual, dependent on our young guys in that particular area because they know it like the players know it and that’s the way this generation of players communicates, whether we like it or not. You can forget e-mail, that’s five years, ten years old. They’re into other things that, if you don’t stay up with it, you have no chance to communicate with it. So, between these two people right here, they are our communicators for our staff to stay up-to-date on everything that’s going on.

“Fred Gammage, former player here – and I’ve always got a tremendous amount of love in my heart for walk-ons that are put on scholarship and that’s one thing that hasn’t changed in college football; it’s a tough road for a walk-on to come into a major college program and be put on scholarship. It just doesn’t happen often – but Freddy is homegrown. We inherited a jewel. He has a natural sense for our game. Some people have it, some don’t. He understands what player evaluation is. He’s on that side and that is the side that I spend most of my time on. With that being said, we feel, again, we’ve been around here now since January and really we’ve only had Ryne (for) half that time and we’ve only had (Radmen) for three weeks now.

“Fred and I were on our own for a while and we have a tremendous support group with what we call our recruiting assistants. These are students. I would say it this way: the business of player evaluation at this level and the next level, there’s not a school you can go to, there’s no major in it. It’s an industry out there where there’s job but there’s no place you can go major in player evaluation. It’s not offered anywhere. They’re just starting to get into that, some academies that are being held now, but that’s all happened within the last year. So really if you have a passion for football and you’re not talented enough to play or dumb enough to coach it if you’re not involved in those two aspects, then how do you prepare yourself? So, we spend a lot of time… here’s an example of a young man, there’s an example of a young man, that started out, like most of the people in our profession, not making a dime. Just loved the game.

“That’s the first priority for us. When we’re bringing in a young person we paint the worst picture possible ‘cause they’re not getting paid yet they’re going to work harder than most people that are getting paid as a full-time person. On top of that, they’re also going to school full-time. Without over-simplifying this thing, they are really the engine that runs our ship because we are what we call a footprint recruiter. We have a core area. Our area starts with the state of Arizona, it includes Southern California, Northern California, Las Vegas to Hawaii. That’s the core.”

Luginbill discusses the re-establishment of the Polynesian pipeline

“Many of you may not remember but Arizona State’s history with the Polynesian player is really a neat history. It goes back to the young man that I remember Junior Ah You. This is clear back in the early ‘70s. He set college football on its ear just because he was the first, really, sack master. That’s what he did (and) a lot of other things, he was a disrupter, but he tackled the quarterback for loss and he did it well. Through the years (ASU) somehow got away from (having a Polynesian player) as a dominating player being a part of the program at some stage got a little bit away from that.

“We’re doing our best to get back to it because we feel this is really an environment that plays to that. A lot of those young men are (members of the Church of Latter Day Saints). Obviously, we have a lot of that to offer here and some places don’t have that. Here we’re fortunate enough to have that. Here it helps us in certain instances and in other instances it hurts us. But I say this because, bottom line, our DNA – and I think if you’ll look three to four to five years down the line – you will see this football program made up of (around) 80 percent between California and Arizona (players). I really believe that.

“Then we have a footprint that goes throughout the Pac-12. It’s the states of Oregon, Washington, we include Idaho – that’s where Taylor Kelly was from – we include Montana and Wyoming – we’ve had kids out of Montana that have started and played here in the past – Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, when I say Nevada I’m basically talking about Las Vegas and Reno – you guys know that state; after those two cities there’s not much out there. So with that being said, it gives you an idea of where our footprint is.

“Along with that, we have gone with Texas and Louisiana. We added those because we found out that really there are good football players there that end up being really good players that may be underrecruited. Unless we have a tie, meaning it’s an alum (or) it’s somebody else (with) a contact, very seldom will we be outside of that total footprint.”

Luginbill on current and future recruiting strategy

“This weekend, we’re having really our first big recruiting weekend. Now you (might) be saying, ‘You’re having your first big recruiting weekend in June? That doesn’t sound real smart.’ Let me preface it: all of the kids that are coming in on that visit, where they are coming from is going to be as hot getting on the plane there as it is getting off the plane here. What we did, we’re not bringing in a guy from the Pacific Coast on the ocean over here that time of year. We’re making sure because we’re behind.

“Our 2019 class, we’re behind, we know it. These kids we’re recruiting now, they’ve been recruited for a year by everybody else. That’s legally. When I say that, I’m talking about the 2020s, the 2021s, the 2019s are where they were two years ago, some of these kids, legally, were contacted at football camps by some universities two years ago. So the ’19 class coming up which is really crucial for us, we’re catching up. All I’m trying to do is be as transparent as I can. We’re catching up.

“We’re now catching up in the ‘20s and ‘21s. We’re going to be ahead. And the ‘22s. And you say, ‘How can you look (ahead) at the ‘21s and ‘22s?’ Simple. You don’t, you have no chance with these kids because everything on the calendar has moved up a minimum of a year to a year-and-a-half. It’s bizarre. You say, ‘Why? These guys haven’t even gone into their senior year yet and we’ve got them committing with a year to play.’ You’re seeing it all around the country.

“I think the statistic – and you’d have to check on this – but I think it was in the 70-80 percent range (that) kids signed last year in the December early signing period we had. We didn’t get to take advantage of that at all. We were a second signing period class. So right now, at Arizona State, really we’ve got half-a-class that’s here that will be coming in that will have been recruited under this staff and this philosophy.”

Luginbill on the importance of recruiting in-state, California

“With that being said, it’s very important to us in the state of Arizona, we have saturated this state since we’ve been here. Not just with Donnie Yantis, who is the coach on our staff that recruits the state of Arizona. With that being said, he has a ton of help because we switch over to the position coach as quickly as we can in the recruiting process. The area coach, that’s all fine and good but we want to get position coach to play, coordinator to the defensive side of the ball defensive player, the offensive side of the ball (and) offensive player, we want that relationship to be built as quickly as possible. We do have an area coach to go out because of the way the NCAA is structured. Ideally, you would love to be able to position recruit everything but your expenses would be exorbitant. By the area part of it, you can condense the expense side of it and get it to the position side as soon as possible.

“Now understanding that in the state of California, out of our staff, there are eight people on our staff that recruit the state of California. Eight. They have an area there. Eight of the ten. Donnie’s (Yantis) in Arizona. Dave Christensen is everywhere; he is throughout our footprint. You say, ‘Why is that?’ Because offensive linemen for this program at this stage right now is what we have to focus on. Not saying that the other positions are not important. They are. But if we don’t get our offensive line up to speed within the next two recruiting classes, the quality of our football will not be what it needs to be. If you’re asking why, that’s why. He is the one coach on our staff that totally position recruits. He’s been all over the place. He’s been from Hawaii to Houston and everywhere in between.

“It gives you a thought process there. We use the term and you’ve heard coach Edwards use it, DNA. What we’re looking for at certain positions. There are always exceptions, we have a rule though: the exception cannot become the rule.”

On how his past experience at ASU informs what he’s doing now given the market-specific challenges of recruiting?

“The market at ASU has changed drastically. When we were here prior, there was no NFL. It was us and the Phoenix Suns. Picture that. That’s a totally different environment than what we’re dealing with today. With that being said, the advent of technology has, in my opinion, allows people to catch up if they want to use it. The experience, if you look back at some of the teams that were excellent at that time if you look at their DNA, they were all teams that could run.

“There were a few exceptions, a Pat Tillman, I would give you Derrick Rodgers in the ‘90s. The ‘80s, Greg Clark, I don’t know if you remember, a small linebacker but a great player. There was always the exception. Greg Battle played here at a 195 pounds as an inside linebacker. That’s unheard of. But in front of him, there were treetops that could play. We really had excellent football players and that’s why we won games.

“To compare the two eras to what’s out there today, it’s a totally different landscape. But I do see here, in returning and coming aboard, there is a commitment to being good from the president through the athletic director. That commitment – they want it done the right way – but if you have that commitment, then you have something to start with. You have that foundation. That’s how I would compare it because many times in the prior days there wasn’t that, there wasn’t that tied together.”

On what is the strategy is for who gets offered when, who you take a commitment from and when?

A: “I can’t use kids’ names but I’d like to distinguish between classes. A lot of times you will see – you’ve already seen some of it but you’ll see more in the next month – I would say 80 percent of the universities across the country that are playing power-5 football will have one, if not two, quarterbacks committed to them. I’m using that as an example. Some of these people go out and they are throwing out 400-500 offers across the country but you look at those universities and where they’re located, I understand. They have no home base. So they’re out there throwing paint up against the wall and seeing what color comes out. I respect that. I wouldn’t want to be in a situation like that.

“I think you’re still dealing with kids’ lives and families. It’s a two-way street now. That’s another thing that’s changed. The recruited student-athlete, he gets it. His family gets it. They’ve got people, we use the term ‘handlers’, that are out there that are totally immersed in these kids’ lives. Again, that’s this era versus the previous era. That was not like that then.

“I think that the offering is a philosophy. In the state of Arizona, we’re not going to offer somebody that we don’t think can be a starting football player at Arizona State. Now, that doesn’t just include the ability. That includes what they’re made up of. You can sit here and have the ability but if you don’t have a passion for the game, we’re not interested. That’s the first thing we evaluate once we do ability. We identify, then part of the evaluation process, then the recruitment. That’s on the player evaluation side.”

On how it feels on a personal level to be back at ASU?

A: “Well, if somebody told me I was going to be doing what am I right now a year ago or seven months ago, I’d said no way. But I’ve had a long relationship with coach Edwards through the years, far exceeding the decade of 2000 and 2010s. In my opinion, he’s a special guy. Kids are going to really enjoy playing for him. He is a person that is so transparent and I think some of you have already seen this. If you ask him a question, he’s gonna give you an answer. It may not be the one you want, but it’s gonna be an answer.

“He’s no different with the kids, the players. To me, that transparency is everything. I think eventually young people who are passionate about the game, they will form a union (with Edwards) and once you have that and combine that with the ability, then I think you really have something. We are in the process of trying our best to create that culture within our existing roster. Marcus Walker, who is one of our staff members here on the support side, and I, we are just finishing up individual 10-minute meetings with each player on the roster, explaining to them what a player-personnel department does at Arizona State University. Some of the kids hear the term, they don’t have a clue. They don’t have a clue how it affects them. They do now.

“We deal with both ends. The high school end and the players on our roster.”

On why he decided to accept the job offer at ASU?

“When I first started out, to be honest with you, I was just a consultant with the idea that we’ll get through Feb. 15 and I’ll go back to the sunset and life goes on. Halfway through the month of January, he (Edwards) came to me with a different option. But I had to get that cleared by the real boss. I had to go home and talk to my wife and we’ve been a lot of places – when I say we’ve been a lot of places, we’ve had a lot of different experiences, not that many places – and the game of football has been super to us and it was an opportunity to work with young people. I like that.

“I’ve been able to do that over the last 12 years in private business. It’s very rewarding. This (ASU) is that on steroids. That’s how I would put it. It has its challenges but I always tell our guys, if you can’t smile at the end of the day, you’re not the right guy for us. Because not everything is going to go your way all day long. It’s not gonna happen.”

Note: Jack Harris contributed to this article