Schoffel: Upfront approach is winning formula in recruiting for Atkins, FSU

Legendary Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden was revered by fans as "Saint Bobby" and was lauded throughout his career for his high character and strong morals. But even he acknowledged that college football recruiting wasn't always the most transparent process.

So much so that he famously said the Seminoles sometimes had to "de-recruit" star players once they arrived on campus. (I'm not entirely certain Bowden coined that term, but he was the first coach I ever heard use it, so we're gonna roll with it!)

And you get the point.

From time to time, players might have gotten the impression they were super-duper-duper stars during the recruiting process, only to arrive on campus and learn they were just the latest in a long line of big-time recruits at their positions.

The potential for playing time as a freshman might have been exaggerated. The challenge of playing football and another sport on the college level might have been glossed over. Some players might even have been led to believe they would be starters from Day One, or that they were going to catch a certain number of passes or get a particular number of carries, when that likely wasn't going to happen.

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And I'm not saying Bowden directly misled players or their parents. But I am certain many of his assistant coaches were playing the same game that countless other college recruiters were playing at the time: Selling, selling, selling. Either outright building false expectations or at least not discouraging the ones recruits formed on their own.

That's why those players would need to be de-recruited. They had to be brought back to reality once they arrived on campus.

I couldn't help but think about that quote when listening to FSU's freshman offensive linemen speak with the media a couple weeks ago, and again when I interviewed senior offensive guard Dillan Gibbons recently for another story.

Without exception, the players all spoke about the no-nonsense, no-frills approach FSU offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Alex Atkins takes with recruiting. They insist he never promised them playing time or encouraged them to believe they would win a starting job -- not even Gibbons, who was transferring in last summer after four years at Notre Dame.

Instead, they say, Atkins focused on the areas where they needed to improve and explained how he would help them accomplish those goals.

"Alex Atkins was the only person that was honest with me," Gibbons told me. "All the other coaches (at other schools) promised me everything in the world. The only thing Coach Atkins promised me was that I'd have a chance."

It's something we have heard consistently from recruits about Atkins since he came to FSU as part of Norvell's staff in 2020, and it has always struck me as admirable but maybe a little curious.

Like, "Good for him. That's not the way most recruiters do it, and it's probably not the way I would do it if I was in his shoes. But it's good to hear ... as long as he can still actually, you know, get kids to commit with that approach."

For as long as I have followed the sport, the best college recruiters have usually been the smoothest talkers, not necessarily the straightest shooters.

Well, we've learned over the last year or so that Atkins can indeed get kids to commit with that approach.

Six of the 18 signees in Florida State's 2022 signing class are offensive linemen -- it's one of the largest OL hauls in school history -- and three of them (Julian Armella, Qae'shon Sapp and Antavious Woody) are among the seven highest-rated players in the class.

Atkins also helped head coach Mike Norvell land four experienced OL transfers this offseason -- Kayden Lyles from Wisconsin, Bless Harris from Lamar, D'Mitri Emmanuel from Charlotte, and Jazston Turnetine from South Carolina. So that's 10 new offensive linemen Atkins has brought in over just the last seven months. And a position that has been short on depth for years at Florida State suddenly has 19 scholarship players.

And he's not done there. Just last week, Atkins landed a commitment from four-star offensive lineman Roderick Kearney. And the Seminoles are one of the favorites to land four-star tackle Lucas Simmons, who plans to announce his college decision on Monday.

It has been a tremendous run under any circumstances. But it seems to stand out even more when you hear recruits go on and on about Atkins' straight-ahead, no-BS approach.

"I think that time is gone," Atkins said, when I asked him about the more traditional approach to recruiting, when prospects and their parents were bathed in false expectations. "I think people are a little smarter and sharper now. We've got to give them some credit. They're not gonna go for the hustle. I think that time is dead."

It's not dead for everybody, of course. Plenty of recruiters are still using the tried-and-not-so-true approach they've always used. But Atkins believes most players and their families see through it these days.

This isn't the 1980s or '90s, when recruits only knew what they heard from coaches and players on visits and phone calls. Nowadays, the prospects not only have access to the Internet and countless college football websites -- where they can do detailed research about returning starters, depth charts, etc. -- but they also are more proactive when it comes to visiting campuses.

By the time many recruits commit in 2022, they have already visited a school six or seven times. And each visit isn't only a chance to be wooed by the coaching staff, it's also an opportunity to research the program.

"What you tell a kid, they're gonna fact-check with the other players on the roster," Atkins said. "And they've kind of gotten past who we pair you with on visits. They're gonna go down the roster and find a kid that you didn't pair them with and ask them questions."

Indeed, there was a time not so long ago when recruits would be paired with specific player-hosts during visits, and the prospects would largely stick close to those current players -- who might have been prepped to give certain answers to expected questions. But Atkins says those days are long gone.

When I asked him specifically about recruiting Gibbons last year out of the portal, he remembered the Notre Dame transfer making it a point to ask questions of everybody he encountered, including walk-ons, to hear how they were treated at Florida State.

"You've got to be transparent. This is what it is," Atkins said. "You can't tell a kid, 'If you come here, man, I'm gonna give you every Sunday off.' Then you go ask another kid -- I didn't pair you with -- and he's like, 'No! We ain't ever got Sunday off!'"

Atkins laughed when he said that, as if misleading recruits is the dumbest idea he's ever heard. And it makes perfect sense when you hear him discuss the topic.

"Nobody likes used car salesmen," Atkins said. "When you walk in to a car lot, nobody is like, 'Oh, I'm so excited that you're about to hustle me.'"

But still.

In some cases, it almost seems counter-intuitive.

How has Atkins convinced three different OL transfers -- Lyles, Emmanuel and Turnetine -- to come to Florida State this offseason for their final seasons of college without at least implying that they'll win starting jobs?

This is their last season. All three could have kept or won starting jobs at their previous schools, and they definitely could have gotten strong assurances from other programs. But they instead chose to sign with FSU for nothing more than a promise that they'll get a fair shot?

Atkins says he couldn't have made any guarantees like that if he wanted to. He says Norvell doesn't even let returning starters get comfortable with the idea that starting jobs are theirs to keep.

"If we haven't promised it to the guys on the roster, then you know it ain't real," Atkins said.

Fair enough.

While it all seems like a more noble or honorable approach to recruiting, FSU's offensive coordinator/OL coach isn't trying to win ribbons for honesty.

Atkins has the same goals of every other coach in every other successful program -- he's trying to land the best prospects who are also the best fits for his team. He simply thinks this is the smarter way to recruit in this information age.

And Atkins says it usually pays off in the end, once prospects have done their fact-checking and realize they haven't been fed misinformation by FSU -- the way they might have from other schools.

"After they do their research, they get a little reassurance when it matches up to what you say," he said. "It's a simple concept, but I don't know if it's fully catching on."

Contact managing editor Ira Schoffel at ira@warchant.com and follow @IraSchoffel on Twitter.

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