Rob Ianello talks about recruiting

Kansas wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator Rob Ianello met with the media following the Charlie Weis press conference. Ianello answered several questions about the Jayhawks recruiting efforts.

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On the bye week recruiting:

A bye week doesn't necessarily mean that you are off. A bye week means you go by-by on a plane. Bye NCAA rules you are allowed to send nine assistants out and the head coach. A year ago you only got one opportunity during the year to go out.

So now the entire staff can recruit when you go out. During the fall you get 42 mandated days to recruit. So one coach out equals one day. So you have seven coaches out that is seven days. We had 10 coaches out on Friday. And then we had nine coaches out on Saturday. We were stretched from coast to coast. That's the third occasion during the football season that we have utilized opportunities to go out.

We used two Fridays and then a Saturday. We will do that one more time this year when we play TCU. We have been through the Houston area, and through the Dallas area. We have also been in closer proximity (Kansas City and Kansas). We use the open date to go further away. Places we can go whether it be New York, California, to Florida or wherever. That is how we plan it out. I thought we got a lot done.

On using playing time as a factor to recruit:

I think you can sell two things. You can sell the numbers in the production of a James Sims and of Tony Pierson at the running back position. And how that has worked within our offensive system. Our offensive system has shown and proven that we have had great success with wide receivers in this offense. There have been a lot of guys that are playing on Sundays and a Biletnikoff Award winner. So we have the proof that the offensive system and that there is an opportunity to come here and help us improve. I think we have some guys on our team that are going to be very good players at the receiver position when they get experience and keep growing. We're going to need to keep recruiting guys to help that position. We need more playmakers on offense.

On selling the KU brand:

As coach (Weis) has said time and time again we don't really sell as much as we represent. Our University has a great brand. In the University of Kansas, when you walk into a high school it has recognition. That logo has recognition coast to coast.

Recruiting is about relationships. When you walk into a high school if you have a rapport with a high school coach, and you've established a rapport with the young man, those relationships will outlast a lot of things. As long as you are honest, and truthful, and up front with them through recruiting.

Recruiting off a 1-11 season:

We came in and we knew we had a rebuilding process. We didn't hide behind last season. But last season is an opportunity to be a part of something special. You can go someplace and do something they've always done or come someplace and be a part of a turnaround where you will always remember that for the rest of your life. You get to choose. Some guys choose not to want to do that in some guys embrace that. We are looking for the young men that embrace that.

On early success of junior college players:

As you look at any recruiting class with a 25 man roster unfortunately there are going to be some members of that class that don't have this excess you want them to have. But everybody has a role on a football team. We don't really worry much about the guys that aren't here anymore as much as the guys that are. I think if you look closely at the class we brought in there are bunch of guys contributing a lot. We feel like we hit on a tremendous number from that recruiting class. The guys that we're redshirting our guys that we feel get more time to continue to develop. We feel like they will hit, and be contributors to Kansas football as we move forward.

We might not recruit as many junior college players in this class, not for any other reason than to get younger players in our program and have them develop. What we did a year ago with the junior college players was recruit guys that are first team players right away and some that we think can be first team players that are second team right now. We also improved our depth overall.