Recruiting is the lifeblood of any program, and the NCAA allows college head coaches allows for a winter contact period where they can go do some very valuable in-home visits to further asses a prospective player's fit within their program.
In-home visits have been a long held staple of the recruiting process, as have off-campus contacts with recruits.
USA Today shared a piece this morning that laid out the number of those off-campus visits that were done over the last two winter contact periods, and the numbers tell an interesting story.
For example, Jim Harbaugh had taken part in 145 off-campus visits with recruits before he left for the Chargers
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian? 128 off-campus contacts.
Chip Kelly while at UCLA? 55 off campus visits, which included seven home visits with prospects.
How about Deion Sanders? Coach Prime has signed some of the top high school and portal players since arriving to Boulder while making exactly zero off-campus contacts.
That really shouldn't be as surprising as we make it to be, because nothing Prime has done has been conventional since becoming a college head coach - he also did exactly zero in-home visits as the head coach at Jackson State.college.
His unique all-access promotion of his program with near-daily behind-the-scenes content has proven to be priceless recruiting material already.
The article shares that Sanders is allowed an annual budget of $200k for the use of Wheels Up - a private air travel service for recruiting. The school shared with USA Today that Prime and his staff have not used the service for recruiting a single time.
Now, granted, Prime chose to completely rebuild his roster via the transfer portal since arriving, which likely played a significant role in not making as many of those off-campus contacts as some of the other coaches previously mentioned.
But it also didn't seem to hold him back at all.
Prime and his staff just signed a top 25 recruiting class for 2024 (per 247) that includes 24 transfers and seven high school players.
While his approach continues to buck conventional norms heading into year two, Prime's staff had more than 90 off-campus contacts with recruits and their families, the report also shares.
Prime recently hit the road for a tour to promote his new book, and also teased a new single coming out on a video that dropped yesterday.