Every program and head coach has their own methodology in identifying who to recruit, and what would make each student athlete a great fit for their program.
No coach will deny that talent, potential, and being a man of character are all traits high on their respective lists, but for Mark Helfrich and the staff at Oregon, their list includes some non-football specific criteria, consisting of eight areas that they evaluate.
While it's no surprise that Helfrich wouldn't share what those eight criteria were at their signing day press conference yesterday, he did offer up some interesting insight when a reporter asked where a trait like character is on their checklist in relation to something like talent.
"One thing that we've added, is that we have an eight step process, or eight criteria, that have nothing to do with football."
"That's one thing that we always talk about it 'manage the knowns.' Manage as many of the knowns as we can, because the five star, all world player, is at worst in college football, a little worse than a coin flip that that guy is really going to be a player."
"That's just the proven science of it. So the more of that coin flip that you can lean toward your direction up front of all the things that you're trying to find out, that we're allowed to find out, we try to manage those as best as possible...without exception."
Hear more on the topic from Helfrich below, including his humorous take on how he compared their 2014 signing class to his wife "settling" on him as a husband.