All-access: An inside look at how Tech held its 2016 class together

RUSTON — Joe Sloan is a man of many talents, or job descriptions.

Whether it’s coaching the inside receivers and tight ends, serving as assistant head coach or acting as Louisiana Tech’s recruiting coordinator, the 29-year-old assistant might as well be known as Skip Holtz’s right hand man.

On this particular Wednesday, one that starts on a brisk morning before the sun has even yet to fill Joe Aillet Stadium, Sloan puts on his recruiting coordinator hat for National Signing Day, a hat for this specific class he’s worn for the past 18 to 24 months.

And as much as Sloan, or any coach for that matter, would prefer this day run as smoothly as possible, it rarely does.

It starts like any other, though, as Sloan rolls up to campus in his red pickup truck with some country music tunes blaring to help set the mood.

Sloan, who is a few hairs short of 6-feet, hops out of the truck, gathers his stuff and heads into the Davison Athletics Complex.

For the next few hours, he and the nine other coaches on staff will collectively put the finishing touches on the fourth class under Holtz.

They’ll laugh a little, they’ll sweat a little and they’ll drink more coffee than normal. Most of all, they’ll celebrate together because this year is different.

On this day, Tech will soon find out it not only held on to its class through yet another wave of coaching changes but the Bulldogs finished strong, grinding their way to the third-best class in Conference USA as rated by ESPN and 247sports.com.

“You get down to the last 48 hours and it’s so fragile because anything can flip it. You see guys changing all the time,” Sloan says as he settles in at his desk at Tech’s new $22 million facility. “Crazy things happen every single day. It’s like after working hard for so long you don’t want anything to screw it up the last few days.”

It’s not even 7 a.m. and the Kuerig in Sloan’s office is already in overdrive.  Today’s flavor of choice is Dunkin’ Donuts hazelnut.

Sloan notes how recruiting and coffee go hand and hand. He rarely drinks it during the season but needs it on the road recruiting when some visits can last until 10 p.m.

Meanwhile, the last few drops of coffee sputter out into Sloan’s cup. He grabs it and walks out the door as coaches start to file into Tech’s conference room that is now dubbed the “war room” for today.

Down the hall is defensive coordinator Blake Baker, who is focused on getting his breakfast from Whataburger in time for the rush of faxes that are about to infiltrate the building.

Baker later receives grief from the staff for not ordering everyone breakfast. That tune quickly changes when boxes of assorted breakfast items and drinks fill the room.

Grading Louisiana Tech's 2016 signing class

If the description of the room sounds like 2015, that’s because it’s a mirror image — just in a new building. But this year couldn’t be more different than 2015.

Usually, things are low key around the Tech football offices on signing day. Most, if not all, of the commitments are solid. The only thing left to do is wait on the official letters.

This year, Tech worked hard to close out the class, receiving eight commitments in the final three weeks including four in the final few days.

“The last 10 days is crunch time,” Baker says later in his office as things wind down. “It’s my least favorite week as far as recruiting, but it’s also a lot of fun at the same time.”

A few hours later, Tech will receive a commitment and subsequent letter of intent faxed in from McComb, Mississippi, defensive lineman KaDerrion Mason, a potential Vernon Butler-like specimen who decided to flip from Southern Miss.

Back over in the war room, a projector broadcasting ESPNU blankets an entire wall. The signing day show is mostly filled with class breakdowns and interviews but there are plenty of live decisions from the nation’s top prospects.

Rarely are there down-to-the-wire situations at Group of Five schools like Tech. The Bulldogs just happened to be on the right side of this one.

“I’m trying to think if we’ve had a signing day decision in the last couple years. This was a true signing day decision,” Sloan says. “He did not tell anybody.”

Tech was well on its way to a strong class over the summer when it had more than half of its class already solidified.

The staff usually feels less anxious through the summer and fall, but everything changes in December. That’s when recruiting opens up. Coaches visit schools to meet with coaches, houses to woo parents and even jobs to get a final word in with recruits.

The full-court press begins, and that’s when bigger-name schools can start to sway committed players.

“I would bet every single one of our recruits had someone try to pull them out of class or call their phone or whatever and see if they had interest,” Sloan says. “That’s just part of the game.”

The recruiting game doesn’t officially become hectic until the final 48 hours when coaches can make an unlimited amount of calls.

“That’s when you start blowing them up,” Baker says.

Baker estimates he made about 50 calls Monday and Tuesday to shore up commitments. Some of the talk is logistics — where is a player signing and at what time. The staff also makes sure the prospects received their letters of intent via FedEx.

Most of all, it’s to make sure they’re not wavering.

But no one has made more calls than Sloan. On several occasions Wednesday, Sloan dips out every so often to take a call or to call someone.

Persistence is key.

“We may have to get a surgeon here and get Joe Sloan’s phone removed from his ear,” jokes Chance Trickett, who is Tech’s director of recruiting and player personnel. “I haven’t seen it move once yet.

“I can’t wait to see what the TAC’s reaction is when they get that phone bill for this past month. It’s been wild.”

5 impact players from Tech's 2016 class

Sloan recalls how he made six calls Tuesday night to specific players he recruited. It wasn’t a late night, though, because he prefers to not call recruits after 9:15 or 9:30 p.m.

“It’s almost like stay on the phone with them, stay on the phone with them, stay on the phone with them and make sure nothing comes up,” he says. “No cold feet, no second thoughts, nothing.”

Mickey Joseph doesn’t quite need a surgeon like Sloan, but it takes two phones and a few chargers to keep his communication rolling during the 48-hour sprint.

Tech’s new running backs coach admits he doesn’t sleep much in the weeks leading up to signing day. There’s always a chance something may come up.

“You check it all night,” Joseph says laughing. “You got it right next to your bed, you’re waking up in the middle of the night checking to make sure nobody texts you or says, hey, he’s flipping.

“It’s not nerve-wracking, you just get that nervous feeling in your gut that something may happen. The best feeling is when that paper comes through the fax and you see all the signatures on it. That’s when you can say I did it.”

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How a coach does it is a different discussion.

Defensive line coach Rick Petri says the hardest part of communicating with a recruit is understanding limitations.

Among the concerns: Are we doing enough? Do you want me to fall back? Should I back off? Do you need space?

“There’s a fine line,” he says.

“You worry about are we doing too much because you have all these people involved. … In this case, the night before he (Mason) needed time and needed space so I gave it to him.”

Petri can’t remember the last time he was on the right side of a signing day decision.

Wednesday is his lucky day.

The long-time college assistant at Miami, South Carolina, Kentucky, Ole Miss and Duke, among others, reflects back on the night before and notes how he had a good feeling Mason may flip to Tech.

Everyone else is a bit more restless.

“Last year, to me, was a lot more laid back in that aspect and we pretty much knew who we were getting,” Baker says. “This year was like Christmas morning waking up hoping your parents got you the present you’d been asking for all year.”

The clock is closing in on 9 a.m. in the Tech offices and members of the staff like Petri, Baker and Sloan covertly shuffle into Sloan’s office. The door closes and a few heads in the war room curiously look around as to what is going on.

Soon thereafter, maybe 10 or 15 minutes later, a loud eruption permeates the halls from one side of the building all the way down to Holtz’s office.

Mason’s on board. Let the party begin.

Tech, of course, has to wait until Mason’s letter of intent comes through to make it official, but cries of “Slick Rick! Slick Rick! Slick Rick! Slick Rick!” — an ode to Petri’s slick-back hairstyle — can be heard outside of the war room.

A few high fives and some hugs follow. Holtz walks back in and stares around the room.

“Huge,” he says. “I’m sweating through my suit waiting for Mason’s signing.”

Once the fax is in, Holtz calls the entire staff and support members into the war room and gets Mason on speaker phone in what ends up being the most memorable moment of the morning.

“You made everybody's day,” Holtz shouts at Mason as a round of applause in the background ensues. “You made us all sweat a little bit. You feel as good as we do?”

“Yes sir,” Mason replies.

One by one, each coach takes a turn talking to Mason. Then Petri gets on the phone.

“You gave me a heart attack. I already had one heart attack. They had to give me CPR.”

Depending on what happens in this year’s NFL Draft, Tech could wind up with five former defensive linemen on NFL rosters in just the past three years.

Justin Ellis and IK Enemkpali were drafted in 2014 and Houston Bates made it to the active roster as an undrafted free agent. Vernon Butler is a likely first- or second-round pick this year and Vontarrius Dora has a chance to play his way on to a team.

All of the losses required replenishing at the position, led by the five defensive linemen signed Wednesday.

And the way in which Tech finished left the staff, specifically Petri, grinning.

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The Bulldogs were able to hold on to ESPN four-star recruit Willie Baker, who never wavered through the process, and Eric Kendzior, while added Mason, Kalan Ritchie and Keonatye Garner in the last few days before signing day.

“The last two weeks were kind of whirlwinds but we went after Kalan and all of a sudden Keontaye showed up and we were still grinding like crazy on KaDerrion and we kind of put the whip cream on the sundae,” Petri says. “I don’t know what you want to call it but it fell in place and I think we’re going to have a good mix.”

Add offensive lineman Josh Outlaw to the mix, who signed late after leaving Texas Tech last September, and whirlwind is an accurate way to sum up the finish.

Since December, Tech had two former commitments move, which created an obvious need at the position. Fortunately for Tech, all the stars seemed to align with Ritchie and Garner.

The staff came across Ritchie, who played at Goose Creek in high school before spending two years at Georgia Military College. Petri previously recruited the area at Duke, and Sloan had a connection at Georgia Military College.

Petri was quickly on a flight out to the East Coast to meet with Ritchie, and the 6-foot-6 defensive end came on a visit in late January before deciding to sign.

As for Garner, Petri received a tip about the defensive tackle from Copiah-Lincoln in Mississippi. Since Garner was a high school qualifier and could leave after just one year of junior college, Tech made sure that’s what his intentions were — coaches don’t like pressuring players to leave JUCO early unless they 100 percent want to — and sold Garner enough to receive a commitment last weekend.

“So many things fell into place,” Petri says of the late moves.

Two days after signing day, Tech filled its final staff vacancy by hiring Todd Fitch as new offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach. The move served as the ninth assistant to walk through Tech’s door in the past three years.

By now, Tech is prepared for the coaching changes in how it relates to recruiting, and even more so this year with more than 15 head coaching vacancies that popped up.

“We knew this year was going to be an interesting year more than others because of so much coaching movement throughout the season with as many new hires and change in this profession, kids change their mind,” Trickett says. “If a coach leaves, it’s fair if a kid changes his mind. You should always commit to the school and not a coach but it happens. You can’t be naïve about that.”

Todd Fitch reuniting with Skip Holtz again as Tech's new OC

Tech wound up losing five commitments but none were directly related to the coaching changes that resulted in the departures of Tony Petersen, Jabbar Juluke and Ronnie Bradford.

The ability to keep recruits locked in is a result of three points of contact.

“What I mean by that is … a position coach, area coach, recruiting coordinator, whatever it may be,” Baker says. “Three guys that have built a relationship with a kid. We try to emphasize you’re not coming here for one coach. We’re a close staff. Kids see that when they come and when one coach leaves, they know we have a good core in place.”

The close bonds on staff were easy for Joseph to recognize when he left Grambling for Tech.

His New Orleans ties helped land running back Israel Tucker late in the process, but Juluke did enough legwork before with the staff. A similar situation developed for Ouachita cornerback Zach Hannibal. Even though Bradford left for USC, quarterbacks coach Tim Rattay, who handles Monroe, served as Hannibal’s primary recruiter. Plus, Hannibal had a previous relationship with new cornerbacks coach Kevin Curtis at Texas Tech.

“When you have good kids and a positive family atmosphere, people don’t look at leave,” Joseph says. “They might talk to other people but they’re not looking to leave. That goes a long way with me.”

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Another local commitment, Wossman’s Ladarrius Thomas, went as far to call Juluke a second father. The late change left him “hurt”, but Thomas, who plans to grayshirt, met Joseph when on a visit in January and created an instant bond.

“He’s a good coach. He seems cool,” Thomas says recently. “We built a quick relationship.”

Joseph sits glued to his laptop in his new office as the morning winds down. Tech’s class is virtually complete, so the former Nebraska quarterback is watching a live stream of the announcement for Kristian Fulton’s, a highly rated cornerback from New Orleans who ended up choosing LSU over Florida and Arkansas.

Joseph’s interest piqued from his New Orleans roots, and while Tech wasn’t in the sweepstakes, Joseph is all too familiar with the feeling of missing out on players.

“You’re going to lose some battles in recruiting. It doesn’t make you a bad recruiter,’ he says. “You just gotta go back and work a little harder and see what you did wrong to lose that kid. Sometimes you lose them because they’re chasing something else. They’re not chasing reality.”

Looking back on Skip Holtz's first 3 recruiting classes at Tech

This year, Tech didn’t lose out on any signing day decisions but five players wound up exploring other options, most notably three-star quarterback Keondre Wudtee and three-star cornerback Kiondre Thomas.

In Tech’s case, the staff had a Plan B and sometimes Plan C to serve as replacements. The ability to not only hold on to a class but to replenish it after departures is a lesson Holtz says he learned a couple years ago, noting “recruiting is not over until signing day.”

“In the past what we would do is we would tell everybody else we’re done recruiting and we can’t take anymore. We would kind of let them all go because we had a verbal commitment,” he says.

And to avoid late sticky situations, like when junior college linebacker Thomas Cletcher announced Tuesday night he no longer planned on signing, Tech made sure to have a backup plan.

The Bulldogs haven’t filled Cletcher’s spot, per se, but they were more prepared than previous years. But in a case like defensive tackle Julius Turner, a former commitment who ended up signing at Rutgers, Tech corralled Garner late in the process.

Quarterback Jack Abraham ended up replacing Wudtee, and Mason and Ritchie took the place of Lorenzo Dantzler, who ended up signing with Southern Miss.

“One of the things we continued to do this year is when we had a commitment we continued to recruit some of the other players at that position just in case we were to lose them that we would be able to fill them with some of the other high quality players,” Holtz says.

If the excitement at Tech’s football offices wasn’t a good indication of how badly the coaches wanted Mason, their courtship process the previous week served as a reminder.

Holtz only gets one home visit per player, which he chose to use the Thursday before signing day. He ended up bringing the entire staff.

“Remember all those guys who came to your house?” Holtz tells Mason on the phone Wednesday morning.

Mason did, and it went a long way in helping him make the decision.

“We felt like in order to really make a difference that we had to let KaDerrion know how important he was going to be to our recruiting class,” Holtz later says at his signing day press conference.

“I thought it was a great home visit. We had an opportunity with not only him but his mother because she did not go on the official visit when KaDerrion came on the visit. I wanted her to feel comfortable with this decision if that was his choice.”

As expected, Holtz applauds his staff. Securing Mason ended up as a total team effort.

Petri and offensive line coach Robert McFarland, who coached in the Mississippi JUCO ranks as recently as two years ago, served as the lead recruiters, and Baker helped solidify things during the visit.

Maybe Baker can thank his Christmas outfit.

After the visit, Mason tweeted out a photo from late December of Baker’s family on Christmas with Baker sporting a onesie.

Obviously, it wasn’t specifically done for recruiting purposes, but it’s a reminder of how small, miniscule things can help along the process.

To that point, Tech’s coaches have plenty of recruiting stories to share at the signing day social Wednesday night.

Baker tells a story of how he fed David Beasley’s dog in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, during an in-home visit, and Joseph mentions how Tucker’s family in New Orleans brought out 50 chicken wings and pizza for Joseph and Holtz, who kindly obliged.

The one that tops it all comes from Sloan, who gets into a long story about how several members of the staff ended up at a McDonald’s to see Beasley and firm up his commitment.

Beasley had taken numerous days off from work during the recruiting process, so Tech decided to go to Beasley at his job. Once they cleared it with Beasley’s boss, they showed up at McDonald’s and met with the three-star safety prospect in the “party room.”

Sloan ended up sitting in a McDonald’s french fry chair.

As the day winds down, Holtz is hovered over his desk combing through documents like an accountant during tax season. Just a few feet away, glass windows give a view of the entire weight room a floor below.

The soon-to-be fourth-year coach takes off his glasses and notes how a pair of computer monitors to the right of his desk prevent him from keeping hawkeye tabs on his players.

In a nutshell, that’s what Holtz does leading up to signing day and on signing day itself. He keeps everything in order even though there’s always an anxious feeling.

“You hope somebody doesn’t change their mind and all of a sudden you have a curveball in the 11th hour,” he says. “I don’t go to bed going oh my gosh what are we going to do. You just hope everybody is going to be a man of their word.”

He’ll let his staff do the worrying while he sits back in a CEO-type role. He tries to keep the mood light, too, with enough one-liners to carry out a comedy sketch.

The first cries of laughter came early when a pair of coaches mixed up the times in which their players were supposed to sign. Instead of putting the actual expected fax sign, the time of their signing day ceremony at their respective schools was shown on Tech’s big board.

The result? Holtz, between sips of coffee, busts on his staff, dubbing one coach the winner of how “not to do your job” award.

The laughs are needed in these tense moments.

Periodically, Holtz steps foot in the war room and scribbles names off a list to note that a player is signed. The unchecked players are still 99 percent certain but a coach is never relieved until pen hits paper.

“What you’re looking for is an uneventful signing day,” he says later.

By Tech’s standards, the day is eventful, but in a good way. Different isn’t always a bad thing.

Holtz, who munched down pastries and about nine cups of coffee at this time last year, motions to his waist and how he’s watching what he eats nowadays.

The coffee still flows — Holtz estimates he had five cups on this day — and so do the faxes. The sweat is a bit more than normal but it pays off as the coaches can leave satisfied with the way things came together.

“The ones we were able to get out and fill it with I think are really quality players.” Holtz says. “I don’t think we settled. I don’t think we dropped.”