Kansas Jayhawks head coach Turner Gill has a couple of policies that have ramped up the question of whether these policies would hurt recruiting.
Here are the two big policies that are drawing attention:
- No cell phones (the school takes them the day before the game and keeps them until post-game)
- No seeing girls after 10:00 p.m. on any night
We've discussed these policies and my biggest concern is with recruiting. There's going to be some 17 or 18-year old kid out there who reads about Gill's policies and he's going to think it's not worth it to not see girls after 10:00 p.m. and it's not worth it to deal with no cell phones for a day and a half and go some place else.
This isn't Alabama where recruits can expect to be competing for a national championship, therefore they're willing to put up with a lot more. Guys like Nick Saban could run their program they way they want because they're winning.
Turner Gill is not winning. He's 2-3.
"It's just teaching them discipline. Everything that we do is all about disciplining our guys and preparing them for life with football and preparing them for life without football. It's just part of our makeup."
I agree with the principles here -- football players need discipline. In fact, going so far to prepare players for life after football is admirable. I like Gill from that stand point. But, as far as I know, not many other coaches have had to institute rules and policies like Gill has.
Interestingly he does acknowledge that these particular policies have the potential to hurt him as a recruiter. College recruiting is not for the faint of heart. It's an intense, competitive business. You think other college coaches out there aren't pointing out to recruits the old-school policies Gill has? And how much better it would be at their school where they don't have a 10:00 p.m. no girls policy or a no cell phone policy? That's part of my concern here. People are going to take Gill's policies now that they've gone mainstream and hold it against Gill in the recruiting world.
"It's really just a situation of trying to teach guys how to do things in a proper way and be respectful to women and be respectful to everything we do in society," Gill said. "It's teaching people all about things about life. ... I explained it to our players and we've done things in the right way."
I think Coach Gill and I are on the same page here. I'm very interested in the result of his policies which are discipline, determination and focus for the players. It takes all those for a 18-22-year old kid to go without his cell phone two days a week and not to see girls after 10:00 p.m. I'm just not sure the avenue he's taking to achieve those goals is not the best one in this particular case.