1-on-1 with Assistant GM Julian Rowe-Cohen

While players enjoy a little bit of time off now that school is done, it’s busy season for staffs around the country.

it’s basically an all-hands-on-deck approach chasing the next diamond in the rough, or trying to woo the biggest names out there to come to Chestnut Hill. It takes an army. You may lose a few battles, but the goal is to come out better for the future every trip into a high school or a home. Coaches have been scattered around the country, while GM Kenyatta Watson, assistant GM Julian Rowe-Cohen and director of player personnel Ryan Roberts have all hit the road too.

Rowe-Cohen was nice enough to chat about the process and some other things for a good 20 minutes a few days ago. I felt it was pretty insightful, hopefully you guys see it the same way…

How valuable are the Connecticut and Massachusetts Showcase Days this week? Why do you think they’ve become a big event for national scouts and coaches?

“A lot of the showcases around the country where they’re bringing all the schools to one site are actually illegal now for the ACC and Power Four schools. So, the great thing about the New England Showcase Days is that it is at every single respective different institution. So, you are really driving around, but the times all work out, so you can see everyone you want to see individually, while having the driving time mapped out, grabbing meals, all of that. So, those coaches do an amazing job of collaborating together. They’ve created a really meaningful day of evaluation for us, which is great.

“Especially as the NCAA cracks down on other types of workouts, what’s organized, what’s allowed and what’s not…these days are certainly very helpful.”

June is obviously a big month for all programs, but with the new staff in place, how excited are you to go through your first official visits and camp season as a group?

“June’s fun. June’s great. We’ve got three weekends of official visits with a number of other kids who are staggered on other recruiting visits. It’s super busy. We’ve got a bunch of camp dates. June 2nd is the ‘Under the Lights’ camp to kick off the camp season. That’ll primarily be focused on trying to get top kids in there, especially 2027s we’re still looking to get some evaluations on. A lot of those other camps are so good, especially for younger kids, the 2028s, the ’29s, the ’30s,, being able to get those guys on campus.

“So, it’s exciting. As we all know, June in Boston is such a beautiful month. For us to be able to showcase that to these families…you know, many of who we’ve been able to have on campus in March and April during spring practice, but really being able to treat them to a Boston experience on our dime is pretty cool. We’re really excited to be able to do that. We’re really excited about the way our 2027 recruiting board is falling right now.

“As we gear up, we’ll finalize some of the evaluations, figure out who we’re really, really, really prioritizing in some spots and just figuring out who really wants to come to BC. We’re excited to see how it all shakes out.”

This is a very generic question, but in this day and age, how many names are on a recruiting board? Does it look like an NFL war room draft board?

“It varies immensely. It depends on the year, a class, how many kids you’re taking overall and how many kids you’re taking at a certain position. There’s certain positions where it’s very easy to replenish names because there’s lots of talent out there that exists. So, in a wide receivers class where, let’s say you’re taking three wide receivers hypothetically, there’s a lot of really, really talented receivers that are out there. That’s not a particular number for us in this class, but just an example, there’s a lot of talent out there.

“So, we might have a broad wide receivers board, but then we might have a secondary board as well that has a whole bunch of other names there, because it’s not as hard to replace those teams, you know? Like, defensive tackle is a really hard position to recruit. A lot of those guys who are maybe more developmental are still going to be recruited highly because of size. It’s hard to find bodies that look like that. At that position…even if you’re only taking one defensive tackle in a class hypothetically, you need to have a very long, extensive recruiting board.

“So, it really varies class to class. You’ve got your primary board, but then you’ve got your ‘next up’ boards as well. At any given time, there’s hundreds of kids on there.”

You’ve been in the recruiting game a long time now. What is the biggest difference you see in the overall approach (aside from NIL) that may or may not work? Whether it’s messaging, how parents receive truths about their kids, etc. What’s changed the most?

“It’s still about the people. That’s what’s the same. It’s remarkable…I’ll treat this very hypothetically, but this is sort of all encompassing with what I’ve dealt with at various places with recruits…there’s a top recruit at a marquee position who is going to be compensated well no matter where he goes to school, in rev share or NIL opportunities. His mom and dad still want to know whether he has to go to class. They want to know whether the academic support systems are in place. They want to know what the dorm living situation is going to be like. Are the coaches going to develop him? Not just as a football player, but is he going to be taken care of off the field?

“Is the culture at BC a family atmosphere? That’s something we still see, especially with the type of kids we recruit. We try to recruit really good kids from really good families. That’s something I still notice is a common thread. That’s something that’s been a priority for me throughout my career and I’ve been very fortunate. Obviously, there’s different levels, or tiers of prospects relative to stars, etc. that you recruit at different places or in certain regions, but at the end of the day, you still need to be making strong evaluations and know you’re recruiting the right kids.

“To that end, I don’t think that changes. Now, look, there are differences. There are agents. There were no conversations with agents before. There were…a few years ago, there were no presentations on rev share, NIL, stuff like that as part of an official visit. Then, a couple years ago, those presentations were very, very generic ‘this is how it works in college football.’ Now, presentations are really personalized, one-on-one at meetings sometimes on visits. Everybody’s got an individual situation and it’s a different world.

“So, other than that, if you’re recruiting the right types of kids…obviously, those conversations are happening, but you can often have those conversations separately offline in a way that doesn’t really impact the family and recruiting process. It’s still about the relationships first. Ultimately, you’re still recruiting 17-year old kids whose parents want them in a place that’s the best for them.”

Have you learned anything about Kenyatta Watson you didn’t know having worked with him for a few months now?

“It’s been such a pleasure getting to work with him. From the second he got here, the juice that he brings on a day-to-day basis is awesome. He has such a phenomenal feel and understanding for how the recruiting landscape works. First and foremost before anything else, he’s a huge relationships guy. What I’ve learned from him is you are never too advanced in your career, or never too high up to be working the phones, talking to kids and building relationships, spending time with the prospects and getting to know them and their families.

“It doesn’t matter what your role is, what your title is, what your responsibilities are, that is always going to be important and I’ve learned that from him. The other thing…and I don’t know if it’s learned as much as it’s just observed and deeply appreciated…he’s the guy who every morning will get to the office and say ‘good morning’ to every single person in the building. Every single person. And it’s not like ‘I do that on my first day and I don’t ever do it again.’ That’s who he is as a person on a day-to-day basis every single day and I have great admiration for that.

“I can’t be more complementary about how sharp he is and how well he knows the recruiting landscape and how much I can learn from him, relative to understanding how it works – not just at one or two institutions – but understanding how it works across the board. He just has so much wisdom relative to the structure of college football recruiting. That’s great, but anybody in the world can learn how to treat people from Kenyatta Watson. It’s really awesome to watch.”

What’s the buzz around BC from recruits? What’s the feedback you’ve been getting about the messaging and direction of the program?

“The NFL development is certainly something we’ve been selling aggressively and it’s something we get great feedback on. Kids have been really impressed. To be able to continue to advertise BC as a place where if you come, you will have a shot to be an NFL football player and be developed by world-class coaches is something that’s really important to everything this place represents.

“On the offensive line, obviously I think there’s the great sell, right? I mean, I wasn’t here yet, but you look at two years ago, Jude Bowry, NFL Draft pick. Jack Connelly, obviously got a shot, practice squad, still in the NFL kicking around. Drew Kendall might start at center for the Eagles. Logan Taylor was a draft pick, he’ll have a shot in LA. Ozzy (Trapillo) obviously started games for the Bears as a rookie in the NFL last year. For us, you want to play in the NFL as an offensive lineman, come to BC.

“But, then it’s across the board too. Donovan, Q stacked in back-to-back years, even if Q was banged up and didn’t get to play the entire year. Lewis, for all the fuss that was made about him not getting invited to the combine – which was obviously incredibly unjust – gets his shot and gets his draft pick over guys that did go to the combine. A handful of guys at his position. It’s a testament to those guys on an individual basis and their work ethic, but also the development of the program as a whole.

“I think the other thing is just the upward trajectory and the juice. Guys come to our practice and the biggest feedback that we got prior to the NFL Draft from recruits is they were like ‘wow, you guys look different. You guys look big. You guys look faster.’ Especially the guys that have come back a couple different times. We’ll see how it turns out on the field, but I think we really did a good job in the transfer portal flipping the body types and flipping the athletic profile at many positions on the team.

“We’ve got a long way to go, but we feel confident we did a good job of flipping a lot around. We’ve heard ‘you guys just look like a different football team off the bus right now’ especially up front on both sides. So, for us, we think that’s pretty cool.”