1-on-1 with Director of Player Personnel Ryan Roberts (Part 3)
Third and final part of my interview with Ryan Roberts on Wednesday. Can’t thank him enough for his time and insight!
On how the scouting process works this time of year
“So, let’s say (Coach DiBiaso as an example) is out on the road and he finds a kid and is like ‘oh man, this kid is great.’ He’ll take a picture with him so we can get a body type and that’s great for us. We can see a picture of the kid, the kid will post it on Twitter and whatnot, What we’ll do, is Coach Dibs or any other coach will say ‘hey, I saw this kid, looked great physically. 6’3,” 210 lbs. He’s be a great safety for us,’ whatever. So, he’ll text me that, I’ll go straight to Hudl which is how we watch film. I’ll turn on the tape, put in an evaluation into the system – basically we have a whole system where we say ‘this guy can help us, he can be a dude for us, we need to continue evaluating him’ – it’ll automatically populate to the coaches’ pipeline.
“It’s hard to explain, but they’ll have a little website ding that will pop up that says ‘hey you’ve been sent an evaluation by Ryan Roberts and this is a guy you need to evaluate and watch.’ It brings some great conversation. I think it’s a cool way for coaches to communicate with Julian and I with guys they find. Julian and I will be going out on the road for a little bit, which will be nice to get out there and see some guys ourselves. But, while we’re here, we’re just evaluating and grinding out tape.”
On what the message is to recruits when selling BC
“It’s hard for me to look at Boston College and not see what you can sell. You can obviously bring up maybe a tough year last year, but to be fair, looking at the school for what it offers, it’s an incredible package. Being right outside of Boston, four miles outside the city. The academic piece, the education here. Playing in the ACC. Those three points bring a good base and then you break it down to how much the football in the building matters and the coaches. I can speak individually for every one of our coaches and just what I’ve gotten to know from them and the men they are, just Coach O’Brien for example…his resumê speaks for itself. I think that’s a great selling point for a lot of guys because a majority of the recruits we talk to want to make it to the NFL.
“Being able to get them in here to an NFL system that’s NFL-built, a weight room that’s NFL-built, an entire organization with ties back to the NFL is a really neat selling point. I’m not saying you don’t have that a lot of other places. Being with Coach Belichick was I think a great opportunity for me to see how that was run. So, it’s a full circle moment too being here with Coach O’Brien to see a lot of similarities in some ways, but also a lot of differences with the NFL structure and how things are ran.
“I think for Boston College, you can talk about the on-field, the in-the-building product, but it offers a unique perspective outside the building with Boston, the academic piece and the things you can do. It’s also about understanding the kid. What are they about? Do they have the right stuff? Because some guys also get the chance to play a little earlier. Depending where they’re from, they get the chance to come in…if we have an older room, if we have a senior-heavy room and next year we need some younger guys to come in, they have a chance to play a little earlier, it’s all need-based too.
“The recruiting sell is a really easy one here. I think there’s so much, when you get a kid up here and they see the campus and you take them out on their official visit to see Boston, I’ve heard nothing but great things about how their eyes are wide open. I’m excited to be a part of that in June and see that all. In the sort term, from the time I’ve been here, it’s a really easy place to sell.”
