Horns hire Tide’s Suddes
New position to serve as “point person” for all recruiting efforts.
Mack Brown has taken the first step in building a recruiting department for the Longhorns’ football program. Now the question becomes: What’s next?
Texas announced Thursday that Patrick Suddes has been hired as the Longhorns’ firstever director of player personnel. Suddes, former associate director of football operations at Alabama, is Brown’s first hire since the NCAA has lifted many restrictions on the size and scope of recruiting.
In its announcement, Texas said Suddes will serve as the “point person on all of the Longhorns’ recruiting efforts” as well as coordinate the UT football camps and its annual high school coaches clinic.
What kind of recruiting staff will serve under Suddes,
a 2005 Alabama graduate, remains to be seen. Brown has said recently he expects the NCAA to revisit and probably revise some of its recently relaxed recruiting rules. But that might pertain more to contact with prospects through social media and other outlets than it does on the size of recruiting-specific staffs.
In his statement Thursday, Brown hinted there is more to come, which would help Texas catch up with the recruiting staffs that some other programs already have established.
“I think he’s the perfect fit to build and lead our player personnel department,” Brown said.
Suddes held the associate director position for five of his past six years on the Crimson Tide staff. In his role, he supervised and planned Alabama’s annual coaching clinic, coordinated team travel, oversaw youth and high school camps, helped organize team practice and worked with the organization and evaluation of the Tide’s walk-on program.
“When I was growing up, the University of Texas was always one of the programs that I thought about as a great place to be because of its tradition and history as a winning program,” Suddes said in a statement. “This is the only job I would have left the Alabama program for.
“I think being able to grow within a system and building something new here is an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”
Brown said Suddes (pronounced SUHD-ess) is “very passionate about recruiting and building a team.”
“Everyone we talked to said he’s the guy you need,” Brown said.
Suddes isn’t the first hire Brown has made from Alabama. In the makeover of the staff after the 2010 season, he hired defensive tackles coach Bo Davis from Alabama coach Nick Saban’s staff. Also, Brown hired current co-offensive coordinator and play caller Major Applewhite from Alabama before the 2008 season.