South Allegheny grad takes recruiting to new level
Dave Wannstedt, Rich Rodriguez, Jim Harbaugh, Greg Schiano and Mike Leach have coached a combined 779 college football games over the past 20 years — amassing more than 450 wins across 10 different universities. All five are household names among the football coaching ranks, and all five hold one thing in common.
They put their trust in South Allegheny’s own Matt Dudek.
“I’ve always been amazed that people put their programs at the Power Five level in the hands of a very below average high school football player,” said Dudek, whose playing days ended at South Allegheny in the late ’90s. “There’s no reason a short, fat guy like me should’ve ever been a standup defensive end.”
In the time since, Dudek has more than made up for his lack of athletic prowess to carve out a career in football.
The Port Vue native is entering his first season as Leach’s director of football recruiting at Mississippi State, a position he assumed in April after spending four years in the same role for Harbaugh at the University of Michigan. He’s now tasked with drawing the country’s most sought-after talent away from the likes of Alabama, LSU and Auburn in favor of the Bulldogs, who compete in a stacked SEC West division resembling the closest thing to an NFL farm system.
“Everywhere [Leach] has coached, he’s been extremely successful,” said Dudek. “His offense takes a little bit of time to get the personnel pieces in place, but when it gets rolling, I think that’s going to open up doors. If we get guys that fit and they play really well, then that will open up the doors to the elite of the elite talent. We’re really going to be bashing heads [with the top programs] for not just one or two guys, but for all of them.”
It’s not an easy job to say the least, but one Dudek has excelled at for quite some time.
“There’s a lot of different ways to do this,” he said. “For me, it’s about hospitality first and foremost. When these kids come to campus and when you’re meeting them, you need to be genuine.
The other piece is the evaluation part. They need to be good enough, fit what you’re doing and fit your culture.”
Under Dudek, Michigan’s recruiting classes ranked as high as No. 8 nationally (never lower than No. 14) and landed among the Big Ten’s top-3 classes in each of his four years with the program. Prior to Ann Arbor, he served as on- campus recruiting coordinator and director of player personnel at Arizona from 2011-2015, before Rodriguez gave him college football’s first-ever “general manager” title in 2016. In addition to recruiting, he oversaw roster management, walk-on tryouts, practice schedules, NFL scout correspondence and other operational responsibilities for the Wildcats.
“I went from being a part of a program that beat [Rodriguez], 13-9, to knock him out of the national championship, to becoming the first general manager of college football history under him,” said Dudek.
Dudek’s path to prominence is far from ordinary, but it started at Pitt. He didn’t major in sports management or complete personnel scouting internships as an undergrad, nor did he graduate with the intent of getting into sports. Instead, he spent his first three years post-college working as a general manager and assistant to the CEO of the Fortune 500 Maxim Crane Works company in Phoenix, Ariz.
Maxim provided metal structures that the Pitt football program used to film practices. Dudek, who planned on leaving his job in the coming weeks to pursue grad school at Duquesne, called Pitt’s director of football video services, Chad Bogard, to ask if he could deliver the structures one month in advance. Upon finding out about his return to Pittsburgh, Bogard offered Dudek a video student assistant position with the program, which he accepted.
Dudek went from making six figures to a $2,500 stipend per semester. He looks back on it as he best decision he ever made, one that ultimately set the stage for where he is today.
“That Pitt staff was incredible,” he said. “It was a great way to learn about the process. I didn’t know anything. I was never recruited, so I didn’t know the recruiting process. I didn’t know the behind-the-scenes stuff of breaking down film. Just seeing it every day, being around the office and working really hard at whatever they asked me to do was so important.”
A “Yinzer” sign hangs above Dudek’s desk in his office at the Mississippi State football facility, which often draws questions from those unfamiliar with Pittsburghese. However, the sign isn’t just a reference to the slang — it’s an ode to a way of life Dudek has embodied throughout his journey across the college football landscape.
“It’s how I was raised,” he said. “The humility, the blue- collar work ethic. That’s how the Pittsburgh community is. It’s a real thing. I’ve been all over the country and can attest that it’s absolutely a real thing. I very much carry Pittsburgh with pride.”