Holgorsen’s recruiting call: all-out blitz
Richard Lazarou watched as the black passenger van pulled into the parking lot at Willowridge High School.
“We had a softball scrimmage and I figured it was our opponent rolling up,” said Lazarou, the school’s head football coach.
As the doors opened, 10 members of the University of Houston football coaching staff stepped out. It’s was all part of “MOB Mondays,” an all-out blitz on area recruiting by new coach Dana Holgorsen.
“I’ve been coaching 20 years and I have never seen anything like that where everybody comes (to the school),” said Lazarou, a UH grad.
With Holgorsen finalizing most of his staff just days before the contact period began in early January, UH has spent the past few weeks blanketing the city of Houston with a mobile version of the H-Town Takeover.
The first Monday, coaches took several cars and met at schools. Then came the idea, according to one staffer, to arrange a van that could take the entire staff to a few Houston area high schools on what would be the final recruiting week before Wednesday’s national signing day.
The stops all came in Fort Bend County at Willowridge, Foster and Bush high schools.
It is not unusual for a head coach, position coach or coordinator to visit a school on any given day to recruit. But with recruiting budgets tight, especially for out-of-town schools looking to score in one of the most fertile recruiting areas in the nation, the idea of an entire staff devoting several hours on one campus is rare.
“It shows how important Houston recruiting is and how important they are taking it,” Foster coach Shaun McDowell said. “It’s a unique idea, a great idea. It makes an impression not only with me, but the kids.”
With a late start — Holgorsen was introduced as UH’s coach on Jan. 3 — UH has spent the month not only looking to fill the remaining spots in the 2019 class but also making inroads on top prospects for 2020 and 2021.
“I’m going to visit as many high schools as I possibly can to rekindle relationships and build relationships with the ones I don’t know,” Holgorsen, a former offensive coordinator at UH from 2008-09 who has extensively recruited the Houston area and state of Texas, said shortly after being hired.
Earlier this month, Holgorsen met with the 14 signees that were recruited and signed by former coach Major Applewhite. It was as much a get-to-know as evaluation, with Holgorsen saying some of the signees were not “going to fit what we do.” Four were let out of their national letters of intent: Smithson Valley quarterback Levi Williams, Hightower cornerback Isaiah Essissima, Mansfield Legacy wide receiver Ife Adeyi and Elsik defensive end Rason Williams.
UH is believed to have eight spots open for 2019 after the addition last week of Demarion Williams, a top junior-college cornerback who flipped his commitment from SMU, and 6-2, 345-pound defensive lineman Olivier Charles-Pierre from New Mexico Military Institute. Two other JUCO signees — Northwest Mississippi Community College defensive end Taures Payne and Northeast Mississippi Community College linebacker Terrance Edgeston — were mid-year enrollees and will participate in spring practice. The rest of the class, headlined by four-star defensive end Nelson Ceaser of Ridge Point, will enroll in the summer.
With the change in coaching staffs and defections. UH’s current class is ranked 93rd nationally by 247Sports.
At Willowridge, Lazarou said the visit by the entire UH staff help separated the school from some of the nation’s marquee programs that have passed through in recent weeks. They are all in town to see top 2021 wide receiver Latrell Neville, who has nearly 30 offers, including most major Power Five programs.
“Every single coach has been here,” Lazarou said. “Nick Saban was here last week. Gary Patterson. Kirby Smart. Chad Morris. All the SEC. All the Big 12. Notre Dame. It’s just a blessing to see our home school take that so seriously instead of saying we can’t do it because everybody else is going to be here so we’ll try and go outside (the city).”
On the visit to Foster, UH’s new staff was able to introduce themselves to Chidozie Nwankwo, one of the top defensive tackles in 2020 who committed to the previous staff as a junior but has since re-opened his recruitment. Nwankwo, who wears No. 10 in honor of UH All-American defensive tackle Ed Oliver, is still considering the Cougars.
“It’s a great tactic,” McDowell said. “(UH) wants to try and preserve the recruits in the city of Houston, which is a no-brainer in my opinion.
“Plus, it only takes $5 in gas to get here.”