Colorado’s recruiting success started before the wins came
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boulder» When Dante Sparaco arrived at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., in August, the former Cherry Creek football player became a teammate of some of the country’s top four- and five-star prospects.
The college prep school included players who this season committed to programs such as Alabama, Texas A&M and Ohio State.
Sparaco would tell his new teammates he would be playing college football at Colorado, and he was often met with raised eyebrows. The body language sent a message: You’re joining a program headed nowhere.
“Being recruited by them and knowing what’s going on inside the program, you know that’s not what’s happening,” said Sparaco, a 6-foot-5, 255-pound tight end who could play defense for the Buffs. “Even though you can’t prove it to them with onthe-field (results), you know what’s really happening. When the winning comes, it just makes it that much easier to say, ‘Look, I’ve been telling you guys that they were worth it — that they had a vision and it was real.”
Sparaco, who committed to the Buffs 10 months ago, doesn’t have to do much convincing these days. Since he began his final high school season, CU has won 10 games, captured the Pac-12’s South Division title, authored the biggest single-season turnaround in league history and earned a berth in the Dec. 29 Alamo Bowl.
That bounty has helped boost a recruiting class for CU that is ranked 18th in the country by Scout.com, putting the Buffs behind only Washington (15th) and USC (17th) among Pac-12 programs. CU recently added impact players to the class — including fourstar Pomona offensive tackle Jake Moretti, who flipped last month from a previous commitment to Ohio State. CU also received verbal commitments in October from DeSoto High School standouts KD Nixon and Xaiver Newman, who played for a Texas high school state championship Saturday.
As impressive as CU’s on-field rise has been this season, its emergence as a player on the national recruiting scene has been perhaps just as remarkable.
“Being successful this year kind of solidified a lot of guys,” said CU coach Mike MacIntyre, speaking generally about recruiting. “It sort of put the other nail in the coffin, so to speak. So that’s exciting.”
But the momentum for a nationally ranked recruiting class — after years of finishing at the bottom of the Pac-12 — started rolling long before the Buffs began piling up wins this season. Two years ago, athletic director Rick George and MacIntyre agreed that in order to compete, CU had to expand its recruiting budget and build a bigger support staff focused on identifying prospects, similar to those found at schools in the Southeastern Conference.
More support allowed the CU staff to put more eyes on game film, allowing assistants to be more efficient in the players they targeted when they hit the road to recruit.
“We had a lot of roots laid down with the system that we’ve had for 26 months now,” MacIntyre said. “It’s a process as time goes along. And then our new facilities, when they come and see that anytime, it blows them away.”
CU added a big piece of the puzzle one year ago when it hired Darrin Chiaverini, a former Buffs wide receiver, to be the team’s co-offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator. Chiaverini’s energy, strong interpersonal skills and knack for effectively using social media created a surge in recruiting success upon his arrival.
Chiaverini also understands that recruiting is much like real estate. Location is everything.
“When I first got to back to Colorado,” he said, “we had sat down as a staff and talked about getting back into Texas heavily. We ended up putting five coaches down there to recruit, really hit the high schools and really develop relationships with the coaches and the players. At the end of the day, recruiting comes down to relationships. Do they trust you? Do they think what you’re saying is true? When you start building those relationships and you start having some success on the field as well, it takes it to another level.”
Of the 24 CU commits in the 2017 class, eight hail from Texas. Three of those, including four-star wide receiver Laviska Shenault Jr., are from DeSoto, the alma mater of Broncos linebacker Von Miller. Chiaverini said playing a big bowl game in San Antonio will only further boost CU’s promising foray into the Lone Star State.
“It’s huge, awesome,” Chiaverini said. “Not only are you playing a former Big 12 rival, you’re playing in the state of Texas when we have eight or nine commits from down there, and a lot of them are coming to the game. You’re going to be visible down there. It’s a win-win for us to go down there and showcase our brand.”
In recruiting, like baseball, it helps to have a strong closer. When MacIntyre was an assistant under David Cutcliffe, first at Ole Miss and then at Duke, Cutcliffe recognized an uncommon knack for recruiting he knew would serve MacIntyre well once he became a head coach.
Operating the command center for a top-20 recruiting class proves MacIntyre, college football’s national coach of the year for 2016, has only improved since then at making his pitch.
“There’s not necessarily a tangible thing you can lay your finger on, but it’s the way he talks and the way you see his eyes light up when he talks about something he’s passionate about,” Sparaco said. “He just commands an air of respect and dignity when he comes into a room and talks to you. When stuff happens like that, you just know he truly believes in what he’s talking about. When the person who’s talking believes it, it’s kind of hard for you not to believe it.”