Offseason? Boise State coaches know value of being always on

BOISE — Pictures and mementos from Boise State's Fiesta Bowl win against Arizona on New Year's Eve have made their way into the Broncos' football facilities, dotting the walkways, conference rooms and display cases that serve both as the coaching staff's home away from home and a vital piece of the program's recruiting efforts.

The coaches themselves, however, spent little time reveling in any post-Fiesta Bowl enthusiasm; the staff took just four days to celebrate the victory, one of the most memorable in program history, before turning toward the completion of its in-process recruiting class.

Preparations for spring drills came quickly on the heels of national signing day: Boise State coaches spent weeks evaluating their returning personnel and preparing a plan for the upcoming practices before kicking off drills on March 9.

The team's end-of-spring scrimmage was held on April 11, less than a week before the start of college football's spring evaluation period — a recruiting stretch that gives each program's staff of nine assistants until May 31 to share a total of 168 days performing in-person visits at high schools within their prescribed recruiting footprint.

Then it's off to camps up and down the West for the month of June, whether of the satellite variety — perhaps one of the most contentious topics active in college football — or those featuring prospects willing to travel for tutorials held on Boise's blue turf.

July brings a brief reprieve, a few weeks for coaches to recharge before the start of fall camp in early August, but even that breath-catching opportunity belies the biggest misconception about coaching major-college football: There is no offseason.

"I don't think we have one," Boise State defensive line coach Steve Caldwell said. "There's not really an offseason. When you walk back on the last week of July, it's all over. It starts the cycle all over again."

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It's a similar refrain across the Football Bowl Subdivision, where programs spend these out-of-season periods focusing on three primary objectives: developing their returning personnel, thanks to recent NCAA legislation allowing for one hour of hands-on coaching each week; developing plans and schematics for upcoming opponents, particularly those featured in nonconference play; and, above all else, recruiting.

Boise State's the same as the rest, with a slight twist: More than any other FBS program outside the major-league structure, the Broncos have realistic national-title aspirations without the benefit of blue-blooded conference pedigree. For this program, hanging with the nation's elite takes hard work, long hours, competitiveness, a diligent recruiting effort, a tried-and-true sense of identity and, for the blue-turfed Broncos, embracing what separates the program from the rest of college football.

"Yeah, we have to be different," said second-year coach Bryan Harsin, a Boise State assistant from 2001-10. "And we are. I think that started back when the field was put in there. We've got that blue field. That's part of who we are. I think the blue field is a symbol of our program. We're different. We talk about being different in what we do."

The foundation for what makes Boise State different — and by extension, what makes the program successful — is laid not during the fall but from February through August, when the program puts in behind-the-scenes work for what Harsin terms the "36 hours" of regular season games: The dozen three-hour increments that define success, or a lack thereof, for every member of the FBS.

"Basically, you're guaranteed 36 hours a year that count," tight ends coach and special teams coordinator Kent Riddle said. "So we're working the rest of the year to make sure those count.

"I think the big deal is we still work. It's just a different phase of our program, getting us ready for 12, hopefully 13, 14 Saturdays — or for us, Thursdays, Fridays, whatever. For us, it's all geared towards making sure that we're ready to go on those days."

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Satellite camps — when head coaches and assistants staff camps held off campus, typically in fertile recruiting areas — are one of the newest tools at Boise State's disposal.

The Broncos dipped into the satellite pool for the first time last summer, holding a single camp in Houston that yielded zero eventual commitments to the 2015 recruiting class. One year later, the program shifted its gaze to southern California — another area key to its recruiting efforts — for a pair of camps: one at Centennial High School in Corona, and the second held at Long Beach City College.

Even as a percentage of college coaches bemoan the proliferation of satellite events — Alabama's Nick Saban called them "ridiculous," questioning if they provide some schools with a competitive advantage — the numbers at the Broncos' two camps suggest that here-and-now recruiting is secondary: Boise State had only offered a handful of the hundreds of attendees, though the staff planned to extend six or seven scholarship offers based on their in-person evaluations.

To be fair, those assessments are the events' most beneficial immediate aspect for the Broncos' recruiting efforts; Boise State does yeoman's work in advance of extending an offer getting to know a player, but often won't trust what it sees on highlight tapes — waiting instead for that invaluable live example of what a prospective prospect brings to the table.

"I think the in-person evaluation, getting to see kids live, is one of the things our coaches want to see the most," said Taylor Tharp, Boise State's director of player personnel. "You want to be able to go verify what you see on tape because everybody can make a highlight tape. Everybody can look good for 15, 20 plays. You want to be thorough."

Yet there's a far more indispensable positive to take from satellite events held in the program's hottest recruiting grounds: It's a chance for the Broncos to wave the flag, promoting its brand in areas crucial to its long-term success and laying the foundation for continued forays into southern California.

"It's great for us," linebackers coach Andy Avalos said. "We're able to put the brand out there and let people who aren't around us see what we're all about. On every front, for everybody, I think it's a great experience."

Boise State can promote itself to players, schools and coaches in the area. Prospects who can't afford to make their own trips to Boise can meet and greet coaches; said Riddle, "it's easier for us to go to them than them to come to us." The camps are a recruiting opportunity, if done with eyes as much on the future as the present, and a teaching opportunity, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Eliah Drinkwitz said.

It's all part of the program's long game, a big-picture view that partially contradicts Harsin's "36 hours" mantra. Boise State cares about the games ahead in 2015, but that view extends far beyond this coming fall; the Broncos also have eyes on 2016 and beyond, and use every available moment — highlighted in June by camps staffed off campus — to build the framework for not just a successful season, but successful seasons to come.

"Not all those kids are going to be Broncos," Harsin said. "But hopefully they left there saying, 'I love Coach Avalos.' If they're talking great about the Broncos and next year one of their friends attends the camp, who knows … maybe it'll be a guy we're on at that point."

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Boise State coaches have developed routines for handling the long hours away from home during the out-of-season months.

When recruiting California's Inland Empire, Avalos will stay with his father in Corona, Calif., where he was raised, and take early-morning runs through the neighborhoods he once called home before grabbing a coffee and calling his wife and young daughter.

Defensive coordinator Marcel Yates, who recruits his hometown area of Los Angeles, will often fly his wife and two children down during open weekends; he'll also spend nights in Southern California with his parents, finding comfort in the familiarity of family.

Caldwell will do his best to stay away from unhealthy foods — burgers and the like — and sometimes fail, though not for lack of effort. When in his recruiting area of Arizona, offensive line coach Scott Huff will drive out of his way to stay with family, a move that saves the school money on hotels while giving Huff's on-the-road existence some semblance of normalcy.

The recent spring evaluation period lasted 46 days. With the exception of wide receivers coach Junior Adams, who missed the start of the period after the birth of his daughter, each Boise State assistant coach spent at least 17 of those days on the road; that total doesn't count travel days, meaning the assistants spent even more of that time away from home.

During the first full week of May, for example, defensive backs coach Julius Brown flew to California on a Sunday, spent Monday in Fresno, Tuesday and Wednesday around Sacramento, flew to Texas on Thursday and spent Friday in Dallas. Of the seven days, Brown spent just one, Saturday, back in Boise.

"I sympathize with those guys because we're big on family here," said Antwon Murray, the Broncos' director of recruiting. "Those guys being away sometimes for three weeks at a time is tough. I know how much they love to spend time with their families."

The results of the staff's efforts speak for themselves: Boise State has notched double-digit wins in every season since 1999 but three — 2001, 2005 and 2013 — and has come as close as any non-major program to cracking college football's championship hierarchy. The effort itself, meanwhile, while not necessarily unique to Boise State, speaks to the program's commitment to combing every possible angle to challenge those title rivals with a wider net of built-in advantages.

"The definition of excellence here is to do a common thing with uncommon discipline and uncommon enthusiasm," Harsin said. "And really doing it. Do what you say. If these are the main things, let's do the very best at them as we can."

Boiled down, the program's adoption of satellite camps speaks to Boise State's annual reinvention — a process of "stripping things down," Harsin said, of "breaking it all apart and putting it back together."

The goals are simple: Win the Mountain West Conference, win a bowl game and strive for academic excellence — and fight for a national championship.

"We believe we can do those things," said Harsin. "I think you're crazy if you don't. I think every program has to believe they have an opportunity to do that. If that were to happen at Boise State, that's what college football is about. That's what this place is about. Not to say that anything is possible, but there are possibilities. Shoot for the moon and see what happens."

It just takes a grind. It's not one of monotony or repetitiveness but of early mornings, scorching afternoons and long nights: It never stops, Avalos said, even during those short interludes away from the job. Those moments often are spent on forward-looking, down-the-road recruiting, which has become a more and more central part of the coaching profession within the last five years, Harsin said.

"That's all part of the norm," said Avalos. "It's just not even a big deal anymore. It's just everyday life."

It's also a Catch-22. Boise State coaches rarely stray from the job because other schools' staffs are doing the same; the embrace of satellite camps is one example, showing how standing still while others grab at the opportunity to improve is an untenable proposition.

"You've got to stay up with the Joneses," Caldwell said. "So if someone else is doing something, then obviously you've got to stay with them."

Essentially, and with Boise State's staff as evidence, coaching major-college football has become a job that never lets up, that keeps coaches on the road for weeks on end, especially during the offseason, and one that keeps the midnight oil burning even in May, June and July — the offseason, such as it is.

So why make the sacrifice?

Because of the pay, for starters: Boise State doled out more than $2 million for its assistants in 2014, while 16 individual assistant coaches nationwide earned more than $800,000 last season. Harsin made more than $1 million in 2014 — and ranked 72nd among FBS head coaches in total compensation.

Because of the chance to win championships, or to make an impact inside a locker room brimming with 110 players of varying races, backgrounds, upbringings and circumstances. To "spread the love of football," Drinkwitz said, as at this month's satellite camps. Or, simply, because coaches coach.

As a linebacker at Boise State from 2001-04, Avalos saw the long hours his the coaching staff put into and promised he wouldn't follow in their footsteps; his coaches laughed, shook their heads, and promised he wouldn't be able to stay away. You'll work hard, they said, but you won't spend your days starting at the clock — it's not work if you're passionate about your job.

"You jump in and forget about it," Avalos said. "Because you don't care about the time when you're doing something that you love."

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