“How do you withstand the hurricane of all this illegal recruiting, (2024)

Poaching players with NIL money has become the worst-kept secret in college football. Nearly every major program in the country is doing it. Through official means or entities not associated with the program, players are contacted throughout the offseason with NIL offers, making it hard for college coaches toland,and keep recruits. With a virtually unrestricted transfer portal,it’salmost impossible.

Some coaches embrace the chaos (not the cheating, necessarily), like Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss.Others are much less accepting ofit,or downright against it, like Dabo Swinney at Clemson.If you compare the year-over-year success of Ole Miss and Clemson since NIL became legal, you can see which side is winning.

On the Smothered & Covered Podcast, Barrett Sallee explains the importance of, at least, keeping up the act so playersdon’tthink the program is cheap or broke.

Arkansasisn’timmune to dealing with the day-to-day bombard of potential poachers. TheRazorbacks’offensive line coach, Eric Mateos, sat down on the Coaches and the Mouth podcastrecently,and shed some light on the situation.

“Ihad some unbelievable text messages from transfers in the first recruiting cycle,”said Mateos.“You'rejust like,‘HeyI'mcoach Mateos. Would you like to get on a on a call sometime today?’ ‘Coach,heyI'mlooking for this,’Like, what, this is the opening statement?I'mlike‘no thanks,’”It’sno surprise that players are money-focused.That’sthe goal, after all. The problem is that some programs are willing to pay for it, andthey’realways searching for the next prospect.

Mateos also talked about how Fernando Carmona has already received offers to jump into the portal,“You know, our left tackle right now has already got guys trying to steal him from us. He just got here in Januaryandthere'salready guys trying to steal him.”Luckily, Carmonaisn’tgoing anywhere.

“Icalled him [and] I was like,‘Hey man,I'mI know people are coming after you, trying to get you to leave again.’He'slike,‘Coach, youain'tgot to worry about nothing.I'mriding with you.’I knew he would say that, but as a coach, youjustlive in this constant state of paranoia now that youcan'thelp, you know…”

The paranoia is understandable, knowing just how many ways athletesare contacted. Mateos explained a call that he had that left him astounded.“I had somebody tell me two days ago that there was a collective from a university calling kids at another school who are not in the portal and offering them money to go into the portal… the collective is recruiting players,”said Mateos.

The NCAA has done relatively nothing to quash the tampering from outside entities, such as collectives. And why should they?It’sa losing battle. Just a couple of months ago,the NCAA lost another lawsuitthat allowed collectives in eastern Tennessee and western Virginia to reach out to high school prospects during the recruitment process and offer NIL deals. Not contacting athletes in college but high school athletes. How big of a stretch is it to apply that ruling to college programs?

The thing with NIL is — just like pros — not only athletes are looking to make a buck. Student-athletes can now sign with sports agents, but the rules that pro leagues make to regulate them are nonexistent at the college level.“You hear rumors and agents — you know, now they all got agents — agents talking,”said Mateos.

“These agentsdon'teven need to be NFL PA certified. Likethe thingwith NFL agents, they all got to be certified through the Players Association.These dudes are justlike, got an associate degreeand liveddown the street from Johnny and said,‘Hey, Johnny.I'llbe your agent.’You'relike, all right, you know. Some of them are doing it the right way.It'snot a blanket statement, butthat'sthe challenge really…”

How does he overcome it?

Recruiting players that are only there for the money is a big fear for most coaches. That might be why some are so against NIL. However, unlikeBryanKelly’scommentsabout not buying players, Mateos has threaded the needle by creating an environment that makes players want to be at Arkansas but also compensates those players.

“How do you withstand the hurricane of all this illegal recruiting and wild liesthat’sgoing on? Well, you have a good foundation, you know, andyou'renotgonnabe able to keep everybody, and some, you know, at some point,it'sgoingto not go your way,”said Mateos when asked about troubles of recruiting today.

“The challenge thatyou'rereferring toreallyis how do you keep the unit, a unit… how do you manage people, kind of trying to come get your guys?”said Mateos.“I guess my goal [is that] the Players love playing here at Arkansas, they love playing for me, and then they love playing with each other, [so] that some of the cheatingthat’sgoing ondoesn'treally phase them.”

He wants to create an environment that produces guys like Carmona. Guys that are talented, loyal, and want to play for Arkansas. Then he wants to compensate them for it.“I thinkit'smy job to make sure thatI'mbringing the right people in that, you know, deserve to profit off their name, image, and likeness, but also, guys thataren'tso consumedwith it.”