Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #106: Gill1918 presents Brenton Emanuel "Recruiting in Today's NCAA Part 1"

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#106: Gill1918 presents Brenton Emanuel "Recruiting in Today's NCAA Part 1" · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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Now let's get into today's topic.
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His family and what he's done and you know, I'm very proud of
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our podcast and unfortunately, he's not been a guest on my
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podcast. However, if you Google his name,
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if you're a podcast listener and Google his name and plus
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podcast, he was recently, a few months ago this summer was on a
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podcast by and I'm forgetting everything that I don't remember
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the name of the podcast. I don't remember the name of the
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host. He's a coach up in the Chicago
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area. If I said his name, half of you
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guys would know who he is. But he did a really good job
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with his interview and Britain did a really good job of
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explaining his background and coaching philosophy and stuff
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like that. So if you're a podcast listener,
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highly recommend you find that episode.
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You won't find it on my podcast, unfortunately.
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Brandon and I actually got to to know each other when he was the
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head coach at his alma mater, Eastern Illinois.
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Anybody ever heard of Eastern? Yeah, just down down the road.
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I guess it's down down the road when I'm in Champaign.
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It's down the road if maybe it's a another hop and skip down.
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But of course, the state. Neat there at East Illinois,
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which reminds me, this is a quick plug for Gil Athletics
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starting this year, 2026, Gil Athletics is the official
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equipment provider for your state meet here Illinois.
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Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
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So your kids, your athletes will be jumping on brand new pits,
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high jump pits, football pits, hurdles, starting blocks,
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etcetera. So it's something, you know,
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we're an Illinois based company and it's important for us to
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support our Illinois based coaches and athletes.
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So that's a that's a lot of fun down there on the Big Blue.
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But I got to meet coach here when he was at Eastern Illinois
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and we became friends and had a lot of good talks.
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And then he moved farther away. He went to Nebraska.
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I was like, well, man, I don't get to see my guy very much
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anymore. And that wasn't that was still
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too close. He, he left me to go to the West
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Coast. Now I, I only get to see him at
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the nationals and regionals. And the good news is his program
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and what he does, he's good enough.
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He gets kids there every year. So I'm going to see him there
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every year. One of the things that's
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constant is change and today, yesterday, today and tomorrow,
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and probably by the time he's done with his speech, it will
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have changed at that point as well.
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That's the landscape of recruiting and what's going on.
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OK, some good, maybe not some not so good.
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But we all have to adapt. And that's what track and field
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coaches around the country, including right here, do in
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spades. As you adapt, you ask your kids
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to adapt, you adapt, and that's what we're going to have to do.
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So, speaking on the new landscape of recruiting, help me
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welcome from the great USC, the mighty Trojans, Britain.
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Emmanuel, thank you Mike. I really appreciate the intro
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man. You know, I'm from Illinois
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originally. I wish I could come back, but I
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have 4 kids and yesterday was Halloween as you guys know, and
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so I miss enough important days of their life that I could have
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missed Halloween yesterday. I'm tired from that.
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We were out till at 9:30, which was, as you know, a lot when you
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have 4 kids on the on the age of seven.
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But yeah, so I'm going to talk to you guys about recruiting.
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Obviously, like Mike mentioned, I've been to different schools
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I've visit. I was at East Illinois
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University, Illinois State, University of Nebraska, now USC,
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and so I have a pretty good understanding of all the like
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the platform for it and some of the new rules that are have kind
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of come up recently. But you know, what I'm going to
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talk about is, you know, roster limits, scholarship standards,
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NIL, the transfer portal, and then maybe just, you know,
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trying to help you guys navigate your student athletes as they
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contact us and what to see in those emails kind of going
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forward. So I think the first biggest
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thing I get a lot of time is, you know, I hear people ask, do
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you guys still have scholarship standards or sorry, do you guys
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have walk ONS still? Yes, we do.
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This blade ruled maybe about a a year or two ago that our
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rostrums are going down be down to 45 and then we have the
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opportunity to be at 45 scholarships, both men and
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women. Now, let's be honest here.
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If you're, if you're at a school that has football, you're not
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going to be at 45 scholarships. I think most SC schools, SCC
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schools around at least the higher end ones around 35 for
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both men and women. I know we can operate a little
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bit differently here, so I know we're closer to that number, if
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not a little, maybe a little bit higher, but we're right around
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there as well. But there still is walk on
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opportunities. The biggest thing I will tell
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you guys as you guys are encourage your students, you
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guys are coaching them up is to go on the school's website and
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look for the recruiting standards.
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A lot of times, you know, yesterday I went to my inbox and
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I had 300 some emails from recruits and, and coaches across
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the country, one opportunity for their male or female hurdler,
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male or male or female sprinter. And some of them, I would say
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95% did not hit our scholars with Sanders.
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Now I say that not because USC is, is is a different anomaly
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than other schools, but you know, we do look at every little
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thing. One, our academic standards here
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are almost Ivy League essentially.
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But to get a kid admitted to USC, I have to write a two page
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paper on the kids academic and athletic accolades and then it
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goes to a committee and they vote on it.
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Not every school is like that, but here USC is pretty tough.
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So you know, last year I I had a coach from Illinois.
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I would say, you know, we're we're friendly.
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I don't I wouldn't say we're friends necessarily, but we're
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friendly. Was wanting me to recruit one of
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his his athletes. And you know, I looked at her
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times and she's a good athlete. I think most mid major schools
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would take care. But he's like coach, can I just
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fire out to USC? Well, yes, I could fire to USC,
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but also can get fired for doing things that are outside of my,
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you know, outside my recruiting standards too.
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And he was having a hard time understanding like I couldn't do
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him a favor. So I tell you these things
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because the recruiting standards are all this and above.
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And sometimes I think coaches will roast a college coach based
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on why you recruiting my kid. And so like for instance,
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yesterday I was talking to the Sprint coach at University of
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Michigan and we were going through our recruiting
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standards. He saw that I was talking here.
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So he asked, he asked me what I was going to talk about.
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And I said, well, I'm going to talk about you guys in Michigan
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because their recruiting standards technically are higher
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than US CS and Georgia's and some other events.
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Now you may ask why is that? Well, for them, they have to
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compete against us. And so his head coach is a
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distance coach, University of Georgia, USC, the head coach of
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their Sprint coaches. So there's a little bit more
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leeway and understanding when it comes to those events.
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You know, I think I'll, I'll pull it real quick.
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I shouldn't have the top of my head, but I just know what I
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want. You know, for the men, you know,
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it's 1020 in the 120.75 in the 200 is what ideally we're
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looking for scholarship. Well, Michigan is 10/25 and
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20/20/70 and then 46, one in the 400.
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Now our 401 is a little bit is 4580.
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University of Georgia on the men's side, they're looking at
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102520.55 and then 4620. Now all of us have had success
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in in different areas, you know, at the national meet, but there
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is a, there's a different standard for certain schools
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because of the head coach. So like for me, if he gets a
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20.70 kid, that kid probably won't will not get a full ride
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at Michigan. They'll probably get tuition at
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USC. That kid will probably get a
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full ride because we are speed power base.
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We only deal in full rights because it costs $97,000 to go
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here. And so you may have to look at
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the standards that are being provided to each student.
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So I encourage you guys before you roast, you know, a coach,
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you know, whether that's Illinois State or Illinois or
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whatever it may be or even, you know, all of that would Coach
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Rose Johnson make sure you look at the standards because they
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are different. And and sometimes you know, that
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the hedge found who the head coach is.
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The standard may be really hard to hit.
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You know, when I was at the University of Nebraska, you
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know, I would have had a kid on campus around 21 flat 4688.
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Well, that same kid here is worth a full ride and Nebraska,
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he's worth 60%. Now you ask, why is that?
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Nebraska is not as good as in the sprints.
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They're going for throws and jumps as as USC.
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Well, for them, you know, they don't feel as comfortable
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investing in those Sprint events because their their bread and
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butter is, is throws in distance.
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So it's not always the coaches is not wanting your kid or not
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wanting to think your kids is good enough is sometimes the
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standards that are set above them.
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And looking at the head coach and and kind of seeing how they
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operate is is their team imposed of more distance throws or
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jumps, whatever it may be. That's probably the reason why
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they're probably not getting the money and the coaches is nose
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not to waste the family's time or your time by saying, Hey, I
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can only give the kid 1525%. I mean, we had a girl, it's a 41
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second 300 hurdle when I was in Nebraska.
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Luckily she was really good academically and she was covered
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to be a fool, but he was only one to give her 25%.
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Has she not had the academic side behind her?
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She wasn't going to get into school and she probably wouldn't
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have gone there. So sometimes I do think, you
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know, I think we cost goes to get bad names because they're
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like, you're not recruiting my kid.
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Well, let's look at the situation behind it.
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It's going to help you guys understand.
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It's not that we don't want your kid.
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We also don't want to get fired either.
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So we have to look navigate in a certain way to make sure that we
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are heading the standard set by for our head coach and some
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certain programs. When I first came to USC, the
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head coach, you know, mentioned to me like, Hey, with the new
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rules coming down, we should look at the portal a little bit
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more. And so last year, my first year
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here, I just focus on the men's women's hurdles and then this
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year I do men's women's hurdles and men's sprints.
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But last shot he's I just focus on the portal.
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Well, again, I fall into this situation where the portal is
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great. There's a lot of good hurdles
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out there, but the academic standard at USC is, you know,
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you, you better have you better be close to four point O you
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know, if you're, if you're average, average athlete, but
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you're going to have really good grades.
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Essentially, I can't take someone who's a 2.5.
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You have has AD in math, you have AD in math.
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Don't even try to come to USC. You will not get, you know, you
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will not go through the subcommittee.
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My coach would not allow it. So, you know, we also don't take
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one year transfers because our academic standards are so high.
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A lot of their classes do not transfer in.
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And so, you know, going to the Porter Porter route for me
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wasn't going to be successful. So now I'm looking more at high
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school for men's hurdlers because the ones I, I came
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across last year, they were very talented, would help our our
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brand of being national champions.
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But again, the academic channel was too high.
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And so again, it's not that, you know, we don't want your kid,
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but it may be the head coach's vision for the program to that
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he wants you to go and follow the transfer portal and get a
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kid that could score quickly. And so with that, that's
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probably hurt some of the high school recruiting.
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And I think one thing that, you know, I've been talking to my
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former high school coach about, you know, there's a girl he
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wants me to recruit from his program.
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And I grant, I don't coach the 400 like I do.
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We work, we work together here at USC like we're very good at
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collabing with each other. I cover the this morning we had
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practice. I cover the women's friends in
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my groups. I've been working with the 400,
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you know, every single day. So it's not like I don't coach
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the 400, but coach Wash is the main guy and he's like, you
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know, how do I get her interested to him?
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So I, I said, you know, when you look our recruiting standards,
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make sure that you know the time that she's, she's relatively
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close to like you don't have to be exactly 1025 to get off.
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If you're 1035, you have the perfect build, great grades.
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Most likely we're going to give you a scholarship.
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However, you know, if you're kind of, you know, maybe if I
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say that for her, it's just like she's a 53 second girl.
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Our standards like 52 five South in this e-mail, say write it.
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Write in my e-mail, you tag me in it.
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Just make it short and sweet. Sometimes we get these long
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drawn out emails and I'm in Coach Watts and I are very
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similar. After the 1st 2 lines I'm done
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reading it. If I don't see something pop
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out, I can't do it anymore because I have again, like I
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told you guys, I have 300 emails I had to go through yesterday
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and it has to pop out. So I'll say make it, you know,
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talk about their GPA, talk about their top events.
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And then if you have a video of them racing instead of else, you
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know, Coach Watts is not, you know, some of the old coaches
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are not good with social media. So him searching Instagram for a
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video, someone running is not going to happen.
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So if you can, if you can attach a video to it and say, Hey, this
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is a you know, for him, he's at least a 4x4.
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Like she ran a stage where she hawked down 3 girls and almost
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beat the girl. This at the University of Oregon
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distance girl Allison. Thence I think it is was her
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name. I'm not sure, but don't don't,
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don't quiz me on this, please. I'm trying to you know, I'm out
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of Illinois as much as I used to be.
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So I might as good with Illinois names like I used to be, but
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just make it short and sweet and, and have them look at the
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spelling of the emails. So many times I get our names
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are spelled wrong or they have the wrong university in the
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e-mail, you know, so like, hey, I'm interested in UCLA.
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Well, I can tell you right now, you e-mail USC talking about
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UCLA, that thing's getting deleted ASAP, you know.
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So, but you know, I would just say you just encourage them to
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reach out and and not just don't send one e-mail If there's other
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coaches on social media, like if I get an e-mail about a woman's
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printer, I always pass along to Coach Watts.
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I always pass along to Coach Goodman and vice versa.
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So try social media, reach out that way, but be straight to the
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point when you're encouraging them.
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And if you can reach out to us as well and give us an honest
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opinion about the student athlete, that is very helpful as
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well. Because a lot of times, you
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know, I think everybody wants their kid to go somewhere big
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and really nice because it it makes the school look better.
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But there's times that coach may ask a question and we don't
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always get an honest answer. And so that kind of burns the
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the bridge of trust because it's like, hey, is this kid good?
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Oh, it's like, yeah, kid was good.
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But I always have this problem of them not being on time to
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practice. Well, you should have told us
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that, you know, because we can't fix everything.
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Little things that they don't do, like they play up, they
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still playing video games all night.
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Well, it gets worse in college because now they are on their
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own and we don't have access to their dorms.
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We can't run out their parent. So some of those little things,
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you think it may hinder the situation that doesn't.
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It just allows us to understand the recruit in the best possible
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way because again, a lot of our livelihoods are dependent on
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these kids coming here and producing.
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So knowing those little things, coach possible ask every single
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crew or ask their coach or ask their parent what is something
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we have to be prepared for, for that student athlete to be
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successful here. A lot of times, you know,
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parents are like, oh, well, they're, they're, they're good,
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They work hard. And then, you know, sometimes as
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he keeps prodding and asking, they'll be like, well, his time
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management, her time is not very good.
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It's like, OK, well, we can work with that.
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We have support systems for that.
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We have things that can align to help those students, those
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student athletes out. And so I tell you just to be
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straightforward and don't try to, you know, make it sound good
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because yes, we are. If we're interested, we're
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reaching out. We want the kid, but tell us the
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whole landscape. Don't give us a little the
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little bit of peace. Like, oh, they're really fast
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and they work really hard, but you didn't tell me they're
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smoking weed and drinking every single weekend while they're in
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high school like that. Things I need to know, you know,
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because again, we're taking chances, you know, there's only
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free like USC. We have a roster #30 and 35.
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So we're not been doing a full 45.
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One is is more for our quality of coaching and we're just going
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to stick to our full rides situation.
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We do have a couple walk ONS here, but again, if you're
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walking out here, you're paying $97,000.
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So maybe you guys have that type of money.
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But I can tell you my kids will not be walking on the USC.
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I'm glad I have. We have a tuition waiver, but
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again, that's in about 20 some years.
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So that's not going to happen. But, you know, be honest about
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those little things. It is crazy, you know, but I do.
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I do think a lot of people are thinking, oh, high school, high
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school students are just not being recruited.
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That's not true. We want high school kids.
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We want really good because we want to be here for four years
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and not the ones that are wanting to take 20 visits and
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then, you know, take, you know, take some photos in the uniform,
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like be honest with us about those things because sometimes
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we don't know, like everyone sounds good.
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Everyone looks good on social media.
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Just like as a coach, we can present ourselves as this
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perfect coach. We don't cuss.
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And then once we get to campus, we're a completely different
15:55
person now here for us, we're not very fraudulent.
15:57
Like we, we're, we're we're such a small team here at USC, but
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you can't be fake. You know this.
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I mean, this morning after practice, the the group was
16:05
doing the wobble dance with Coach Watkins.
16:08
He's going to wedding. He's prepared for it.
16:09
So like we are very authentic with who we are and we're not,
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we're not fake here. We're very intentional about our
16:15
coaching. Like my job here is to coach the
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recruit and that's really about it.
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I mean, I have a little, I have to help out with the admission
16:22
process, but other than that, I am locked and I don't miss any
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reps And when I, when I go recruiting, you know, that's the
16:29
one time I missed something. That's when I'm on the road
16:31
going recruiting. But I tell you these things like
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we don't, we want high school kids, we want the kids are going
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to be good to develop in four years.
16:38
The portal's not, it's not the greatest thing because now
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there's NIL now. And so again, now you're
16:42
getting, we're getting faced with, you know, how much can you
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give me outside in my, in my pocket?
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But luckily, and, and a good way and a bad way, we have a new
16:50
standard for that when it comes to NIL go where every kid has to
16:53
submit their NIL opportunities to this system, to this
16:56
accounting agency. And they will determine based on
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their their followers, the amount of money they're being
17:03
given, if they're going to be worth that.
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And so, you know, we have to navigate that.
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And so in some ways, we want to save that money for the kids
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that are doing well for our team and not having to give it to a
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kid that's coming out of high school.
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That's OK. You know, we want to be able to
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reward the ones that are doing well.
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And, and I will say this is a program here at USC that if you
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come here and do well, if you're going to be rewarded in more
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ways than not financially, but also opportunity with
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professional and stuff like that.
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So it is changing, you know, but we I would not, I would tell
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people, and I'm honest, like high school, high school
17:36
recruits are still heavily favored over some transfers
17:39
because with transfer kids, they go in the portal, you know,
17:41
there's going to be an issue. Typically, you know, why, why
17:43
you live in your last institution or who's pulling the
17:46
strings really behind it. And so sometimes coaches don't
17:49
want to go down that path when they can't really get to know
17:51
the true kid before they get to campus in the in the portal
17:53
section, the portal portal opportunity.
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They rather go high school. I know for our women's Sprint
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coach, he wants a sprinkler portal, but he wants more
18:01
foundational like sprinters. 4 years, we can here get you here
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develop you and get you on to the next level.
18:06
So. Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here.
18:09
Hey, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Guild 1918
18:13
Project series. It's really my mission, my
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passion to bring you massive amounts of value and I hope this
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So please get a hold of me, e-mail, text message, Twitter,
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Hope you enjoy today and we'll see you tomorrow.