Nebraska Recruiting: How to Become a Recruitnik Part Three

Welcome to the final installment in this series of how to properly handle the near-manic joys and soul-crushing defeats of college football recruiting.

I worked hard to save the best for last. We're going to wrap things up with some basic do's and don'ts along with *drum roll*...negative recruiting.

Let's waste no time and get to the good stuff.

- Negative Recruiting

While there's no reason to doubt these young men, what you see here isn't often authentic. Except for Eddie Goldman's swaying. I'm pretty sure that was filmed on a yacht.

Recruiting is sales and sometimes schools will try very hard to convince prospects to buy their metaphorical product. How can they do that unless they try to establish how the other guy's is inferior? A recruit's likely not going to just take a coach's word for it.

Yes, Alabama, Ohio State, USC, Nebraska, Oregon, any school can come into a recruit's living room and say, "we can offer you -X-." If I'm from any of those schools aside from Alabama, I look at who's hot on this guy's trail and try to cut them off at the knees.

Does the kid want to play early? Show two depth charts, yours and theirs.

They want to play in the SEC and your school's not? Suggest your conference's commissioner may, in fact, be looking to poach Alabama for no other reason than to give the Tide a chance to beat other teams in conference.

If your pitch doesn't win a recruit over, that's on you, coach.

Interestingly enough, the dirty stuff isn't even in this section! Psych!

- Do's and Don'ts

To un-fluff the fluff, let's complete your recruitnik training with some basic rules of the road, advice that'll help you avoid looking like a dolt and finally not bringing NCAA sanctions unto your school of preference.

Do

- Please have discussions with other recruitniks, but when you're obviously not going to change each other's minds about how good a recruit is or isn't, go your separate ways.

- Keep in mind that there is a large pool of young men being evaluated not only by potential coaches, but media and recruitniks such as yourself. Some remain humble, some love the spotlight and some can sit back and enjoy the ride in moderation. You will find all three types and everything in between. Expect it.

- If a recruit you really, really wanted to commit to your school commits to another, let it go.

- If a recruit flips, let it go.

- If a recruit doesn't want to be at your school come Signing Day, let it go. In the end, this is best for everyone involved. Do you want someone not buying into your school's program 100 percent taking up a scholarship?

- Signing Day flips...well, vent a bit and then let it go.

Don't

- Be a jackass. This includes, but is not limited to: Demanding sources, quotes or any other proof from people who are nice enough to share their information. If they're right more often than not, take their word for it.

This is a general rule. If they say the star quarterback prospect was arrested for shooting flames out of his rear while downing 40s, then you may want to ask for some video.

- Contact recruits, specifically on Twitter and Facebook. Remember when I talked about it being an NCAA violation? Forget that. It's creepy, especially if you go Facebook hunting. In terms of Twitter? It's lame. You have an obvious bias towards one school or another. Services that have proven themselves non-biased get a pass.

- Use the following phrases: "We're better off without him" (after not committing to your school), "He wasn't good anyway", basically denial that you wanted a good prospect.

Perhaps most importantly, DON'T DO THIS. That goes for everyone involved.

Congrats, you're dangerous enough know how to enjoy the wonderful world of college football recruiting. May God have mercy on your soul.

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