Strategies and game planning is not the only thing that has changed since Head Coach Bill Lynch took over DePauw University's football program last year.
Lynch has made great strides in transforming the recruiting process for the Tigers as well.
"It's been a lot more organized since Coach Lynch has been here," said recruiting coordinator Brett Dietz. "We're more organized in our message to recruits. We want to control the message and make sure the kids see DePauw for what it really is."
Dietz said the message is to show potential recruits all that DePauw has to offer outside of Blackstock Stadium.
"It's the DePauw experience," Lynch said. "It's the combination of great academics, a great campus life and really competitive athletics that makes up the DePauw experience. There's no school like it."
Selling this message to recruits has been the main priority for coaches as well as current players. Players have an instrumental role in the recruiting process as overnight visits are thought to be the most important visit for recruits.
"The school sells itself so whenever I get a recruit, I'm just honest and tell them about my experiences at DePauw," said first-year quarterback Ian Good. "I usually say, 'You will work hard on the field and in the classroom, but it will definitely pay off. And you will have a great time while you're here.'"
The message is not the only thing that has changed in regards to the recruiting process since Lynch took over. Aspects of the process such as overnight visits have gone through modifications.
"Instead of having anyone who has played high school football come for an overnight, recruits have an interview to see if they are quality kids," said junior linebacker Nick Freund. "This adds value to the program and it's also better because now we don't have kids coming for three or four nights just for the parties."
Of course, the recruiting process is different at the Division III level for Coach Lynch compared to his time as head coach at Indiana University. At the Division I level, winning often took the front seat over academics when it came to recruiting.
"At the D-I level, football talent becomes a real priority, you have to recruit real talent to win which always puts you in a bind academically," Lynch said. "Verse the D-III level, you're clearly looking for a someone who wants to get a get a great education first and then wants to compete athletically."
The main emphasis going to into this recruiting season was simply gaining depth. The Tigers' goal was to bring in 45 players to bring their total roster between 110 and 115 players.
The Tigers roster has been thin on numbers the past couple years leading to a lack of Junior Varsity games as well as problems practice-wise with scout teams.
The team is looking especially to bulk up its offensive line, a weak element of the roster over the past several years. Furthermore, the Tigers graduated five linemen from last year's team.
"We needed linemen in the worst possible way, and we really weren't differentiating between an offensive and defensive linemen," Lynch said. "We felt like if we got enough linemen, we could find which side of the ball they could play on."
The Tigers are still in the midst of the recruiting season, as April tends to be the month that recruits make decisions due to the release of financial aid packages. While the team likes where they are right now, the Tigers are still hungry for more recruits.
"We have more commits at this time then we did last year, and we are on target number wise in certain position groups," Dietz said. "But there's no if's and's or but's about it, there are still a lot of big fish out there that we would love to get. We're off to a great start. We need to finish strong."
Coach Lynch and the rest of his staff are confident the program will have a full roster at the beginning of next season's summer camp.
