DURANGO, Colorado — During an unusual and unprecedented offseason for college football staffs, Fort Lewis College head football coach Darrius G. Smith thought back to 1994 while he and his assistants assembled his first National Signing Day class as the leader of the FLC program.
As the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic forced coaches to be creative, persistent and diligent when it came to recruitment during a socially distanced 2020, limiting travel and in-person visits, Smith drew from experience he learned firsthand in the mid-90’s as a young assistant coach at Frostburg State University.
Just get them on the line.
“I think the thing that helped me the most in developing this recruiting class was that I use to be a NCAA Division III coach, where you didn’t go on the road a lot. It was phone calls and, back then, it was letter writing,” Smith said. “It was the old school way of recruiting (in 2020) and that was, ‘Get the kids on line.’ Get on the phone with them, Zoom meetings with them. In the recruiting game, you can talk to a lot of kids, but how well do you get to know them? At Fort Lewis, I want to make sure we’re bringing in the right young men to the program, to the area and to the community. Having that extra knowledge from all the conversations we had with these recruits, that was huge.”
The Skyhawks inked seven recruits during Wednesday’s National Signing Day, welcoming a Class of 2021 that features six incoming freshmen and one junior college transfer. Fort Lewis is anticipating additional signees in the coming days and added four preferred walk-ons to the fold on Wednesday, as well.
Recruiting the state of Colorado was a point of emphasis for Smith and his staff as the Skyhawks signed five Colorado prep stars, which include quarterbacks Nolan Bynum (Delta HS) and Jack Hanenburg (Ponderosa HS), wide receivers Calvin Raab (Heritage HS) and Colbi Braslin (Delta), as well as Ponderosa offensive lineman Parker Webb.
Fort Lewis also welcomed New Mexico linebacker Ayden Madrid (Bernalillo HS), and defensive end Thomas Chiazor, a Los Angeles native and junior transfer from Santa Monica College.
Rather than recruit by volume, Smith said the Skyhawks coaching staff specifically targeted all eight of their signees based not just on their high talent levels, but also their team fit and desire to be at Fort Lewis College.
“It’s important to me as a recruiter than we dive in hard on the guys that we want. That was our approach,” Smith said. “I think all of these guys in due time are going to contribute a lot for us. How fast will depending on how fast they develop, how fast they are willing to compete and excel over, not only the people beside them, but the people in front of them. The beauty about this class is that they were all targeted and they all wanted to be here.”
