Commentary | Former Palmetto football coach Ray Woodie top recruiter in Sun Belt
By ALAN DELL


Palmetto’s favorite son, Ray Woodie, was named the Sun Belt Conference’s top recruiter last week by ESPN, the second time in his two years at Western Kentucky he has been cited for his ability to wheel in some of the best talent in the country.

Woodie and WKU head coach Willie Taggart, the former Manatee High quarterback great, are stealing so many players from Bowl Championship Series schools that those bigwigs of college football might seek an arrest warrant.

Woodie says he learned from Taggart, the top recruiter for head coach Jim Harbaugh when he turned Stanford from an also-ran to a national contender.

There is no magic to recruiting. It comes down to personality and effort. Either you have it or you don’t, but there are some basic rules you must follow, Woodie says.

His recruiting is based on two staples: Be honest and don’t fear any man -- as in Nick Saban or Les Miles or any of those guys from the elite programs.

“If you are not honest, it will come back to bite you and then you have a whole lot of explaining to do and probably lost the kid,” Woodie says. “With the Internet, kids today are very knowledgeable about what is going on at the schools they are considering. You have to be straight with them.

“You can’t be afraid of any other recruiters. If I walk into a recruit’s home and a BCS coach is coming out, I am not intimidated. I believe we’ve got more to offer. It’s a matter of showing that to the recruit and his family.”

Last year, Woodie was named one of the top first-year recruiters in the country and praised for being able to make the transition from high school coach to college recruiter so smoothly.

WKU had only 13 scholarships to offer this year, and Woodie was responsible for more than half.

He signed five of WKU’s seven three-star recruits (Rivals.com) and a total of seven altogether, an impressive number for a non-BCS conference.

Woodie is known around here for getting some of the top players out of Manatee and Sarasota counties, but he is recruiting a big part of the country.

One of his biggest steals was signing Tampa Plant receiver Austin Aikens, who chose WKU over Missouri, Boston College, Cincinnati and Vanderbilt.

He also nabbed junior college defensive end Calvin Washington, who turned down Miami for the Hilltoppers, and junior college defensive back Brett Harrington.

Harrington said the connection he made with Woodie sold him on WKU along with what he saw as a bunch of hungry players, including Southeast High product Jon Dowling, who will be eligible next season after transferring from Florida.

Woodie is credited with swaying Palmetto High’s Daqual Randall from changing his commitment from Louisville to WKU and shunning offers from Purdue, Rutgers, Iowa State and Indiana.

He signed highly touted defensive lineman Devante Terrell, who chose WKU over Arizona State, Iowa State, Louisville and Washington State (all BCS schools).

“We want recruits who can play on Sunday, but we stress getting that degree first,” Woodie said. “We also have a lot to sell at WKU, some stuff people might not know like Romeo Crennel (Kansas City Chiefs head coach) played and coached here, and Taggart was an All-American quarterback and is an offensive genius.”


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