Ep. 29 - Joe Price - The Importance of Program Culture & Branding

In this interview, we catch up with UTSA's Joe Price as it's nearly been 7 months since his last visit to the show. We talk about how this season has been for UTSA in Head Coach Jeff Traylor's first season at the helm and Joe's first year as Director of Player Personnel.

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Our conversation was recorded Wednesday, 2 days before the announced postponement of the matchup between Rice and UTSA due to positive cases on UTSA's team.

 

With that being said, there were a lot of great insights shared by Joe that I'd like to highlight in this week's show notes!

 

Throughout the show, you'll hear Joe talk about BRANDING. Finding an identity as a program is so critical and UTSA has done a very good job of that. The "Triangle of Toughness" which is directed at running the ball on offense, being great on special teams and physical on defense, is a staple to the program and something you'll see all over their social media.

 

To that point, I asked Joe how he and his recruiting team work to identify players that fit into that culture of toughness. In the evaluation process of watching tape, here are some examples given by Joe on what he looks for:

Ex. 1: How does a receiver play without the ball in his hands? Does he give great effort on the backside of a progression? Does he block with great effort?Ex. 2: On defense, how does a player pursue to the ball? Does he sprint to the football and strain to finish plays?

 

Also, we discussed the team's focus on winning in their home city - The "210" of San Antonio. The benefit of keeping players home is that the entire city will know who these guys are and it not only benefits the crowds you draw but the future recruits as well. The ripple effect is having your team engaged with selling the program to local recruits, which breeds success on the road!

 

As always, if you enjoyed listening to Joe Price, you can follow him on Twitter at @CoachJP3!

 

Also, don't forget to check out our official website, UpCloseInPersonnel.com for links, notes and updates!