Let me say that when I talk about promotion, I am not talking about gimmicks and giveaways. I am talking about building relationships because that is where true promotion begins. I will talk about 3what I will call the I’s of Texas, and you can make them fit your own program.
Make a Good Impression: The first I is impress.
Want people to believe in you and your program, set out to impress them
Most of all, however, you need to show them who you really are and what you are going to stand for in your program.
Obviously, the most important group when it comes to the impression you make will be your players. First, you work with the players you have at your school.
The impression you make bridges into every one of the many publics you touch as a coach—the faculty, fans, parents, alumni, media, and so on.
People want their head coach to be visible, and you should accept that responsibility.
Dare to Imagine: The second I is imagine.
From the time you become a coach, imagine what you want your program to look like and then, when your opportunity comes, use every asset you have to make it happen.
Everything we did in the building touched one of three areas—recruits, players, and the Texas tradition. When you enter the elevator, you hear “Texas Taps,” our fight song, on the way up and “The Eyes of Texas,” our alma mater, on the way down. We wanted to be sure that recruits and everyone else always knew that they were at Texas.
We follow the same idea with every publication and printed item whether it is a card we send out or a poster we give out.
The newest and largest opportunity today in promotion is the Internet.
Imagine the relationship you want to have with high school coached and then put a plan in place to achieve that.
Each season we begin with a different theme for the team. The first year we felt we needed to reemphasize that fact that winning didn’t come easy, so we took a theme of “Practice winning every day.”
The following year we wanted to stress a commitment to winning, so we used WIT—“Whatever it takes.”
In the season of 2001 many people were talking about winning the national championship before the season. We talked a lot about taking each game at a time, but every kid who ever plays the game dreams of winning it all. Our slogan became “Live your dream,” so we tried to make the high expectations a positive and put it out there. We gave each player a dream catcher, an old Indian charm made of feathers and webbing. The idea is that the dream catcher traps the bad dreams and lets the good dreams come through.
Strive to Involve: That’s where our third I come in—involve.
You can’t do it by yourself. Involving others—from the student body, to your staff, to the fan base—is where the heart of promoting a program lies.
So we developed a system in which an assistant coach would combine a recruiting trip with a speaking engagement.
I have found it important to identify a small circle of your university’s top supporters to use as a sounding board for advice.
From "The Football Coaching Bible"
