One weekend in Eugene for 25 football prospects takes a $140,875.99 slice out of a $600,000 budget
Sunday, April 18, 2004
RYAN WHITE
The Oregonian
On Jan. 9, a sleek Citation V jet eased into the sky from a suburban Chicago airport.
On board were two pilots, three high school football players, portable DVD players, a stack of movies and a lot of food.
After a refueling stop in South Dakota, the pilots pointed the jet toward Eugene, where Oregon was about to stage the biggest football recruiting weekend of coach Mike Bellotti's nine-season tenure.
Twenty-five high school standouts would stay at a Hilton hotel, dine on made-to-order omelets, chat with professors, tour the campus, dine on steak, bear witness to all of the bells and whistles of Oregon's high-tech athletic machine, dine on more steak and lobster, play paint ball and get a glance at Phil Knight's Autzen Stadium toilet.
The total cost of the Jan. 9-11 recruiting weekend, obtained by The Oregonian under state public records law: $140,875.99.
The bill was high for a single weekend, but the $5,635 spent per recruit was typical of what the Ducks do with a $600,000 recruiting budget, more than four times what Oregon State spends.
"We can afford it," Oregon athletic director Bill Moos said. And because his department is self-sufficient, he doesn't apologize for spending the money it has generated.
The Ducks have nearly doubled their recruiting budget in the past three years, yielding high-profile players and recruits from Texas, Illinois and Florida. The latest class might be the best in school history.
It is such spending, however, that the NCAA appears ready to curb with proposals such as banning the use of private jets, lavish meals and other touches schools use to woo highly talented high school seniors.
If those proposals, working their way through the NCAA, pass, Oregon's Biggest Weekend Ever might have turned out to be one of the last of its kind. Six recruits in Eugene that weekend, as well as others involved, described the polished sales pitch thrown by the Ducks.
"Oregon kind of pampers their guys," said Cameron Colvin, a highly regarded receiver from powerhouse De La Salle High School in the Bay Area. He made the trip that weekend with two of his teammates.
Like everyone else's, their trip began with a flight.
Friday
Oregon used four jets that weekend, all chartered through Global Aviation in Hillsboro. The Citation V, a Lear 35, a Gulfstream II and a Gulfstream IIB combined for 30.7 hours of flight costing $109,727.64.
A handful of players, such as Byron Velega, a cornerback from Long Beach, Calif., couldn't catch charters and flew commercial at a total cost of $5,640.60.
The rest, however, swooped in on private planes. One came from Southern California, another from the Bay Area. The Citation came from Chicago.
Another stopped in Utah to pick up defensive end Thor Pili, carried him to Nevada to pick up tight end Devlin Bayne, then carried the two to Idaho to pick up offensive lineman Brent Russum. Then went to Eugene. It's a nice way to fly. Offensive lineman Jake Hucko's knees didn't grind into the seat in front of him on the way from Southern California as they had the other two times he had ever flown, both in coach class.
Kwame Agyeman, a safety from suburban Chicago, watched "2 Fast 2 Furious" on one of the DVD players and enjoyed the ride on the Citation.
Eventually, the jet broke through the clouds and Agyeman remembers nothing but green, open space.
Each plane found the same scene waiting: Oregon assistant coaches and the school's green Hummer adorned with the bright yellow "O."
A few years ago, recruits would have ridden to campus in the Hummer. The NCAA since has deemed the vehicle excessive entertainment, rendering it equal to a limousine. The recruits rode in a van.
An impression was made, though, and that was the point.
"Oh, man," Agyeman said. "It was awesome from the get-go."
For many of these players, the only things that change with each recruiting visit are the locale and the logo. Everyone tours campus. Everyone dines at the best restaurants. Everyone stays at a nice hotel.
With the jets, Oregon is a little different.
Agyeman made official visits to Oregon, Boston College, Indiana and Arizona. Only the Ducks and the Hoosiers provided private planes.
Colvin flew commercial to visits at USC and Michigan.
Bellotti said Oregon uses the jets for one reason: convenience.
The Ducks are trying to do a lot in a limited time, he said, and commercial schedules can be unreliable. Not to mention the weather. And direct routes.
All but five of the 25 were in by 4 p.m. Jan. 9. After arriving at the airport in Eugene, they were shuttled to the Hilton, where most shared well-decorated rooms that totaled $3,391.40 for the weekend (about $135 a recruit).
Streamers. Balloons. Glitter. Rubber ducks in every sink.
In each room hung 11-by-17-inch black-and-white posters made to give the illusion each recruit already was a Duck -- action shots of current Oregon players with recruits' numbers and nicknames generated by computers.
Colvin was Ice Cold. Agyeman, The Hammer. Hucko was dubbed H Bomb. Russum, The Plow. Pili was, of course, The Mighty Thor.
By 4 p.m., most of the players were somewhere on Oregon's athletic campus, where they met their player hosts and student hostesses, or, in a few cases . . .
"I had a guy host, which was kind of a bummer," Russum said. "But he was a cool guy."
While some met with coaches, others toured the equipment and weight rooms. While some toured, others got the Game Day Experience, wherein the plasma screens and speakers in the back of the Casanova Center flash and boom to life with highlight after highlight, shots of Joey Harrington's billboard in New York, Keenan Howry's billboard in New York, shots of magazine spreads featuring Oregon players, and more highlights.
At 6 p.m., recruits were given what was referred to on the schedule as the Autzen Experience. They were taken to the $3.2 million locker room they had all heard about and were shown what pregame was like.
Bellotti showed the group where he gives his pregame talk.
"Then he said, 'This is where we leave,' " Agyeman said. "And the wall just slides up." At a rate of 3 feet a second, to be exact. "It was like Star Trek or something," he said.
Through the door they went, down the tunnel and out to the 50-yard line, surrounded by the taped sound of radio announcer Jerry Allen calling some of Oregon's more noteworthy plays, such as Kenny Wheaton's 1994 interception return for a touchdown against Washington.
Then it was off to dinner at Oregon Electric Station, the main section of which is a train depot built in 1912 and where the filet mignon costs $26.95 (plus $21.95 if you pair it with the Australian lobster tail brushed with butter, paprika and dry sherry, then baked).
"That was probably the best thing I've ever had in my life," Hucko said. "I ordered some steak. Two lobster tail sides. Both the lobster tail and the meat were just ridiculously good."
Hucko happened to be in the middle of wrestling season. He wrestled at 275 pounds and was trying to keep his weight down. He said he put on 10 pounds that weekend.
Russum not only ate all of his meal, but he said he also finished the dessert ordered by the wife of offensive line coach Neil Zoumboukos.
The bill for the 76 in attendance: $5,475.20 (about $72 a person).
After dinner, many of the recruits and their player hosts went and played paint ball, the money coming from each recruit's $20 per diem.
"It was pretty much a free-for-all," Hucko said.
Russum said they were told to exit the playing area with their hands up once they were hit. Russum was hit. He put his hands up, started to walk out and got blasted by everyone in sight.
So, Russum dropped his gun and spun a full circle, firing off as many rounds as he could.
"Demetrius (Williams) left me out there to get blasted," Colvin said.
"And those damn things hurt," Velega said.
Saturday
The worst parts of the trips -- always -- Agyeman said, are the wake-up calls.
Saturday's came at 8 a.m. The academic breakfast was scheduled for 9 a.m., on campus at Gerlinger Hall, built in 1921 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Players arrived to find their hostesses and hosts waiting on the inside staircase, name tags in hand, ready to direct them to their table.
The tables were decorated with classically bound books by writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Charles Dickens. Each stack of books was topped with a miniature Oregon football helmet.
"The infamous mini-helmets," Agyeman said. Everyone tried to take one, only to be stopped by Oregon staff.
Brindiamo Catering provided the food. All manner of meats and eggs. Gallons of orange juice. Omelets to order.
"I'm huge on omelets," Agyeman said. "I think I had four or five of them."
Professors from various departments gave short speeches and talked with players. It was an academic pep rally.
"It was opulent, that's for sure," said Pam Birrell, a senior instructor in the psychology department, who hadn't been to a recruiting breakfast. "I didn't expect anything like it."
Janet Wasko, a professor in the journalism and communication department, also was there. She had been before and said it was a typical breakfast and found the interaction with the recruits valuable.
But not priceless. The cost of breakfast for 96: $3,940.50 (about $41 a person).
Afterward, some recruits had meetings. Some toured campus or the Moshofsky Center. Some met with trainers for quick physicals. Some played video games. Some met with coaches.
Athletic director Bill Moos gave a speech and took questions from the assembled group at 1 p.m. Next, lunch in the players' lounge catered for 74 by three vendors for $1,485.30 (about $20 a person).
After lunch, the meetings and the tours resumed. At 2 p.m., Colvin was watching tape of former Oregon receivers with offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig, Agyeman was losing (badly) a game of checkers with defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti, and Hucko was meeting with Bellotti.
"It made me feel a lot more comfortable with him, talking to him face-to-face," Hucko said. "I see him on TV and he's borderline celebrity to me, and he's talking about me playing for him and the plans he had for the future and if I had any questions. It made me a lot more relaxed."
The afternoon continued like that until dinner at Autzen.
Recruits again arrived to waiting hostesses and hosts.
Oregon jerseys with each player's name and number were hanging. So, too, were full-color versions of the black-and-white posters that had been in each hotel room. Like the mini-helmets, the jerseys and posters were for show, not keep.
During dinner -- provided by University Catering at a cost of $3,706.80 for 120 (about $31 a person) -- coaches introduced their families and spoke about each recruit.
The group watched the highlight film. They toured the rest of the stadium, including the suites, especially the suite belonging to booster and Nike chief executive Phil Knight, and its bathroom.
"On the toilet seat it says, 'Just Do It,' " Agyeman said.
Knight's impact, players said, is hard to escape. His image is etched into a plaque in the locker room. Knight appears in a clip in the highlight film. The Swoosh abounds.
"They're constantly saying how they're a Nike school," Hucko said, "which, I don't understand why they wouldn't be."
Sunday
"It was so tough to get up," Colvin said. "They kept calling our room, and we wouldn't get up. No one would touch the phone."
Breakfast was at Bellotti's house. Again catered by Brindiamo, for $2,650.13 (for 74, about $36 a person).
After breakfast -- more omelets to order -- Russum said he fell asleep on Bellotti's couch.
Bellotti met with more players, giving his final sales pitch, pushing facilities, commitment, a family atmosphere and touching on where he sees each player fitting in.
And, as Oregon has become famous for putting players on billboards in recent years, recruits were shown what their billboard might look like.
The Ducks are good with photo manipulation. Colvin said coaches once arrived at De La Salle with a mock GQ magazine cover, the heads of the four players Oregon was recruiting superimposed on the bodies of four models.
Colvin's mock billboard was hanging near the Golden Gate Bridge. Agyeman saw a photo of himself on the side of the Sears Tower. Hucko's was near the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Same for Velega's.
"Everyone wants their friends to see them on top of the Staples Center," Velega said.
Breakfast wrapped up the weekend. One jet was scheduled to leave at noon. Two others were scheduled for wheels up at 2 p.m. Another left at 3 p.m.
"The design, the intent is to make them feel special," Bellotti said. "You really want them and you want them to have a good time."
Postscript
Did it work? Well, 12 of the 25 recruits who visited Eugene that weekend signed letters of intent to play with the Ducks.
As much as Byron Velega liked the idea of a billboard over the Staples Center, and the locker room ("There's not a locker room that you can compare to the locker room at Oregon," he said), he signed a letter of intent to play for UCLA next season.
Although Russum rated his trip to Eugene a 9 out of 10, he chose Arizona State (whose trip he graded an
, where he figures his new nickname will be Potato Head. About Oregon's recruiting efforts, he said, "It's more classy. I don't know if it's because they have more money or if it's because it's the biggest weekend they've had. They presented themselves well." About Arizona State, he said it just felt right.
Pili chose Oregon, but not, he said, because of the jet or the food or any of the glamour. He plans to go on his Mormon mission after his freshman season. Pili said he liked the longevity of Oregon's coaching staff and he trusts it still will be there when he returns to Eugene.
Agyeman said he nearly committed on the Saturday night of his trip while he stood and looked out at a fog-shrouded Autzen Stadium. He waited, signing with the Ducks on Feb. 4.
The reason?
"It's a college town," he said. "Everywhere you went you saw Oregon things. It represents what I grew up thinking a college town looked like."
Hucko said he barely ate for four days after his visit. His flight home took the jet first to San Diego, then to Los Angeles. Everyone pretty much slept on the first leg. On the second, "All the kids just talked about how crazy it was that there was a thumbprint to get in the stupid locker room." He committed to Oregon.
Colvin said he entered the recruiting process determined to see through the show the schools put on.
"Most kids my age, they get caught up in the moment," he said. He said he was looking to see who, in a dishonest system, would be the most honest. Oregon never promised him anything and, in the end, he decided Eugene would be a place to focus on football and school with as few distractions as possible.
He chose Oregon live on ESPN.
