Doug Goodwin Q&A
Justin Rowland
EagleAction.com Recruiting Analyst
Talk about it in The Eagles Nest
Four-star starter Doug Goodwin (2000-2003) spoke withEagleAction.com about his experience as a high school recruit more than a decade ago.
Since leaving Boston College, Goodwin has been involved in management consulting, recruiting (not football related) and coaching, both at the high school and college levels.
As a high school football player and student-athlete at Holy Trinity in Long Island he was an all-state football player and three times he won team MVP honors. He was also a track star and that carried over to BC a bit, too.
EagleAction.com: Looking back on the recruiting process, which for you started just before the online recruiting industry got really, really big, was it a good experience or a bad experience?
Doug Goodwin: It was great. All the attention I got was really unexpected. I'm a very humble person but in high school I did know I was good. I just didn't know how good. It felt really good to have people after me. I'll never forget my first letter. It was from Penn State, a team I was really interested in at the time. It was so humbling, the correspondences and the fact that coaches were taking time out for me. It was a good experience.
Over time (schools from) the Big XII and the Big Ten came in. I think Boston College came in maybe a month or two later. It was the same thing with them. Being a former coach and recruiter myself I understand the purpose of recruiting and what was done at the time. When I was a kid it was a great experience. People (at school) would come up to you and say, 'Hey, what letter did you get today?' I'd tell them Penn State, Ohio (State), Oregon … and they were just all wondering who was going to be next.
EagleAction.com: Can you briefly retrace the course of your relationship with BC?
Goodwin: That's a funny story. I always said I wanted to go to a Catholic school. I knew nothing about Boston College. I didn't even know they existed. The other Catholic school was Notre Dame and I wanted to go there because of the history they had. Just the pedigree and the very rich tradition. I wanted to be a part of that. After Notre Dame started giving me letters, BC started giving me letters. Just very, 'Hey, how are you doing?' Nothing really solid.
The moment that made them say, 'We need to go out and get this guy hard,' was my sophomore year or so. I was throwing the shotput at nationals and it just so happened that they were in Boston. I told my high school coach, 'Well, since we're going to Boston and Boston College is one of the main schools recruiting me, let's go there.' I found out it was a Catholic school so I wanted to go to the campus to see what was going on.
My recruiting coach was Al Golden, who's now the head coach of the Miami Hurricanes. Coach Golden was the first one to contact me and it's funny because I thought he was the head coach. I went to the campus to meet with Tom O'Brien and I didn't even realize he was the head coach 'til I got to the school. We talked and that was kind of a cool thing. They were the first school to offer me. I got a lot of other offers from other schools but at that point I had fallen in love with the campus. I literally fell in love with it. Of course, my dad was sick at the time and it was important to be close to home, and it was close to home.
EagleAction.com: What kind of a recruiter was Al Golden for BC?
Goodwin: He did his research. He was very thorough. He knew a lot about me. I was impressed with that. He made it very unique to me. He did a great job of finding out what I did. It was never generic, like, 'Hey, how it's going guy.' He'd ask how the shotput is going. He found out the things I took interest in and always made it personal. I felt like he was specific. Other coaches talking to me at the same time were saying typical things like, 'Hey, how are you doing?' I was sad the year (Golden) actually left, to go to Virginia or Temple.
EagleAction.com: How about Tom O'Brien? What was his role in your recruitment?
Goodwin: He did his job to engage me. The running joke there was he was very stern. You could talk to him. He had his conversations with you but the conversations were limited. He talked enough to get his point across. He didn't come across as condescending but he wasn't one for too much small talk. I understand he was trying to weed out guys because some weren't doing the right thing. He had a very militant hand, you could say. My freshman year it was, 'This is about business. We're taking care of business.' Over time I started to see him warm up.
EagleAction.com: Looking back on your actual experience at BC, was it what you expected?
Goodwin: I think it was actually better than what I expected. My expectations are always middle ground. I never put too much stock into something. I always have an even-keeled set of expectations. When I got there I felt really welcomed.
One tough thing for me going into it was there was a negative recruiter from another school that put it in my head, 'Why go to Boston College? Go to Syracuse. We have more black people here. They have racial (issues) at BC.' I live in Long Island so I know about racism. I know areas not to go to and things not to do. I wasn't going to let that stop me. And being around the campus and in the outskirts of the city, the culture they have there at BC is really good. Of course, they were really building something in football and it was a great institution. The educational background there made me who I am today. I brag about my psychology undergrad and my master's in business. When you say you went to Boston College people know how rigorous it is academically. That shaped me to be the person I am today and I really appreciate it.
Justin Rowland
EagleAction.com Recruiting Analyst
Talk about it in The Eagles Nest
Four-star starter Doug Goodwin (2000-2003) spoke withEagleAction.com about his experience as a high school recruit more than a decade ago.
Since leaving Boston College, Goodwin has been involved in management consulting, recruiting (not football related) and coaching, both at the high school and college levels.
As a high school football player and student-athlete at Holy Trinity in Long Island he was an all-state football player and three times he won team MVP honors. He was also a track star and that carried over to BC a bit, too.
EagleAction.com: Looking back on the recruiting process, which for you started just before the online recruiting industry got really, really big, was it a good experience or a bad experience?
Doug Goodwin: It was great. All the attention I got was really unexpected. I'm a very humble person but in high school I did know I was good. I just didn't know how good. It felt really good to have people after me. I'll never forget my first letter. It was from Penn State, a team I was really interested in at the time. It was so humbling, the correspondences and the fact that coaches were taking time out for me. It was a good experience.
Over time (schools from) the Big XII and the Big Ten came in. I think Boston College came in maybe a month or two later. It was the same thing with them. Being a former coach and recruiter myself I understand the purpose of recruiting and what was done at the time. When I was a kid it was a great experience. People (at school) would come up to you and say, 'Hey, what letter did you get today?' I'd tell them Penn State, Ohio (State), Oregon … and they were just all wondering who was going to be next.
EagleAction.com: Can you briefly retrace the course of your relationship with BC?
Goodwin: That's a funny story. I always said I wanted to go to a Catholic school. I knew nothing about Boston College. I didn't even know they existed. The other Catholic school was Notre Dame and I wanted to go there because of the history they had. Just the pedigree and the very rich tradition. I wanted to be a part of that. After Notre Dame started giving me letters, BC started giving me letters. Just very, 'Hey, how are you doing?' Nothing really solid.
The moment that made them say, 'We need to go out and get this guy hard,' was my sophomore year or so. I was throwing the shotput at nationals and it just so happened that they were in Boston. I told my high school coach, 'Well, since we're going to Boston and Boston College is one of the main schools recruiting me, let's go there.' I found out it was a Catholic school so I wanted to go to the campus to see what was going on.
My recruiting coach was Al Golden, who's now the head coach of the Miami Hurricanes. Coach Golden was the first one to contact me and it's funny because I thought he was the head coach. I went to the campus to meet with Tom O'Brien and I didn't even realize he was the head coach 'til I got to the school. We talked and that was kind of a cool thing. They were the first school to offer me. I got a lot of other offers from other schools but at that point I had fallen in love with the campus. I literally fell in love with it. Of course, my dad was sick at the time and it was important to be close to home, and it was close to home.
EagleAction.com: What kind of a recruiter was Al Golden for BC?
Goodwin: He did his research. He was very thorough. He knew a lot about me. I was impressed with that. He made it very unique to me. He did a great job of finding out what I did. It was never generic, like, 'Hey, how it's going guy.' He'd ask how the shotput is going. He found out the things I took interest in and always made it personal. I felt like he was specific. Other coaches talking to me at the same time were saying typical things like, 'Hey, how are you doing?' I was sad the year (Golden) actually left, to go to Virginia or Temple.
EagleAction.com: How about Tom O'Brien? What was his role in your recruitment?
Goodwin: He did his job to engage me. The running joke there was he was very stern. You could talk to him. He had his conversations with you but the conversations were limited. He talked enough to get his point across. He didn't come across as condescending but he wasn't one for too much small talk. I understand he was trying to weed out guys because some weren't doing the right thing. He had a very militant hand, you could say. My freshman year it was, 'This is about business. We're taking care of business.' Over time I started to see him warm up.
EagleAction.com: Looking back on your actual experience at BC, was it what you expected?
Goodwin: I think it was actually better than what I expected. My expectations are always middle ground. I never put too much stock into something. I always have an even-keeled set of expectations. When I got there I felt really welcomed.
One tough thing for me going into it was there was a negative recruiter from another school that put it in my head, 'Why go to Boston College? Go to Syracuse. We have more black people here. They have racial (issues) at BC.' I live in Long Island so I know about racism. I know areas not to go to and things not to do. I wasn't going to let that stop me. And being around the campus and in the outskirts of the city, the culture they have there at BC is really good. Of course, they were really building something in football and it was a great institution. The educational background there made me who I am today. I brag about my psychology undergrad and my master's in business. When you say you went to Boston College people know how rigorous it is academically. That shaped me to be the person I am today and I really appreciate it.
