In nearly every level of college football, there is a certain level of attrition. A freshman recruiting class of 25 is bound to lose a handful of guys for a variety of reasons that life throws their way.
James Franklin and his staff spend countless hours on the phone, on the road, and in the living rooms of those same players, so he and his staff have a plan in place to help keep freshman in the program.
Franklin and his staff start off by meeting with each freshman about once a week throughout the course of the season just to touch base and continue to build rapport with kids going through a very challenging transition.
"The freshman meetings are important because something that I noticed as an assistant is that you recruit these guys, you love them up, you bring them in, and then 90% of them redshirt and they just kind of get pushed off to the side...and then I would see that you have attrition."
"Then you'd have guys leave, guys struggling with the transition. So those meetings are; How are you doing academically? How are you doing socially? Is there anything that we need to know? Anything that we can help you with? Who's homesick? Is there anything that we can help you with? You know, whatever it may be."
"It's usually a pretty good dialogue both ways, I ask them what they're learning from a football and academic perspective, we talk about a lot of social issues and problems that we have right now in our society and the importance of making great choices. Just trying to reinforce that over and over again."