New assistant Ja’Juan Seider shares his recruiting plan for Notre Dame football

SOUTH BEND — Ja’Juan Seider, Notre Dame football’s new associate head coach/running backs, has built a reputation as one of the sport’s leading recruiters.

Seider, 47, pulled back the curtain on Wednesday in explaining his approach to and prowess in an increasingly competitive process.

“It’s about relationship,” the former Penn State assistant said in a news conference at Notre Dame Stadium. “Establishing relationships, establishing trust with the players, but it’s not just the players. It’s the family. Those kids didn’t get there by themselves.”

Besides the parents, Seider noted, it’s important to determine who the decision makers are for any high school recruit.

“It may be the grandparent that’s raising that kid, it may be the uncle, it may be that person at the school that you don’t think about, maybe that custodian that’s really close to that guy,” Seider said. “Who’s helping this kid make decisions? It’s a transitional world we’re in right now with NIL and the revenue sharing that’s come along, but at some point, it’s got to be even.”

That’s where the deciding factor, Seider has learned, often comes down to trust.

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“What’s going to separate when Notre Dame can pay this and Ohio State can pay this and Penn State can pay that?” he said. “We can all say we got the same things, but at the end of the day that kid can come to me because I built the best relationship where there’s a little bit of trust: ‘OK, I can trust this coach is going to develop me, he’s going to be there through my tough times.’ “

Seider, who recruited the current Penn State duo of Nicholas Singleton (Shillington, Pa.) and Kaytron Allen (Norfolk, Va.) during his seven-year run in State…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/assistant-jajuan-seider-shares-recruiting-223933813.html

Author : South Bend Tribune

Publish date : 2025-02-26 22:39:00

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