Making it Work: Getting the Most out of what you got

In college football there are the traditional powerhouses that seem to have everything, large fan base, gigantic stadiums and blue chipper after blue chipper. Most of these teams come from the "loaded" states when it comes to recruiting. Some examples would be Florida, Texas, USC and Ohio State just to name a few.

But what about the teams that don't have the sufficient funds to travel the country and recruit these so called "blue chippers". How do these teams compete with the "big boys"? It's simple, they make the most out of what they got. These teams take the old saying "Work beats talent unless talent works" to heart. These teams cleverly develop gameplans and schemes and develop the little talent they have until they have a team that is mentally and physically strong enough to compete with the best. So getting into it, here are the teams that I picked in no particular order:

Wisconsin Badgers

The Badgers seem to always put a team that is able to compete with the best. They always find themselves near the top of the Big 10 at the end of the season. Wisconsin fields a team made up of mostly average players who excel in team roles and therefore are able to win as many games as they do. Over the last four years, the Badgers have won a "cool" 40 games. Not bad for a team who had only 7 four or five star recruits from 2002-2007 according to Scout.com. By the way, PJ Hill was only a 2 star prospect coming out of high school, now he is a Heisman candidate. This year, the Badgers return 19 starters and this is probably there best chance of finally playing in a BCS game.

Check out this sick video of Wisconsin's Jump Around.

BYU Cougars

BYU has found themselves a big advantage over other football programs. Most of their players have gone on two year Mormon missions and come back with the same eligibility. For example, if they recruited a 19 year old freshman and he decided to go on a Mormon mission, he would come back in two years as a 21 year old freshman and could therefore still be playing for BYU when he is 25. This maturity has proven to be effective on the gridiron. BYU, over the last three seasons have won 28 games with three bowl invitations and 2 conference titles. How can a Mormon school from Utah be able to compete with the rest of the Mountain West let alone be able to compete the way BYU does against BCS schools? According to Bronco Mendenhall, some of his starters for the past few seasons were 0 star prospects meaning that they shouldn't have been recruited. Period. The BYU recruiting staff must view game film of these guys and dissect it really well or BYU has just gotten lucky with all of these "hidden gems"

West Virginia Mountaineers

When watching West Virginia play, I get the impression that they are one of the college football powerhouses that bring in blue chipper time and time again. Such is not the case. From 2002-2007 the Mountaineers have brought in only 3 five star prospects according to Scout.com: Noel Devine, Durrell Robinson and Jason Gwaltney. I have only heard of one of those players. No one would think that over the past five seasons, the Mountaineers could win 49 games, 4 conference titles and appear in 4 BCS Bowls. The Mountaineers playing style suits their player's strengths. Take Pat White for instance, a 2 star prospect coming out of high school with no big expectations quickly became a Heisman contender by his junior year. That's what I call getting the most out of your players.

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