Gamecocks OC Dowell Loggains talks adjusting to college game
After 16 years working in the National Football League, Dowell Loggains was ready for a new type of challenge. After jumping to the college game as an analyst, then position coach, Shane Beamer gave him the chance to call plays once again for the South Carolina Gamecocks.
In his three years at the college level, Loggains has taken note of some key differences between college and NFL, starting with the way the calendar is structured.
“In the NFL, I could tell you two months from now, on a Tuesday at 1 o’clock, what I was doing,” Loggains told Jay Philips and Terry Ford on the Halftime Show on 107.5 The Game this week. “In college football, it’s so fluid. In college football there’s so much more going on.”
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As Loggains tells it, NFL players are “gone” in the offseason, not around the facilities again until April or May after the previous season.
Contrast that with the college game, where the hyper-competitive world of recruiting and a recruiting calendar that’s open often means coaches must be available and flexible.
“Somebody’s driving to go see their grandma in Atlanta from Jacksonville and stopping in to see you. At that moment, you’re dropping everything. At the end of the day, you’re exhausted. In the NFL, you’re wearing sweats, you’ve got your your feet up just watching tape all day, drinking Diet Cokes,” Loggains laughed. “In college football, you’ve got to be dressed up, comb your hair, have a collared shirt on because you want to make an impression on some recruit that just happens to pop in that day.”
In his lone year as an SEC on-field coach prior to being hired by the Gamecocks, Loggains quickly showed some recruiting chops at Arkansas.
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Shane Beamer’s given Loggains plenty of praise thus far based on what he’s seen on the trail.
“It’s an awesome challenge that I’m really excited about,” said Loggains.
Another difference between the college and pro game? Assistant coaches have more of a stake in “picking” the players, and are then responsible for recruiting them to the program.
Loggains has taken an interesting approach to making sure that his evaluations are on point.
“You can’t put a value on experience. I felt like, I’ve coached for a long time, but I have to build a bank of evaluations, a bank of reps,” Loggains explained. “I’m going back and watching, what did Julio Jones look like? How does Brock Purdie end up at Iowa State? In the NFL, it’s (Tom) Brady. How did he fall that far?”
Someone on the Gamecocks’ staff that has plenty of in the trenches recruiting experience is someone that Loggains has leaned on heavily.
“I rely on Jody Wright so much in recruiting because he’s done it for so long. He’s been the director of player personnel at Alabama with Saban and used to sit in there one on one watching tape. Coach Beamer’s recruited so many good players in his career,” said Loggains. “OK, how did you do it? How did you know this guy was going to be a good player?”
Football is football, but there’s plenty of unique aspects about the college game. Loggains plans on continuing to listen and observe during the next several months in Columbia.
“There’s a lot of things to learn. That’s the hard thing about football. There’s always something you can do to get better at it,” he said.
