Each cycle is, of course, more intense and competitive—“You’re going after bigger fish,” Hopson says—but it also runs on a different timeline. While FBS signing classes are nearly full by the time a prospect’s high school football season ends in November or December, lower divisions are just getting started.
This is pretty subjective from a position coach's perspective. The size of the fish doesn't really matter from FCS to FBS. If Youngstown State and Robert Morris are competing for the same DT and he's #1 on their board, that fish is as big as the DT who is being recruited by Michigan and OSU. It's all relative.
Recruiting is more competitive, changes more rapidly and is stretched into a year-round event.
The competitive thing is purely subjective and relative. 2 rats can get pretty competitive over crumbs.
In terms of the year round event, FCS recruiting is pretty much year round nowadays. It didn't use to be that way.
Staffs are so much larger at the FBS level that some FCS-turned-FBS coaches admit they failed to delegate and manage well enough.
From the assistant coach perspective it makes recruiting much harder. The author is speaking from a HC point of view. These FCS schools don't have a dozen GA's and recruiting assistants doing a ton of the leg work that the FBS schools do. On an individual level, you have to grind a lot harder at the smaller school level.
Budgets are so much greater that organizational structure and prudent spending are imperative.
Again - has nothing to do with an asst coach perspective except their job is harder.
Coaches coming from Division II and Division III must learn a new rulebook in Division I, one that puts more stringent qualifying restrictions on recruits.
The FCS level is the same as the FBS level. That new rulebook for D2 guys rarely stands in the way of their recruiting prowess or lack thereof. They learn the rules pretty quick just like the D1 guys do when to precedents are set that level.
There is also the scholarship increase to 85–22 more than FCS and 49 more than Division II—that can make things even more complex.
Again - this shows the grind of the FCS coach. They need to find ways to manage a roster from a financial standpoint that doesn't really stand in the way of the FBS coach. If you're coaching in the Patriot League, you're competing against schools in your conference that have more or less scholarships then you do. The same can be said for the PSAC schools. IUP has more money then Clarion does when it comes to scholarships.
I've been around hundreds of college coaches at the FCS/D2 level over the past 10-15 years. Many of these guys move up and down levels all the time. The sales pitch, the recruitment, etc really doesn't change. Some guys can sell, some cannot. Some guys are at this level are able to sell because they have a great product that sells itself just like the FBS coaches do.
The majority of assistant coaches at all levels are doing the same thing in recruiting under similar circumstances. Each level has it's own nuances but it's nothing like you described in your OP.
