Baylor has a secret weapon in offensive recruiting, especially for elite WRs. He flies a little under the radar because he shares a last name with our head coach, but he shouldn't. And not just because he has more style than any of us and wears his hat slightly askew. Everyone should know the name Kendal Briles because he's probably the best recruiter in the Big 12 right now. Or at least he was in 2014 according to Rivals (today), Scout (last Friday) and 247Sports (updates constantly, I guess).*
*Mike Locksley, LOLWUT?
We first saw Briles the Younger flex his recruiting muscles a year ago assisting in the recruitment of the #1 WR in the country, Robbie Rhodes. This year, he built on that success by pulling in six recruits in the 2014 class, including all of the Four Horseman of the Pointspocalypse (that's Cannon, Hall, Platt, and Zamora), Jordan Feuerbacher, and Xavier Jones. He's taken the role of "offensive recruiting coordinator" and run with it, pulling in big name after big name for the Bears. If Baylor is on a big offensive player that isn't a QB, you can almost bet that Briles the Younger will get the nod in his recruitment. For 2015, that includes WR Damarkus Lodge, TE Aliz'e Jones, WR Cordell Broaddus (an ODB favorite), and several others. Where Briles goes in recruiting, success usually follows, especially with highly-ranked WRs.
In this day and age of CFB, assistants who can coach and recruit with the best are worth their weight in gold. We already knew he could do the former from having guys like Terrance Williams, Tevin Reese, and Antwan Goodley under his direct tutelage the last two years. Now we know he can also do the latter. And he's just getting started.
Congrats, Coach Briles, for the honors!
Note: I looked for 20 minutes through the photo editor for a picture of Kendal Briles. In every picture I could find where I thought I saw him, he was walking away from the camera. Every single one. It was uncanny.