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Issue link: http://catalog.e-digitaleditions.com/i/108116
"It's a situation where I walk in and I'm upfront – I call it as I see it – I don't pull any punches," said Andersen. "I give them my expectation levels. We discuss the core values very clean and precise. It's not going to change. I think we're consistent as a staff when we go into a home and there are no real curveballs.'' an imperfect science. "Recruiting is emotional ― I'm an emotional person ― so recruiting becomes very emotional,'' said Andersen, who constantly reminds his assistants to keep some emotional detachment in case the situation arises where the fit is not necessarily right and this may not be the best place for someone. That's when the recruiter has to be honest – with himself, the recruit and the family. "The lows,'' he said, "are when you have a young man and you think this IS the best place, this is where he's supposed to be ― academically, socially, football-wise ― but he picks another school maybe not for the reasons you think he should. Maybe it's emotional; maybe he had a great recruiting trip. "But that's not a reason to go to a school. Those are the decisions that get to you because you hurt for the kid, not for your program. We'll still line up and play football at Wisconsin; we'll play at a high level and we'll be fine. But you get attached to those kids and you want to see them have success.'' By all accounts, Andersen is an effective home recruiter. "I never go into a home without being educated on who the decision-makers are, so I don't go in blinded,'' said Andersen. "I've done my best to build up some trust and belief ― to have some knowledge of what the family situation is, what they're looking for, and how important certain areas are for them. "It's a situation where I walk in and I'm upfront ― I call it as I see it ― I don't pull any punches. I give them my expectation levels. We discuss the core values very clean and precise. It's not going to change. I think we're consistent as a staff when we go into a home and there are no real curveballs.'' Given that Andersen was hired less than two months ago, he was put in a unique position with his first recruiting class in that he was looking at the football equivalent of a baseball "hold.'' He came into the game with the idea of holding on to players who had already verbally committed to Wisconsin. He saved most of them, too. "I did get the list of names right away after I was hired,'' Andersen said, "and we evaluated each one of them from afar, basically on YouTube or whatever it was. We started that as soon as we put the staff together and they (his assistants) were still spread throughout the country. "When we got to the Rose Bowl, we got together in a room and we sat down and watched every single one of those kids, every rep that we could possibly find. We kind of go 1, 2, 3 with kids. It's a simple (grading) process: 1 is a no; 2 is a maybe and 3 is a yes. Most of them came back an absolute 3.'' Andersen didn't go into this evaluation stage with any preconceived notions or the bias of knowing that these players were already committed and had been graded by the previous Wisconsin staff. Instead, he insisted on keeping an open mind and he wasn't disappointed. "We started building relationships from there,'' he said. "That was the most important step.'' Some of the UW commits were getting pulled in other directions by multiple recruiters. "I'm going to say this a lot in the next few days, but Thomas Hammock and Ben Strickland did a tremendous job of keeping those kids in the fight,'' Andersen said of the holdover assistants. "The high school coaches involved also did a tremendous job of giving us a chance to get into the mix.'' Andersen, a former high school coach in Utah, has been appreciative of the support that he has 25