How Monmouth is mastering recruiting in college football's new era | Exclusive

WEST LONG BRANCH -- In a conference room at the Hackensack Meridian Athletic Center on the campus of Monmouth University, the school's football general manager Kevin Callahan Jr. and recruiting coordinator Kamau Dumas offered a rare glimpse under the hood at how the program handles the most exciting, intricate and controversial aspect of modern college football—recruiting.

The glimpse is as innocuous as it is thrilling. It's a reminder of the unseen monotonous work that goes into building a football team, something akin to a spreadsheet with coaches collaborating and sharing notes. Some details were agreed to not be included in this story, but for the first time Callahan and Dumas pulled back the curtain on their recruiting operation—and how meticulous and also personal their process is.

With the financial upheaval taking place in college football threatening to leave smaller programs behind, Monmouth University won't use limited resources as an excuse. The Hawks' approach is a lesson in the minutiae of adaptation to the new landscape. Their stubborn refusal to be out-competed forms the foundation of their fight to not just survive, but thrive as New Jersey's smallest Division I football program.

"It's funny, because when I hear other coaches at any level of college football talk about that, to me it just comes off as completely non-competitive," Callahan said. "Oh we can't compete with this program because they have this much more money on their roster than we do. Ten years ago, you never heard anybody say, we can't compete with them cause they have a better weight room. It's the same mentality. So whether we have or don't have, we're not gonna allow that to stand in the way of us competing and trying to win."

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The spirit of competition in this sport is not confined to the end zones and hashmarks. The best programs compete in anything and everything, the resulting success being proof that irrationality is part of the formula for athletic superiority. Dollars spent are merely a correlation—competition is causal.

It's been just over five years since the NCAA conceded on rules to allow Name, Image and Likeness deals for college athletes. As the first generation of athletes have come and gone through the remade collegiate landscape, the longterm effects are beginning to take shape. The culture of player acquisition has changed rapidly with NIL and the surge in player movement because of the transfer portal.

It was further exacerbated by conference realignment, which amounted to consolidation. The Power 5 conferences were whittled down to a two-tiered Power 4. The Athletic's recent reporting on athletic budgets in the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, and SEC shed light on the chasm between them and the Group of 6 conferences, but also on the two-tiered system within themselves. Of the 22 schools with rosters reportedly over $30 million, the only teams outside of the Big Ten and SEC were Clemson, Notre Dame, Miami and Texas Tech. Even the lower end of that scale is at least $10 million - light years beyond the FCS level.

The tides have changed, and the only option for Monmouth is to change with them. The results are self-explanatory. The Hawks finished last season ranked 20th in the FCS after narrowly missing out on a playoff birth in 2025, and currently have the ability to chart their own path to a CAA conference title in 2026. Where others see limitations because of the turbulent environment, Monmouth sees an opportunity to gain an edge.

"We're able to be smarter with how we allocate resources, and we definitely have a plan for where we're trying to allocate certain things," Callahan said. "You really have to be smart and innovative about how you're doing things as opposed to just throwing money at problems."

'Character and personality first'

The world of player acquisition in college football, both through the transfer portal and high school recruiting, has changed dramatically in recent years. The influx of monetization is just one aspect, an accelerant fueling a fire that started long ago.

Even before NIL, the recruiting timeline was being sped up as college programs increasingly wanted to have the bulk of their incoming class finalized before the start of the fall instead of the former college football holiday of a single signing day in early February. That has created opportunities for smaller programs to identify late bloomers, and those opportunities have only grown as FBS programs become more reliant on the transfer portal to fill out rosters.

"The programs above us, those Group of Six schools, they've become so invested in the transfer portal that it leaves a higher-level player for us," Callahan said. "So maybe those guys who were going to the MAC or the American or the Sun Belt five years ago—they're not taking that high school player anymore, they're taking a transfer.”

As the most recent crop of college football stars shows, the line between being a four-star recruit and a no-stars recruit is as thin as it's ever been. Arguably the best quarterback in college football, Trinidad Chambliss at Ole Miss, began his career at Division II Ferris State. The nation's leader in passing yards, Oregon State's Braeden Atkinson, played at the FCS level with Mercer for his first college season. Right behind him in production is the current top quarterback prospect for the upcoming draft, Oklahoma State's Drew Mestemaker, who began his career as a walk-on with North Texas and didn't start in high school.

But there are also the headwinds of a college football culture that appears increasingly eager to separate the perceived haves from the have-nots. Offers abound on social media, minting a player as a legitimate recruit for the next level, even as those offers often come with caveats and can be withdrawn at the drop of a hat.

"The word 'offer' is floated around," Callahan said. "It's always different what that means. Just because a school offers an individual, that doesn't necessarily mean he's a slam dunk going to that school—people offer for a million reasons. Sometimes, there are contingencies with offers."

And promising high school players also sense that there isn't a huge line between them being a Power 4 player, enjoying a full-scholarship and luxurious facilities, and being an FCS player at a school that is a fraction of the size. Those external conditions vary more starkly than the level of competition or the value of the opportunity on the field.

"If we're recruiting a kid and we get down to the wire after they've had multiple big time offers, you really just gotta do a deep dive on the character and the mindset of that player," recruiting coordinator Kamau Dumas said. "They have so much external pressure, sometimes from their environment or the people around them. Hey, you had an offer from this Power 4 school and you're going to an FCS school. Sometimes there's a lot of negative things being planted in their ear, if you will, where it ultimately hurts the kid because now they don't maximize the opportunity."

Recruiting as a parasocial phenomenon on social media has created new pitfalls for the current generation of high school athletes. The rigors of college football are a psychological challenge as well as a physical one, and the correct mental approach is the common denominator of players who find success at the highest levels of the sport, regardless of their path to get there.

"Obviously from a football perspective, you're evaluating character and personality first," Callahan said. "The guys who really become great players, the guys who have the mentality to work hard and do more and are overly-competitive and driven. So that's number one."

The desire for that type of coveted mental makeup is reflected internally, as Monmouth tries to build a program that sustains and enriches those traits over the course of development. That requires establishing a deeply rooted culture with stability, and that has been the north star for the football program since its inception in 1993 under Kevin Callahan Sr, who led the team for 33 seasons as the first and only head coach in the Hawks' history until this fall. At the time of his final season in 2026, he was the longest-tenured Division I head coach.

The steady approach has continued under first-year head coach Jeff Gallo, who had 22 years of experience as an assistant before taking the reins this fall. Callahan Sr.'s son understands as well as anyone the value of continuity, particularly as a differentiator in the modern recruiting landscape.

"Families want stability," Callahan Jr. said. "We're one of the more stable programs. Our coaches have been here for a really long time. It's not a revolving door of people. It's not a revolving door of coaches. It's not a revolving door of players, where this is a bus station and the team is changing every single year."

Of course, strategizing an approach to player acquisition would be difficult without success on the field. There was an adjustment period for the Hawks since joining the CAA in 2022, finishing below .500 at 5-6 2022 and 4-7 in 2023. But in 2024, Monmouth notched its first ever win over an FBS opponent, beating Florida International and breaking even at 6-6. Over the past year-and-a-half, the program has been a steady presence in the Top 25 with a 15-5 record and a chance to win the league title in the second half of this season.

Victories are the proof of concept, but recruiting requires vision. The Hawks could enter a new echelon as their unique approach is further validated by the results on the field.

"The first part is you have to win as a program. Players want to be apart of a winning program," Dumas said. "It's much easier to tell a kid all the great things about the program when you're having success."

'Thread that runs through the entire program'

Monmouth's recent success has given the team plenty to talk about on the recruiting trail. The Hawks are currently ranked 17th in the coaches' poll, and their recent track record of player development is being proven at the FBS level and even in the Power 4 conferences.

Former star wide receiver Josh Derry had 1,123 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns last year for Monmouth, and he's now emerged as the top target for Central Florida with 34 catches for 358 yards and three touchdowns, all team-highs. Derry followed in the footsteps of Dymere Miller, who starred with the Hawks before moving on to become the top receiving target at Rutgers as a senior in 2025. One key aspect of the program's evolution has been embracing the inevitable truth that some of their elite players will have opportunities at the next level, and the staff at Monmouth is grateful for the players who spend years in West Long Branch before finishing out their career at a higher level.

"We just want guys to make the best, most informed decisions for them and their family. And so if they have the opportunity to leave Monmouth and have a really good opportunity, potentially with life-changing money, then we're all for it and we're gonna celebrate it," Callahan said. "Guys on our current team see that and can aspire to that as well. And so if it's an opportunity that's real and we have the information on that, then we're all for it. We're definitely gonna celebrate it, just like we celebrate it when guys leave here and go play professional football."

Also in the Big 12, the Hawks' former standout edge rusher Lamont Lester Jr. is now leading Colorado in sacks with five. And in the Mid-American Conference at Miami University, running back Rodney Nelson is leading the RedHawks in rushing after winning CAA Offensive Player of the Year at Monmouth in 2025. The success even extends to the NFL level, as cornerback Mike Reid became the ninth Hawk to reach the pros this fall with the New Orleans Saints after spending four seasons at Monmouth and his last at South Dakota.

That success has opened doors for the Hawks to pursue a broader range of high-caliber players, but their process remains faithful to the core values that produced those gems. Monmouth has to be strategic with its resources when diviing into favored regions with deep talent pools, combing through to identify potential diamonds in the rough.

"We can pretty much be in every high school in New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland. So if there's a kid at a school that's not as highly touted or year-after-year highly recruitable, we're still in that school," Callahan said. "We know that kid from the time he's a sophomore, because we're going through there every single year. Versus people who recruit super nationally, and they only have a limited amount of days to recruit in New Jersey or Maryland. They have to hit the hot spots—the schools with the most players. Whereas we can really take our time and truly work the footprint."

The notion of scanning across the country for prospects is a nice idea in theory, but the practical work involved would be overwhelming for most FCS-sized programs. Every team talks about the value of relationships, but Monmouth reaps the benefits of earlier conversations and steady communication over the course of a recruit's high school career.

"It's probably a little bit more grassroots," Callahan said. "Pounding the pavement, going door-to-door versus one-stop shopping."

The emphasis on familiarity also has a two-pronged advantage in assembling the team. Recruiting players from the same region makes it easier to build chemistry and camaraderie in the roster, leaning into Monmouth's emphasis on character and culture. It also allows the Hawks to avoid the critical miscalculation of gambling on an unfamiliar player.

"Where I've made mistakes in the past is not seeing a kid in a live evaluation," Callahan said. "The more information that I have, the better decision that I make on a kid. I feel like when I haven't seen a kid live, that's when I feel like it hasn't worked out."

The Hawks try to be judicious in assessing the film and in-person evaluation, but the risk-reward calculus is different for every player. On Monmouth's timeline, the evaluation accelerates after a junior season with chances to evaluate that tape and also scout the player in-person with a visit in the spring or summer.

"It's really two avenues, I would say. Production versus potential," Dumas said. "You see all the time, there's a high school player locally who rushed for 2,000 yards. He's really good and talented for the level of football he's playing. But then you have to take in consideration, where would he project playing at this level versus this competition? The intangibles of his size, speed, bend, ability to move, cognitive skills. So it's really a mixture of both."

Obviously while identifying promising young players, there's always the chance that a bigger school from the FBS could swoop in and turn an unknown gem into a certified diamond. Although the Hawks have to be judicious about using time as a resource in recruiting, getting scooped isn't as big of a concern as it might seem.

"One of the best pieces of advice that I ever got is - good players are going to go to other schools. That's not what ruins your program," Callahan said. "What really hurts you is when you take bad players. There's enough good players to go around, especially when you're talking about the CAA. As long as you're taking good kids, then we will be okay. It's when you start to take players that aren't panning out athletically, academically, character-wise—that's when you really run yourself into problems."

The Hawks take a similar approach with the transfer portal, putting an emphasis on acquiring players that are already familiar. While Monmouth might miss out on a player coming out of high school, there's always a chance that he might join the program further down the road.

"We want to build through high school recruiting and then supplement when necessary with the transfer portal," Callahan said. "We want to build something that is stable, that is a positive experience, that is a good program year in and year out. That's not just a team or a collection of individuals every single year. We want there to be a thread that runs through the entire program."

Each year, there's thousands of high-pedigree players from across the country that enter the names into the transfer portal. It could be tantalizing to scan for players that on paper could project as great additions, but Monmouth remains disciplined in its approach, putting an emphasis on culture and familiarity.

"We're not gonna take all these guys from across the country who we have no relationship to," Callahan said. "When you don't have all the information, that's when you start to make mistakes for whatever reason—football, character, academics—whatever it is. So that's been a big piece of our transfer philosophy: take guys from the same recruiting footprint. And then it's the same thing: they're a new guy coming into the locker room, there's familiarity with the guys in the locker room."

'What you trusted and saw all along'

The cornerstones that Monmouth emphasizes might come across as an echo of every other college football program that claims a notion of virtue in their approach to the sport. But the Hawks are firm in their belief that being ethical is also a competitive advantage with practical benefits.

This year's team might be the most vivid proof that their principled approach and emphasis on the interpersonal elements of team-building is an edge. Instead of one star running back like Nelson, the Hawks' have a near-even split of production between Kenny Smith Jr. (753 rushing yards) and Elijah Jennings (646). Instead of one star receiver like Derry, Monmouth has two leading targets in Tra Neal (41 catches for 594 yards) and Gavin Nelson (48 catches for 511 yards).

Even the sack production has become spread out. Instead of two players accounting for 19 of the team's 31 sacks, the Hawks have kept a similar pace with 20 in 8 games this year, but no single player has accounted for more than 3.5.

"You look at the guys who've had success here from the transfer portal, they're guys we already recruited. This past cycle, we took guys who've been on campus already, who we've known for three years," Dumas said. "Targeting guys from the footprint who we've had a previous relationship with them, their coaches, their families—they usually have a lot of success when they get here."

Of course, synonymous with the transfer portal and recruiting is the money that now exists through NIL. For Monmouth at the FCS level, the program has learned how to utilize scarce resources in that category. The university is one of the two smallest in the CAA by a large margin. The other is Campbell, which ironically is the conference's only other team with a clear path to the league title.

"There's gonna be certain natural financial disadvantages that come with that," Callahan said. "At the same time, we're probably located in the best region in the CAA, when you're looking at the surrounding area businesses and access to industries. So we're constantly trying to leverage those partners in the community to help build something that's really special."

Although there are certain FCS programs that have developed NIL resources to pay players, that's a rarity for Monmouth. Instead, business partnerships help supplement things like meals, gear and rehab equipment.

"It doesn't just have to be money through NIL, because sometimes people don't feel comfortable with that and maybe there's not as great of a return on their investment of that," Callahan said. "We're just constantly trying to help partner with people in the community to create things that are mutually beneficial."

It all goes back to the program's guiding north star that is rooted in authenticity, ethics and interpersonal relationships. It also doesn't mean that the staff at Monmouth can't recognize how fraught the recruiting space can be. Even from a competitive standpoint, they see the fluctuations in a player's recruitment and the transient nature of offers from other programs.

"In recruiting, there's like an unspoken thing," Dumas said. "Sometimes schools don't want to be the first one to offer a player, where we've been the first guy to offer a player and we trust our evaluation. I think it's fulfilling as a coach to see this guy pan out cause it's what you trusted and saw all along."

Unlike programs that float offers out to a wide range of players, the Hawks are deliberate and consistent. Once a player is committed, Monmouth puts faith in the two-way street that comes with that. They don't recruit another player of a perceived higher caliber to replace their committed recruit, and hope that their commitments hold steady in the same way.

"We hold onto their verbal commitment. We won't recruit another player at their position to take their spot," Dumas said. "We want to bring the best players and people we can to the program and it's the same thing, we've gotta get to signing day, too. Usually, we've been pretty solid with holding onto those commitments. But the reality is, a Group of 5 school or bigger school can come in late after an early senior year evaluation and say, we want this guy. And then now that's where us being thorough in building relationships with our recruiting board, we can get to the next available guy who we would want to take."

'Taking the chance'

The football staff at Monmouth recognizes the myriad of changes to the college recruiting landscape, seeing it from a vantage point that has turned out to be a competitive advantage. With so much of that rooted in old school relationship-building, there are certain truths that they wish young players could see more clearly amidst the noise on social media that spills over into real life.

With the benefit of a closer look at the behind-the-scenes mechanics of the football recruiting machine, it can be disheartening to observe prospects focused on the wrong things. At the same time, it's completely understandable when viewed through the lens of external messaging that obfuscates the internal reality.

"There's so much on social media, guys can't decipher what's real or what's not," Dumas said. "Oftentimes I think high school players are continually comparing themselves to other people as opposed to just running their own race."

Each individual race has different hills and valleys at various points on the trail. Some players are ahead of the curve, prematurely anointed as stars in a way that causes them to lose sight of the finish line. Others might see those early risers and become discouraged, not putting in the correct effort to ride their own momentum once it arrives.

"You get offered by this big school as a freshman in high school. And then by the time it's your senior year rolling around, you don't really have any opportunities left," Dumas said. "Versus a guy who maybe started slow, didn't have anything, but he thought he wasn't a good player because he's comparing himself to this other kid who had all these offers. And when the fat lady sings at the end of the day, where can you go? And I think there's a lot of just not knowing what's truly real and what's not from a player standpoint, which impacts their decision-making."

Identifying players with the correct mental make-up can be a challenge, but it also becomes self-explanatory with how a prospect's career might unfold. The messaging for players who want to play at the Division I level in college is simple: maximize the situation and chart the best path for you.

"If you just focus on being the best player possible, the recruiting will take care of itself," Callahan said. "It's not your high school coach or the people you play. We're evaluating measurables and production and potential. And if you're just where your feet are, then it will take care of itself."

Ultimately, there's only so much that Monmouth can do to try change recruiting culture for the better. After all, they've found an upper hand with a steadfast approach to building a football program while bucking conventional trends. The commitment to that approach is now attracting a broader range, and higher level, of potential prospects. Monmouth has plenty of key contributors that joined the program as transfers from Power 4 programs, and they're winning recruiting battles against programs that dwarf the private university at the Shore.

But that won't change the commitment to finding gems, and the pride that comes from seeing the growth of a player with deep interpersonal ties. It supersedes the newfound success of winning recruiting battles against bigger foes, as the most fulfilling part is being one-of-one in believing in a player—and then watching that faith be rewarded.

A few weeks before Josh Derry scored an overtime touchdown as Central Florida upset No. 2 BYU this past weekend, his story was on the mind of Callahan as the highlight of what can happen on the recruiting trail. Player acquisition in college football is always evolving, but the methodology remains the same at Monmouth. It is a competitive environment filled with Goliaths, and the way to win is to build a team filled with Davids.

"Finding the guy that no one else knew about or taking the chance on the guy that no one else wanted to take a chance on. I think of Josh Derry, a lot of people said no to him—we said yes to him" Callahan said. "A lot of guys that we had, we've been the only people to give them a chance. And to me, that is a lot more rewarding than winning the guy everybody agrees about. I get more enjoyment winning with the guys who no one else wants."

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: How Monmouth is mastering recruiting in college football's new era | Exclusive