Michigan director of recruiting Sam Popper dives into strategy during the transfer portal era

When Sam Popper broke into the industry, he was one of the youngest recruiting directors in the country. He graduated from Michigan and jumpstarted his career with a one-year stint at Howard that set of a chain of events that eventually led him back to Ann Arbor.

Popper was 22 years old when a coaching chance forced him to look elsewhere for work after one season with the Bison. He went on to hold positions at Oregon, Memphis and Akron over the years before returning to Michigan nearly two years ago. 

Now, he’s helping lead a Wolverine recruiting department that just signed the No. 1 recruit in the country as a part of its highest-ranked classes in years. He recently joined a Twitter Space with Brian Spilbeler, the head of sales for Tracking Football, to talk about his path back to U-M and what he loves about the job in the age of modern recruiting. 

“I think that the aspect in it all that I enjoy the most is going from somebody that you’ve never heard of to somebody that you know inside and out, you know he’s a fit and then you can just go win the battle,” Popper told Spilbeler. 

To win these recruitments, Popper focuses on building the connection with the prospect before figuring out what’s most important to him and hammering home how Michigan could fit what they’re looking for.

His job covers pretty much the entire recruiting process. Popper identifies and evaluates prospects. When recruits are on campus, he’s playing a significant role in hosting them. He puts in a lot of effort behind the scenes to assemble Michigan’s class. 

“With events and stuff you do on campus, I just try to bounce around and spend time with everybody,” Popper said. “I try to be a huge part in the relationship-building process, and part of that is obviously what you do with them in person. I try to spend a lot of time with the kids. I try to get to know the families.”

Marietta (Ga.) Kell High recruiting coordinator Chris Pack knows the process well, and he’s also Top 100 linebacker Brayden Rouse’s father. Michigan offered Rouse in January, and the Wolverines started to surge in his recruitment this spring in-part thanks to Popper’s efforts. 

“We want to make sure that we’re going somewhere where we’re wanted, and Sam’s done a good job of letting us know that we’re definitely wanted,” Pack told The Wolverine. 

College football recruiting looks a lot different than it used to. The transfer portal keeps college staff liable for any promises made in the recruiting process. Popper likes the increased transparency. 

It aligns with how he approaches the job. He believes “honesty is the best policy” when it comes to interacting with recruits and their families. 

“What you communicate to the prospects in terms of how the process is going to go, how you showcase what life on your campus is going to be like when those kids arrive, when those kids enroll, that stuff needs to be genuine or else you may sign the kid now, but they’re either going to leave or they’re not going to be at their best when they’re a part of your team,” Popper said. 

Popper believes that statement has only become more important as college football gets deeper into the transfer portal era. He emphasized that, regardless of the recruiting department’s external perception, his primary goal is to help Michigan win football games. In modern recruiting, that comes down to being authentic and transparent with the recruits.

“As much as it may hurt now to get a decommitment in terms of the perception and what it’s looked at and what your recruiting class ranking is in the middle of spring/summer, it can be a lot more helpful in the long run to be honest with the guys, even if it hurts what it ‘looks like’ right now,” Popper said. 

Some recruiting departments separate their college and prep recruiting departments. Michigan does not. Sometimes Popper focuses more on high school prospects while director of player personnel Albert Karschnia locks in on the portal, but they work on both sides of modern recruiting. 

Underneath Popper, John Collins and Jack Dunaway are assistant directors of recruiting. Collins works with the defense, and Jack takes the offense. Michigan also assigns its recruiting analysts a coach and views them as the director of player personnel for that position group. 

A lot of work goes into assembling each class and, at the end of the day, Michigan’s focus remains on recruiting at the prep level. 

“We’re trying to make sure that we’re building this thing up through high school recruiting,” Popper said.